Alexander, Grubers, Ver Steegs among leaders for Stars in 2023
Sports | Published on July 31, 2023 at 3:41pm CDT
The Starbuck Stars amateur baseball team finished the 2023 season with an 8-9 record after losing to Regal last weekend in the consolation bracket of the County Line playoffs.
Starbuck, which was seeded fifth in the tourney, beat Norway Lake-Sunburg in the playoff opener (10–5) before losing to Atwater (8-4) and to Regal.
Last year, the Stars advanced to the Region 4A Tourney, going 1-2 and finishing 17-8 overall.
The top three teams from the County Line League advance to the region tournament. The fourth place team was set to play the fifth place team from the Cornbelt League to determine one other qualifier.
Darion Alexander led the Stars this year with a .460 batting average and .563 on-base percentage among players with at least 20 plate appearances.
Austin Ver Steeg was next at .350, followed by Matt Gruber (.273), Austin Friese (.268), Torii Johnson (.237) and Michael Gruber (.233). Alexander had team highs of 23 hits, four doubles (tied with Aaron Ver Steeg), two triples, 15 runs (tied with Matt Gruber), seven stolen bases (tied with Matt Gruber) and 13 walks, while Matt Gruber had team-highs of 75 plate appearances, 66 at-bats, three homeruns and 19 RBI this year.
As a team, the Stars batted .248 with an on-base team percentage of .334.
Darion Alexander went 4-2 on the mound for the Stars, while Michael Gruber and Drew Olsonawski were both 1-0, Austin Ver Steeg was 2-4, Mitchell Gruber was 0-1 and Aaron Ver Steeg was 0-2.