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Prep Baseball Notes: Season one long bus ride for 'Burg

MECHANICSBURG — The Mechanicsburg baseball program doesn’t have a Field of Dreams. The only field the Indians have this season is in their dreams.

The theme song for second-year coach Jason Schultz’s squad this year could be “On the Road Again.”

Because their old home field at Goshen Park had to be torn up and reseeded before the season, Mechanicsburg is playing all its games away from home this season. Despite that, the team has won more games this season than in the previous two seasons combined.

The Indians were 10-10 entering this week. The strong pitching of their top three starters — Kyle Jones (3-2, 2.00 ERA), Kyle Trainer (2-3, 2.10) and Nick Trainer (2-1, 2.55) — has carried them a long way.

“The kids we have are fantastic,” Schultz said. “I couldn’t have a better bunch of guys. On the bus rides, we have a good time. Nobody complains because we don’t have a field. They don’t use that as an excuse.”

Mechanicsburg hopes to have a new baseball field, which is being built along with a new school, by next season.

Mechanicsburg didn’t find a practice field for this season until after its first scrimmage. The team practiced in the gym with homemade pitching mounds until it found an old softball diamond in town to use, and it’s made the best of that since then.

What really hurts the Indians is the practice time lost during all those bus trips.

“It’s tough. If we get a day off between games, we’re considerably better,” Schultz said. “While we’re traveling to every game, (opponents) get to take batting practice before every game. That definitely has an effect on the kids. If you’re in a slump, it can be tough to come out of it.”

Tourney time

The first sectional tournament games will be played Thursday with Divisions III and IV in action.

The D-II Urbana sectional, which has six area teams, gets going Friday.

If Graham beats Milton-Union on Friday, the Falcons would play No. 2 seed Kenton Ridge for the third time this season on May 9. The teams split their regular-season series.

In Division I, No. 2 seed North and No. 9 South could meet in the second round May 10. The Wildcats first have to beat No. 7 seed Piqua on May 8.

Stat stars

Who would be the first pick in a fantasy draft of area prep baseball players, if such a thing existed?

It would probably have to be North junior Andy Payton, who’s hitting .587, or 67 points better than anyone else. Payton actually raised his average 36 points last week, which is hard to do this late in the season, by going 10-for-14 in five games.

If you were looking for a pitcher, you would probably take a Tyler in the first round — Shawnee’s Gordin or Kenton Ridge’s Heskett. They have wins, strikeouts and low ERAs.

Heskett is 5-1 with 37 strikeouts and a 1.37 ERA. Gordin is 5-2 with 46 strikeouts and a 1.40 ERA.