T-R GRAPHIC

Three area baseball players were named to the Iowa Star All-Conference Elite Team as North Tama sophomore Skyler Staker and junior Hale Hulme and Colo-NESCO senior Matthew Hill were all given nods as Iowa Star elite players.

Staker, an elite-team infielder, finished tied third in the conference in RBIs with 21, with two players from Iowa Star champs Don Bosco all coming in ahead of the Redhawk slugger. He hit for a .467 batting average in conference play as well as a .552 on-base percentage and five extra-base hits.

Hulme, an elite-team utility player, came in fifth in the conference with 18 RBIs, and he hit for a .477 average which was good enough for fifth-best among batters with at least 25 conference at-bats. He also went 4-1 in seven conference starts on the mound, with an earned run average of 1.51 and a .145 opponent batting average.

Hill, an elite-team infielder, hit for a .475 average for the Royals in Iowa Star play with 15 RBIs and seven doubles, tied for second-most in the conference. He also had a .700 slugging percentage and 18 runs scored.

All three boys were unanimous first-team south-division selections, and joining them on the first team were Lance Zobel and Tate Payne from North Tama as a pitcher and outfielder respectively, Kolton Gill from GMG as an infielder and Kelly Gray from Colo-NESCO as a utility player.

Bryce Niemeyer, Sean Cutler and Mason Lytle were all given second-team nods for the Royals, while Aaron Fleming for the Wolverines and Tyler Morrison for the Redhawks also made the second team.

Garrett Packer, Blaze Krull and Gabe Kopriva were the honorable mentions for Colo-NESCO, GMG and North Tama respectively.