Sometimes a little luck goes a long way toward producing state championships. Great coaches have been known to mold pretty good baseball teams into champions as well.
But nothing beats talent.
As the Nebraska state baseball tournament came to a conclusion a few weeks ago, MaxPreps began taking a look at which Nebraska prep pitchers made the year's strongest run toward the Triple Crown (leading the state in earned run average, wins and strikeouts).
After running through the numbers on MaxPreps' statistics database, we discovered that eight different baseball programs placed at least one pitcher at or near the top of the list. Class B state champion Elkhorn North and Creighton Prep, however, stood out after placing two athletes each in this week's Top 10.
The Junior Jays landed Ryan Bauer and Jamison Harris in the Nos. 5 and 8 spots, respectively, while the Wolves placed Ryan Harrahill and Colin Nowaczyk in the top 3. Harrahill did not achieve the Triple Crown this spring, but he did come awful close. The junior hurler owned a 1.12 earned run average, ninth-best in the Cornhusker State, and finished in the top spot with 92 strikeouts. He also posted eight wins, tops in the state of Nebraska, to take the top spot this week.
Nowaczyk posted a 1.81 ERA and produced seven wins and 67 strikeouts to finish fourth and seventh in those final two categories respectively. Wayne's Brooks Kneifl broke up a Wolves 1-2 finish by landing in the runner-up spot after producing Nebraska's third best earned run average of 0.53. Kneifl also finished with an 11th best total of five wins and posted 74 strikeouts, the second-best total in the Cornhusker State.
Brayden Andersen of Kearney and Bauer rounded out the Top 5 at Nos. 4 and 5 respectively. Beatrice's Tucker Timmerman finished with a Nebraska best 0.24 earned run average over 29.2 innings pitched but came up short in this week's Top 10.
In order to be considered this week, a baseball player had to make the Top 50 in at least one of the three triple crown categories according to MaxPreps' statistics database. Then, once we logged in each of the athlete's numbers, a point system was used to calculate the Top 10. The statistics for this week's Top 10 were pulled from MaxPreps' statistics database Wednesday evening.
Nebraska's Top 10 triple crown pitchers
1. Ryan Harrahill, Elkhorn North (Elkhorn)1.12 Earned Run Average | 8 Wins | 92 Strikeouts
2. Brooks Kneifl, Wayne 0.53 Earned Run Average | 5 Wins | 74 Strikeouts
3. Colin Nowaczyk, Elkhorn North1.81 Earned Run Average | 7 Wins | 67 Strikeouts
4. Brayden Andersen, Kearney1.99 Earned Run Average | 5 Wins | 72 Strikeouts
5. Ryan Bauer, Creighton Prep (Omaha)2.14 Earned Run Average | 8 Wins | 58 Strikeouts
6. Joe Graham, Douglas County West (Valley) 1.40 Earned Run Average | 4 Wins | 47 Strikeouts
7. Tadan Bell, Columbus 2.08 Earned Run Average | 3 Wins | 71 Strikeouts
8. Jamison Harris, Creighton Prep1.78 Earned Run Average | 5 Wins | 37 Strikeouts
9. Daniel Lester, Bellevue West (Bellevue) 1.69 Earned Run Average | 3 Wins | 47 Strikeouts
10. Ty Madison, Omaha Westside (Omaha)2.48 Earned Run Average | 5 Wins | 41 Strikeouts
