Nebraska's Top 10 most improved baseball teams

Video: Falls City baseball highlights Nebraska City
See Falls City in action, one of the Nebraska teams with the biggest year-to-year jumps.

As the Nebraska baseball season prepares to hit the stretch run, we've crunched the numbers in an attempt to determine which programs have made the most substantial climbs in the MaxPreps Computer Rankings over a year ago.

Two criteria were used in determining which of the 58 schools that play baseball in the Cornhusker State have improved the most over the course of a year, and Omaha Northwest was the big winner in both categories.

The most important yardstick used is the number of rungs a school has risen in the MaxPreps Nebraska Computer Rankings compared to a year ago. The Huskies climbed 21 spots to 28th in Sunday's latest rankings.

The second benchmark, used primarily for tiebreaker purposes, is how many games a program improved in its won-loss record over the previous season. Of the schools that cracked this week's Top 10, Omaha Northwest was head and shoulders above the rest, improving an impressive 10 games since the end of last season.

Gretna and Wahoo/Raymond Central/Lincoln Lutheran both came up big winners as well, improving their rankings by climbing 20 and 16 spots respectively. South Sioux City and Elkhorn South round out the Top 5 by improving 15 and 14 rungs respectively.

Pius X and Norris sit at Nos. six and seven in this week's Top 10 and are ranked second and first respectively in Sunday's latest MaxPreps computer rankings. The Dragons are also ranked in the Top 10 at ninth this week, while Elkhorn South is 10th.


1. Omaha Northwest +21
Final 2015-16 MaxPreps Rating (Record): 49th (7-21)
2016-17 MaxPreps Rating (Record): 28th (15-9)

2. Gretna +20
Final 2015-16 MaxPreps Rating (Record): 29th (13-19)
2016-17 MaxPreps Rating (Record): 9th (17-6)

3. Wahoo/Raymond Central/Lincoln Lutheran (Wahoo) +16
Final 2015-16 MaxPreps Rating (Record): 35th (14-11)
2016-17 MaxPreps Rating (Record): 19th (14-6)

4. South Sioux City +15
Final 2015-16 MaxPreps Rating (Record): 47th (5-14)
2016-17 MaxPreps Rating (Record): 32nd (11-9)

5. Elkhorn South (Omaha) +14
Final 2015-16 MaxPreps Rating (Record): 24th (13-12)
2016-17 MaxPreps Rating (Record): 10th (16-10)

6. Pius X (Lincoln) +10
Final 2015-16 MaxPreps Rating (Record): 12th (15-10)
2016-17 MaxPreps Rating (Record): 2nd (18-3)

7. Norris (Firth) +9
Final 2015-16 MaxPreps Rating (Record): 10th (22-6)
2016-17 MaxPreps Rating (Record): 1st (18-3)

8. Omaha South +9
Final 2015-16 MaxPreps Rating (Record): 57th (2-23)
2016-17 MaxPreps Rating (Record): 48th (5-17)

9. Omaha Westside +7
Final 2015-16 MaxPreps Rating (Record): 21st (11-20)
2016-17 MaxPreps Rating (Record): 14th (15-13)

10. Burke (Omaha) +7
Final 2015-16 MaxPreps Rating (Record): 23rd (12-16)
2016-17 MaxPreps Rating (Record): 16th (14-8)

11. Falls City +7
Final 2015-16 MaxPreps Rating (Record): 52nd (4-16)
2016-17 MaxPreps Rating (Record): 45th (6-9)

12. Thurston-Cuming County (Bancroft) +7
Final 2015-16 MaxPreps Rating (Record): 56th (3-12)
2016-17 MaxPreps Rating (Record): 49th (4-6)