Sidearm Scoop: All good things...

The end to our magical season finally came Saturday night against Aurora. We ran into a team that was playing very good baseball at the right time of the year and ultimately we didn't have an answer for them. We accomplished a ton this year but it is still hard to keep that in perspective after your season is ended.

I wanted to take the opportunity to recognize some of the people on this team who really stood out when you take a look back at our season. The first person on that list is Ken Spangenberg. We were a team that was supposed to be built around our starting pitching and an opportunistic offense. Coach Spang changed all of that and deserves a lot of credit for Steve Binder hitting .405, Erik Massey turning into a .300 hitter, Jimy Landwehr breaking almost every offensive record in the book, Tim Barry setting the home run record, and the entire offense overall stepping up and performing above all expectations.

Secondly, I have to recognize our two senior starting pitchers who did a tremendous job this year. Matt Krueger was the epitome of an ace this year. Every time he took the ball you felt like you were going to win and he would throw all nine innings. He only lost one game this year and really stepped up every time we needed him to this year. Scott Winters was a guy who kind of got overlooked this year but this team would not of been nearly as good without him. He set the tone for our season at the beginning of the year by absolutely dominating UW-Oshkosh and finished the year by closing out our last conference game and throwing a very good game against Aurora in the first round of the tournament. Scott was the kind of guy you love to have as a coach because he simply does whatever it takes to help his team win. We are really going to miss those two.

Finally, I just want to recognize how great a group of guys this years senior class really was. Erik Massey was the heart and soul of Eagle baseball and always kept the dugout alive no matter what the score was. Steve Binder, in my opinion, was our MVP this year and was exactly the kind of captain this team needed. Brad DeVault was one of the best friends I had at Edgewood and was the kind of guy who serves as a role model for underclassmen about what it means to truly compete. I could continue to go on and on about these guys but would rather just sum it up by saying they will be missed dearly and I know each and everyone of them with go on to do something special someday.

Well that's about all I've got for now, so until next year, this is The Sidearm Scoop signing off.

- Blake Hunt
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