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NEWS
(click "Archives"
link at left to view previous stories) |
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Final Statistical Leaders - 2009 American Legion Season |
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CREIGHTON PREP -
Jurgensen Park Dedication Ceremony Photos 10/10/2009 |
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Mavs Will Open
Season With Twenty-Three Former Nebraska High Schoolers on
Roster
February 3, 2010 |
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Seated (l-r): Jace
Anderson, Jeff McNichols, Trevor Gappa, Corbin
Williams, Colby McCord, Travis Jacobi, Brady Hohl,
Jeremy Klein. Standing (l-r): Max Huerter, Ryan
Bolt, Tyler Splichal, Ryan Tomlinson, Andrew James,
Zach Croonquist, Brett Koehn, Brandon Dahl, Josh
Bullock, Mark Johnson, Patrick Campell, Joe
Holtmeyer, Coach Bob Herold, Matt Tew. Not
Pictured: Jake Benne, Derek Nelson |
UNO Head Baseball Coach Bob Herold has stocked his 2010
Mavericks squad with a rich supply of locally-grown talent,
including several first-team All-Staters and All-Nebraska
players. Twenty-three former Nebraska prep standouts
will be on the team's 36-man roster when the Mavs open their
season in Denver on February 13 with a two-game series
against Regis University. The Mavericks are picked to
finish third in the MIAA, behind Emporia State and Central
Missouri, according to an MIAA Pre-Season Coaches Poll.
Newcomers to the ballclub include 2009 Nebraska high school
graduates Matt Tew and Tyler Splichal of Bellevue East, Ryan
Bolt and Zack Croonquist of Omaha Skutt, Max Huerter and
Jeff McNichols of Creighton Prep, Josh Bullock of Elkhorn,
Ryan Tomlinson of Westside, Corbin Williams of Omaha Benson
and Patrick Campbell of Stanton plus two former Creighton
Prep standouts from the Class of 2008 who transferred to
UNO, Jace Anderson (Navarro College) and Derek Nelson (Iowa
Western). Ten of the twelve freshmen on the ballclub
are from Nebraska.
The Mavs have averaged forty-two wins per season for the
past five years. More information:
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Mavericks Baseball |
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Huskers Open
Baseball Practice Saturday
January 28, 2010 |
 The
Nebraska baseball team begins preparations in earnest for
the upcoming season on Saturday, as the Huskers begin spring
practice inside the Hawks Championship Center. Saturday’s
workout will be the first of 17 practices leading into the
season opener at Fresno State on Feb. 19. The Huskers will
begin practice at 8 a.m. and will practice six days a week
before leaving for Fresno.
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Lincoln Southwest
alum and current Husker Sean Yost was selected to
the Northwoods League All-Star Game last summer as a
member of the Duluth Huskies. Photo
courtesy of Huskers.com. |
“This group is hungry and motivated to begin practice,”
Nebraska Coach Mike Anderson, who begins his eighth season
at Nebraska said. “We saw it in the fall and it has
continued through the offseason in conditioning and in the
weight room. They have put in the effort to be ready for the
upcoming season and we are excited to see how that
translates to the field for practice.”
The Huskers welcome back 19 letterwinners, including eight
position players who made at least 20 starts a year ago. The
offensive returnees are led by All-Big 12 first baseman
Tyler Farst, who hit .333 with three homers and 36 RBIs last
season, and outfielder Adam Bailey, who batted .325 with 12
homers and 50 RBIs. Bailey, a 38th round draft pick of the
New York Yankees, topped the Huskers in homers, RBIs and
slugging percentage (.598) in 2008. Other returnees who made
at least 20 starts last year include infielders Kyle Bubak
and Cody Asche, catcher Cory Burleson and outfielders DJ
Belfonte, Boomer Collins and Khiry Cooper.
On the mound, the Huskers welcome back nine pitchers,
including five of the six hurlers who threw at last 50
innings last season. The returnees are paced by junior
right-hander Mike Nesseth, who went 5-4 with two saves and
struck out 73 over 64.2 innings last season. A 15th-round
pick by the Los Angeles Angles of Anaheim, he returned for
his junior season. Other veterans include Casey Hauptman
(Millard South), Sean Yost (Lincoln Southwest),
Michael Mariot and Jordan Roualdes. Yost earned all-star
honors in the Northwoods League over the summer, while
Mariot was ranked by Baseball America as one of the top
prospects in the M.I.N.K. League this summer.
Another reason for optimism is a recruiting class that
features several players who could make an early impact. The
incoming class was ranked 13th nationally by Collegiate
Baseball – the highest Nebraska’s incoming class has ever
been rated. Some of the newcomers who could push for
significant roles on the pitching staff this spring include
Tom Lemke, Kurt Giller, Ryan Hughes, Chase Adams and Khris
Tate. On the position player side, junior college transfer
Patric Tolentino along with freshmen Josh Scheffert
(Lincoln Southeast), Bryan Peters and Chad Christensen could
earn significant playing time.
Note: this article was written by Shamus McKnight. Associate
Media Relations Director for Husker baseball. More
Information: |
Husker Baseball |
Home Run Club Banquet, Feb. 5 |
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Creighton Baseball Steak Fry to be Held
Saturday, February 6 at Castle Barrett
January 26, 2010 |
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 The
2010 Creighton Baseball steak fry will be held at Castle Barrett
(4330 Leavenworth Street) in Omaha on Saturday, Feb. 6 starting
at 5:30 p.m. Adult steak dinners are $35 each with advance
reservations or $40 each at the door. Children are admitted free
with each paid adult dinner and receive a complimentary hot dog
and chips. A reserved table of eight is also available for $280
($280 for any combination of adults and youth seated at the
table). For more information or to make a reservation, contact
Barb Epps at (402) 280-5577 or via e-mail at
bepps@creighton.edu by
Monday, Feb. 1. |
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Ultimate Baseball Academy to Host
Half-Day Coaches' Clinic on February 6
January 26, 2010 |
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 The
Ultimate Baseball Academy in Omaha will hold a pre-season
coaches' clinic next Saturday afternoon from 1:00 until 4:00 at
the UBA facility at 120th & I. Headlining the event as
presenters will be the head coaches of the two NCAA Division I
schools in the state, Mike Anderson of Nebraska and Ed Servais
of Creighton. Husker pitching coach Eric Newman and UBA
Dean of Instruction Bill Olson are also featured presenters.
UBA staff members Joe Servais, a Creighton alum, and John Grose,
a former Husker, will provide instruction on catching.
The registration fee for the clinic is $30 and attendance is
limited to the first fifty registrants.
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Clinic
Flyer | |
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2010 NSAA Baseball Manual Published,
Elkhorn Moves Up to Class A
January 24, 2010 (updated
January 25, 2010, 8:30am) |
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 The
Nebraska School Activities Association published the
2010 Baseball Manual on its
website last week, laying
out the details that will govern the 2010 spring season.
The biggest change for this season will be the implementation of
contest limits for baseball that were approved by the NSAA
Representative Assembly last April. Under the new rule,
each team is limited to a maximum of 24 "dates" during the
regular season, with the term "permissible dates" being spelled
out in the rule. Another significant development for the
upcoming season is the recent decision by the NSAA Board of
Control to keep the number of Class B District Tournaments at
four despite the increase in the number of teams in the class to
22, just four less than the twenty-six teams that will compete
in six Class A district tournaments.
| More Info | |
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SkyHawk Baseball to Host Annual
Fundraiser on February 6
January 22, 2010 |
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 The SkyHawk Baseball
Association will hold its annual fundraiser to support the
summer baseball program associated with Omaha Skutt Catholic
High School next Saturday, February 6 from 7:00pm until midnight
at the Skutt Catholic Wrestling Building. The evening will
include food, bereages, music and a silent auction.
Admission is $25 and may be paid at the door. See
flyer
for details. |
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Districts Split
on NSAA Proposal to Modify Spring State Tournament Bracket
January 10, 2010 |
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A
proposal to modify the spring state tournament bracket so that
it closely resembles the American Legion state tournament
bracket received a split vote in NSAA Second District Meetings
held over the past week. The proposal received strong
support yesterday in Districts I and II where fifty-five of the
state's sixty-two baseball schools are located. Nine of
the twelve schools in District I (Lincoln area) that voted on
the proposal approved it. Support in District II (Omaha
area) was nearly unanimous with just a handful of dissenting
voices among the 78 schools voting. District I has 13
baseball schools, and District II has 42.
Last
week, the proposal was defeated 1-4 in District III, and
yesterday it was defeated 2-3 in District IV. District III
has four member schools participating in baseball: South
Sioux City, Norfolk, Pender and Bancroft-Rosalie. District
IV has three baseball schools: Grand Island Northwest,
Grand Island Central Catholic and Grand Island High School.
NSAA
member schools in Districts V and VI elected not to vote on the
proposal, presumably because there are no baseball schools in
those districts.
The
voting in the districts is not binding on the six-member Board
of Control which will vote on the proposal in April, however,
historically, Board Members have been guided by the voting
within their respective districts. It is possible that
member schools supporting the proposal may lobby for Board
approval on the grounds that the two districts representing
nearly ninety percent of the state's baseball schools strongly
supported the change. Of the twenty-seven varsity coaches
who responded to a BaseballNebraska poll taken last week,
two-thirds favored the proposal, with fifteen coaches strongly
favoring the change. There are forty-eight baseball
programs in the state, representing sixty-two NSAA member
schools.
In
other action at the meetings, a proposal to increase the size of
the Board of Control from six to eight members received the
three votes needed to send the proposal on to the Representative
Assembly in April. The two additional board members would
be elected by Class A member schools in those districts having
more than 12,000 students in grades 9-11. Presently,
District I (14,255 students) and District II (38,721 students)
are the only districts with more than 12,000 students. A
similar proposal that would have created a ninth board position
by providing for another board member from districts having more
than 25,000 students (District II) was passed only in District
II and was unanimously opposed in Districts III, IV, V and VI.
Both proposals also included language encouraging greater
representation of women and minorities within the NSAA
leadership, the lack of which, along with glaringly
disproportionate representation of students by Board Members,
was criticized in a recent Interim Study Report by the Education
Committee of the Nebraska Legislature. The study also
recommended that the NSAA be made subject to the Open Meetings
Act and the Public Records Statutes. |
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Sites Selected for 2010 Legion
Post-Season Tournaments; Classes B and C Realigned
January 10, 2010 |
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 At
a coaches meeting held yesterday in Norfolk in connection with
the 2010 Mid-Year American Legion
Convention, the Department of Nebraska Athletic Committee
announced the sites for the 2010 American Legion Area and State
Tournaments. The Committee also announced a tentative
realignment of Area assignments for Classes B and C, designating
those teams that would compete in the seven Areas within each of
those classes. Athletic Committee Don Kiviniemi, Jr.
emphasized that these assignments are tentative only and are
based on the list of teams that played last year. Final
Area assignments will be made on June 21.
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More Info | |
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Coaches Support Change in State
Tournament Bracket
January
5, 2010 |
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Two-thirds of the Nebraska high school varsity baseball head
coaches who responded to a recent BaseballNebraska opinion poll
would like to see a change in the NSAA state tournament bracket.
Of the twenty-seven coaches who responded to the online poll
circulated yesterday, eighteen (67%) indicated that they support
the implementation of "Proposal A" that will be voted on in six
NSAA district meetings to be held over the next week, beginning
today. That proposal, introduced by Papillion-LaVista
Activities Director Chuck Johnston, would modify the current
spring state tournament bracket so that it closely resembles
that which is used for American Legion tournaments. A key
consideration behind the proposal is protecting pitchers from
overuse in the tournament. (See
previous article.)
Of the eighteen coaches who expressed support for the proposal,
fifteen indicated that they "strongly" support the change and
three indicated that they "moderately" support the proposal.
Seven responders expressed support for retaining the current
bracket with five of those characterizing their support as
"moderate" and two coaches indicating that they "strongly"
support the continued use of the current bracket. Two
coaches replied that he had "no opinion" on the question.
A total of twenty-seven of the forty-seven varsity coaches
surveyed (57%) responded within the twenty-four period during
which the survey was available online. (One of those
responses, a "strongly support current bracket" response, was
provided by email and is included in our tabulation here but is
not in the online Survey Results displayed by the link below.)
The Papillion-LaVista proposal was approved by District II
(Omaha Metro and surrounding counties) in November, which caused
the proposal to advance to a vote in all six NSAA districts this
month. A final determination on the proposal will be made
by the Board of Control at its April 8-9 meeting where a
majority of four votes will be required for passage. Board
members often follow the vote of member schools within their
respective districts but are not bound to do so. More than
likely, passage in four districts over the coming week would be
required for the Board's approval of the proposal. Two of
the districts that will vote on the proposal next Wednesday
(Districts V and VI) do not currently have any member schools
playing spring baseball. Nevertheless, the vote within
those districts could determine whether the format of the spring
state tournament will be modified in accordance with the desires
of a significant majority of the state's baseball coaches.
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Survey Results |
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Pender/Bancroft-Rosalie Adds Baseball
for 2010
January 4, 2010 |
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According to a
story published today in the Pender Times, the Pender Public
Schools Board of Education approved a cooperative spring-season
baseball program for 2010 between Pender High School and
Bancroft-Rosalie High School at the board's December 14th
meeting. The team, to be known as the
Pender/Bancroft-Rosalie Pendragons, will play its home games at
David Nitzschke Memorial Field in Pender.
The
two schools join Arlington, Bennington and Mt. Michael
Benedictine as newcomers to spring high school baseball for 2010
raising the number of Class B teams to 22. There are
currently 26 Class A teams. In July, the Plattsmouth
school board approved the addition of a junior varsity baseball
program for 2010-2011 and varsity baseball for 2011-2012.
According to NSAA rules, the Pender/Bancroft-Rosalie cooperative
agreement must be approved by the Board of Control. That
body has not yet had a meeting since the Pender board
approved baseball.
The Pendragons will be the smallest program in the state with a
combined 153 students in grades 9-11. Bancroft-Rosalie
competes in C-2 basketball while Pender is D-1 in hoops.
Both schools compete in Class D-1, 8-man football. Douglas
County West, which added baseball in 2004, was previously the
smallest baseball program with 159 students.
Pender and Bancroft-Rosalie are located in northeast Nebraska
about 30 miles south and west of South Sioux City and about 45
miles east of Norfolk. The addition of this program in the
heart of the area where summer American Legion programs such as
Wakefield, Wayne, Wisner-Pilger-Beemer and West Point compete in
the Ralph Bishop League raises interesting possibilities about
the growth of spring baseball in that area.
In
related news, the NSAA Board of Control approved a co-op
agreement for baseball among Yutan, Mead and Ashland-Greenwood
at its November meeting. The addition of Ashland-Greenwood
to the existing Yutan/Mead co-op will more than double the
population of the second year program to 470 students. The
co-op program will compete under the name of "Platte Valley."
A-G teacher Kurt Finkey will succeed John Arensberg as head
coach. In October the Board also approved the addition of
Concordia High School to the existing Omaha Roncalli / Brownell
Talbott co-op. |
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UNO Diamond Club To Host 2010 Meet and
Greet on January 30th
January 4, 2010 |
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The 2009 Mavericks roster included seventeen former
Nebraska high school players. Front row (l-r):
Colby McCord, Trevor Gappa, Matt Meyer, Jeremy Klein,
Brian Strawn, Brady Hohl, Justin Burns; back row (l-r):
Travis Jacobi, Joe Holtmeyer, Drew Schwab, Mark Johnson,
Evan Porter, Brandon Dahl, Brett Koehn, Jake Benne, Paul
Hansen. Not pictured: Matt Eikmeier. |
UNO
head baseball coach Bobby Herold will introduce his 2010
baseball squad at a January 30th event hosted by the UNO Diamond
Club. The event, called the "Season Opener", is open to
the public and will take place from 5:30pm to 9:00pm at the
Knights of Columbus Hall at 4323 Washington Street in Omaha.
(See
Ticket Request Form.)
Herold hasn't had to travel far to fill the Mavericks' roster
with quality players while compiling a 341-204-2 record over the
past ten years. Former Nebraska high school players
claimed 60% of the spots on the team last year, and six of the
seven top hitters on the ballclub were homegrown players.
Senior shortstop Evan Porter, one of four Millard North alums on
the team, completed his UNO career as the Mavs' all-time leader
in games played, at bats, hits, doubles, home runs, RBI and
total bases. Porter posted a .424 average in 2009, was
named a First Team All-American and was drafted by the
Philadelphia Phillies.
Millard North's Brett Koehn and Westside's Drew Schwab each
launched six home runs to finish second on the team behind
Porter's ten. Schwab, a senior, was second in batting
average (.417) and finished near the top in a number of
offensive categories. As a true freshman Koehn appeared in
56 of the Mavs' 61 games and hit at a .344 clip for the year.
Elkhorn's Travis Jacobi hit .349, fourth best on the team, and
swiped a team-high fifteen bases.
Redshirt freshman right-hander Joe Holtmeyer (7-4), a 2008
Creighton Prep graduate, led the staff in opposing batting
average (.207) and was second in strikeouts to senior Chris
Kessinger with 77. Junior Brandon Dahl, another
Millard North product, led the team in saves with four.
The
2009 Mavs (41-20) won the Mid-America Interscholastic Athletic
Association Tournament Championship in the schools' first year
in the league to advance to a fifth straight appearance in the
NCAA Division II Regional Tournament. The Mavericks have
averaged 42 wins per season over the past five years. UNO
opens the 2010 season in Denver on February 13th against Regis
University and opens at home on March 20th against Truman State.
Baseball fans are encouraged to attend the "Season Opener" on
the 30th to show their support for an outstanding group of home
grown players under the leadership of one of the top coaches in
Nebraska.
|
UNO Mavericks Baseball | |
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Dr. Tom House
Makes Pitch for Science-Based Baseball
Instruction
December 16, 2009 |
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 Former
major league pitcher and pitching coach Dr. Tom House kicked off
a weekend of top-level pitching instruction at Omaha's Frozen
Ropes indoor baseball facility recently with an entertaining and
informative presentation as part of a National Pitching
Association clinic. Talking to a group of approximately
fifty coaches and parents, House debunked some common pitching
instruction myths and made the case for a science-based approach
to analyzing pitching mechanics and techniques.
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More Info | |
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Coaches Makes Plans for 2010 Summer
Baseball, Agree to Submit Regional Tournament Bid
December 10, 2009 |
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No blockbuster trades were made or free
agents signed at Nebraska's version of the MLB Winter Meetings
held last Sunday. Even so, the annual December meetings of
coaches in Omaha and Lincoln to plan the 2010 summer baseball
season were not without some newsworthy happenings. At the top
of that list is an agreement reached by a group of six Class A
Metro Senior Legion teams to submit a joint bid to host an
American Legion Regional Tournament in Omaha in 2011 and 2012.
| More Info | |
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Pitchers Should Prepare Now to Avoid
Arm Injury
November 27, 2009 |
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Thanksgiving time is here. And, that means in just a few
weeks the calendar will flip over to 2010, and high school
baseball pitchers will report for pre-season throwing workouts.
Good arm health during the upcoming season can by achieved by
developing proper mechanics and implementing a regimen of
shoulder-strengthening exercises during the pre-season and
throughout the season, according to physical therapist and
sports performance consultant Travis Manners of
Athlete's
Training Center in Omaha.
| More | |
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Ehlers and Pritchard Sign with Huskers
November 17, 2009 |
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Ehlers |
Pritchard |
Logan Ehlers of Nebraska City and Creighton Prep's Mike
Pritchard made it official last Wednesday by signing National
Letters of Intent to play baseball for the University of
Nebraska. Both had previously given a verbal
commitment to Husker coach Mike Anderson and followed through by
inking their commitments in signing ceremonies at their
respective schools on Wednesday, November 11th, the first day of
the NCAA early signing period.
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