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HAD ZERO REPORTED CLAIMS FOR FACIAL INJURIES IN 2009

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Spring schedules have now been posted ... Just click on "Spring Teams" button on Main Menu ...

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The 2010 high school baseball season begins in

Final Statistical Leaders - 2009 American Legion Season

Huskers Update

Starter Casey Hauptmann (Mill. So.) picked up his first win of the season with a 7-inning performance Saturday against Houston Baptist as the Huskers won at home, 10-2, in the first half of DH.  Hauptmann allowed the 2 runs on 5 hits, striking out 8 and walking 2.  Josh Scheffert started at 1b and went 2-for-3 with a walk and 2 runs scored.  Kurt Farmer got in for a pinch hit AB but is still looking for his collegiate hit.  In the nightcap, Michael Mariot threw a complete game 1-hitter as the Huskers won 8-1.  Scheffert went 1-for-2 with 2 RBI and a HBP.  Farmer again came up empty in a pinch hit AB.

Series Info

5-7

Gm 1  Gm 2

 

Bluejays Update

Jonas Dufek (Mill. W) improved to 3-0 with a 7.2 inning performance as the Bluejays prevailed over South Dakota State, 4-2, in the Metrodome on Friday.  Dufek threw 4.1 perfect innings to start the game and finished with 9 K's and 0 BB's, allowing 2 runs on 5 hits.  Ian Dike (LSW) was 1-for-3 with an RBI.  In the nightcap, CU defeated Minnesota, 6-4, to clinch at least a share of the Metrodome Tournament title.  Robbie Knight (MN) was 1-2 with 2 RBI, and Ian Dike (LSW) was 1-4 with an RBI and 2 runs scored.  Zane Hinkel (Prep) walked and struck out in pinch hit AB's.

Series Info

8-3

Gm 1   Gm 2

 
NEWS  (click "Archives" link at left to view previous stories)

BaseballNebraska Taps Twitter To Create Instant Score Reporting System

March 3, 2010

BaseballNebraska is pleased to announce the creation of a new instant score reporting system for the 2010 season.  Called TeamTwitter, this system will utilize the popular microblogging site, Twitter.com, to transmit live score updates from ballparks around the state to the BaseballNebraska.com website.  Registered Twitter users can also receive those updates as text messages on their cell phones.  The framework for the system is in place, but to make it operational a corps of volunteer reporters is needed to send update messages for each team.  Interested fans nineteen years or age or older who would like to serve as the "TeamTwitter Reporter" for a particular team at the Varsity or Junior Varsity level are encouraged to sign up as soon as possible.  More information about the system can be found on the "TeamTwitter" link on the Main Menu.

 

Our readers may have also noticed the dark grey Twitter display window near the top of the home page.  We will use the baseballnebr Twitter account to provide updates on various newsworthy scores and highlights throughout the season, and those updates will be displayed above in the window above.  This gives us the capability to instantly publish the latest information from remote locations directly to the home page of the site via a cell phone.  As always, our goal is to keep our readers up to date with the latest baseball information.

2010 Season Kicks Off With First Day of Practice on March 1

March 2, 2010

Creighton Prep senior infielder / pitcher Bryan Sova warms up his throwing arm in the "old gym" at Prep Monday night, the first day of spring practice.  Sova is looking to return to action following Tommy John surgery last April.

With temperatures struggling to get into the mid-30's and a sharp wind blowing out of the north, baseball players and coaches across the state took to the gyms and batting cages on Monday, the first day of practice for the 2010 high school baseball season. 

 

During the coming days most coaches will be combining work on fundamentals while also trying to make difficult decisions about how to fill the rosters of the teams in their programs.  That task is made even more difficult in those programs where some prospective members of the baseball team remain immersed in post-season basketball competition.  Basketball district tournaments are wrapping up tonight followed by more than a week layoff before the boys' state tournaments get underway on the 11th.  The state championship games will be played on the 13th, just five days ahead of the beginning of the baseball season.

 

High temperatures are predicted to reach into the mid-to-upper 50's by the weekend, with warm conditions remaining throughout the following week.  A good stretch of warm weather and sunny skies could erase much of the snow cover remaining across the state and help soggy ballfields dry out.  Whether the warming trend that appears to be just a few days away will be enough to get the season started on time remains to be seen.

The Big Question Looms:  Will Ballfields Be Ready by March 18th?

February 27, 2010

Just like the rest of us, three guys with nearly a century of combined varsity baseball head coaching experience are looking out their windows these days at the piles of snow and wondering if the spring baseball season will get started on time.  Veteran coaches Jim Thomas of Papillion LaVista (37 years), Randy Brolhorst of Lincoln Southeast (31 years) and Frank Ryan of Millard West (30 years) have seen wintry landscapes turn into emerald green ballfields many times over their long careers.  But, of the three, only Coach Brolhorst has much hope that winter will relinquish its icy grip this year in time to get the season started on March 18, the first day of scheduled games.    | More |

Elkhorn Legion Baseball Announces Fundraising Events

February 22, 2010

Elkhorn Legion Baseball will kick off the 2010 spring high school baseball season with a Pancake Feed on March 14th.  The event will be held at the Elkhorn Eagles #3943, 20276 Wirt Street, next to the post office, from 8:30 am until 12:30pm.  For $5.00 per person, guests will get their choice of juice or coffee, bacon or sausage, french toast or pancakes and eggs, all cooked to order and served by members of the baseball team. 

 And, on April 24th, the organization will conduct its popular Texas Hold 'Em Tournament and Spaghetti Feed at Sempeck's Elkhorn Lanes.  Baseball fans are encouraged to attend both events which support the Elkhorn Legion Baseball program.

| Pancake Flyer | Texas Hold 'Em Flyer |

BaseballNebraska Launches Statewide Network for Legion Baseball Coverage in All Classes

February 20, 2010

After devoting the vast majority of its coverage of American Legion baseball over the past four summers to Class A teams, BaseballNebraska is taking a major expansion initiative for 2010 to include Class B and C teams statewide at both the Senior Legion and Junior Legion levels.  To accomplish this goal, BaseballNebraska is rolling out an integrated statewide system called the BaseballNebraska Network. 

The Network will replace the LeagueLineup application that participating teams have been using for the past four years.  The key difference is that rather than entering team information into a central administrative site, each team will now be given their own customizable team website that will have a data link to the central Network main site.  When information is entered on a team website, it will automatically appear on the Network main site to update team records and standings. 

With this system, a high school baseball fan can go to the Network main site for an overview of what's going on in the standings and can then click through to any team website for detailed information about that team and its players.  For those teams that already have an existing team website, the BaseballNebraska Network team site can be "turned off" for use as the team's public site and can be used just for data entry purposes.   A link to the existing team website can be provided on the Network Main Site.

One of the goals of the new network is to create a central source of information about Legion baseball teams and players, thus making it easier for fans from one end of the state to the other to follow summer baseball.  The new system is also expected to provide greater visibility for players who are looking to get noticed by college coaches. 

Another important development in expanding statewide coverage is the addition of former Department of Nebraska Activities Director Jody Moeller to the BaseballNebraska team.  Moeller, who is located in Shelton, will be the Statewide Coordinator for Classes B and C and will offer assistance in getting new teams in those classes up and running on the new Network. 

Teams that wish to participate in the BaseballNebraska Network are invited to sign up prior to April 1.  To do so, click on the "More Information" link below.  There is a $50 per team registration fee that can be offset by the sale of banner advertising on the team websites. 

| More Information | Network Main Site | Sample Team Site |

Benson Baseball To Host Golf Fundraiser in May

February 19, 2010

Benson Baseball will celebrate the end of the spring baseball season with a 4-person scramble golf outing at The Knolls in Omaha on Saturday, May 22nd.  The State Tournament wraps up on Thursday of that week.  Participants are reminded that the balls will be hit golf clubs rather than baseball bats and that cleats are not allowed on the course.  Register by May 19th. 

Prep's Pritchard Picked for Pre-Season All-American First Team; Bass Honored

February 18, 2010

Mike Pritchard

Creighton Prep

Brett Bass

Millard West

Creighton Prep senior outfielder Mike Pritchard has been selected to Collegiate Baseball Newspaper's High School Pre-Season All-American First Team.  The publication also bestowed All-American Honorable Mention honors on Millard West senior infielder Brett Bass and identified several other top in-state prospects. 

Pritchard, a Husker recruit, has been a varsity starter at Prep since his sophomore season and bats and throws from the left side.  As a junior in 2009 he set a new single season home run record at Prep with eight roundtrippers.  He helped the Junior Bluejays to a runner-up finish in the spring state tournament, leading the team in batting average (.450), slugging percentage (.860), RBI's (49) and home runs and was selected to the All-Nebraska and Super-State First Team.  During the 2009 American Legion season he was again the top hitter on Prep's PI Midwest Legion team with a .407 average, a .485 on-base percentage, a .757 slugging percentage and 57 hits -- all tops on the team.  He also drove in 38 runs, stroked fifteen doubles, scored 40 runs and hit five triples and eight home runs on the summer to help lead PI Midwest to a runner-up finish in the National Division State Tournament. 

Bass set a new school record at Millard West for single season batting average (.488) last spring, breaking the record held by Jake Dugger while earning Second Team All-Nebraska and Super-State honors.  During the summer he was among the state leaders in several offensive categories, including batting average (.426), hits (60), doubles (21), triples (5), RBI (56) and runs (48), while helping the NP Dodge team to a state runner-up finish and a trip to the Region 4 Mid-South Regional Tournament.  Brett has recently announced that he has verbally committed to Creighton University and will be in the first incoming class that will play home games for the Bluejays at the new Ameritrade Park Omaha.  Like Pritchard, Bass is a left-handed hitter.  He is primarily an infielder for the Wildcats but has also seen some outfield duty.

Also recognized by Collegiate Baseball as top Nebraska prospects are a pair of Millard West pitchers,   right-hander AJ Ladwig and lefty Tyler Ware,  reigning Gatorade Player of the Year Logan Ehlers, a left-handed pitcher for Nebraska City, Papillion-LaVista South infielder Bo Suponchick, Millard North infielder Casey Gillaspie, Westside infielder Dan Dunn, designated hitter JD Urban of Omaha Bryan, outfielder Joey Jones of Papillion-LaVista and Lincoln Southwest infielder Taylor Anderson. 

The publication also publishes an annual pre-season Top 30 list of teams from around the nation.  No Nebraska teams were included this year. 

Collegiate Baseball Newspaper |

Five Metro Legion Teams Submit Joint Bid to Host Regionals

February 18, 2010

A group of five Omaha baseball programs have pooled their resources to submit a joint bid to host the American Legion Region 6 Central Plains  Regional Tournament  in 2011 and 2012.  The bid was submitted in late January to the national American Legion office in Indianapolis which will announce the tournament host in May. 

The American Legion sponsors eight eight-team Regional Tournaments nationwide with the champion of each advancing to the American Legion World Series.   Each year Nebraska sends two teams -- the State Champion and the State Runner-up -- to Regional Tournament competition.  In August 2010, the State Champion will play in the Central Plains - Region 6 Regional Tournament in Blue Springs, MO, and the State Runner-Up will go to the Mid-South - Region 4 Regional Tournament in Grand Prairie, TX.

Beginning in 2011, both Nebraska teams will play in the Region 6 Central Plains Tournament due to realignment of regional competition.  And, if Nebraska wins the bid to host the tournament, a third Nebraska team will play as the host team in the 2011 and 2012 tournaments, giving in-state teams a 3-in-8 chance of reaching the World Series.  The number of local teams in the tournament should also boost attendance for the event.

The five participating programs in the joint Regional Tournament bid are Westside, Millard West, Omaha South, Omaha Skutt and Elkhorn.  One of those teams will qualify on the basis of mutually-selected competitive criteria to play as the host team in the tournament in 2011 with the same process being used to select the 2012 host team.  The programs in the host team pool have formed a tax-exempt, non-profit corporation that will manage and operate the tournament.  Retired Elkhorn head coach Jerry Frerichs has been selected as the Local Chairperson for the tournament and serves as president of the organization.

The proposed tournament sites are Frerichs Legion Field in Elkhorn for 2011 and Millard West High School for 2012.  The championship games each year would be played at the Sarpy Ballpark currently under construction as the new home of the Omaha Royals. 

The bid will be awarded for a two-year period with the possibility that it could be extended indefinitely.  The other teams that would participate in the double- elimination tournament are from Minnesota (2 teams), Iowa, North Dakota and South Dakota. The last Regional Tournament in Nebraska was held at Omaha's Seymour Smith Field in 2002. 

Previously published stories have been moved to Archives.

 

 

 

 

 

 

© BaseballNebraska 2010

BaseballNebraska

Jack Mayfield, Executive Director

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