Page 88 - 1983

stablishing Ralston as a baseball
E power in the state was number
one on varsity baseball coach
Curt Shockey's list of goals; second
was hitting .350 as a team.
"I feel we accomplished a great
deal. Being rated in the top five
throughout the year helped fulfill
goal one. Going into districts, we
were hitting .343 as a team," said
Shockey.
He stressed the importance of the
team setting goals and working
toward them — of not settling for
mediocrity.
In its district, Ralston played with
the numbers one, two, four, and
eight teams in the state. Ralston was
ranked five. Shockey said that
although they had the toughest
district, there wasn't a team they
couldn't beat.
They made it to the finals, in which
they lost to Westside. They were
edged out of the wildcard berth by
Wakefield.
The most testing experience for
the Rams was in the semi-finals of
districts, matched against number
one-rated Creighton Prep, who had
beaten the Rams 10-1 earlier in the
season. Shockey told his team he
didn't know if Prep could play any
better than they had that first game,
but he knew that the Rams could
only improve upon their own
performance. They had six days to
prepare.
"We worked very hard on all
aspects of the game," explained
Shockey. "Each player was to get 100
swings each day in the cage. We
even reinstituted batting practice at
6:30 in the morning, something we
did every day in March." All the
practice paid off. Shockey's machine
beat Prep 2-1.
"We all felt overjoyed," said
Shockey. He added, "I felt that this
was a big win for us, not just for this
year but also for future seasons." He
concluded, "For some reason, Ralston
always has trouble beating Prep.
Hopefully, this win will help remove
that stigma, not only in baseball, but
in all sports."

With one foot forward, junior Tom Madsen
takes a level swing at a pitch in the Bellevue East
game.

84 Varsity Baseball