For the second consecutive season, the Creighton Prep Junior Jays stood atop the high school baseball world. Coming into the season, Prep returned only four seniors by way of Josh Culliver, Zach Philbin, Nate Reiner and Tommy Steier, but a slew of juniors came into the mix to help the team win it all once again.

“This year was so much different than last. Last year, we came into the season as the No. 1 ranked team,” head coach Pat Mooney said. “This year, one poll had us preseason No. 1. I would have put us about seventh. The boys really went above and beyond my expectations.”

Prep started off the season exceptionally well, winning its first five games by a combined score of 56-2. From there, though, the Junior Jays found it difficult to find a consistent rhythm, winning one here, losing one there and so on. After losing four games in a row in late April, things were not looking up for Prep. From there, Prep fell in their district championship game to Millard North and had to rely on other results to simply get to the state championship.
Prep entered the state tournament as the No. 4 seed with a record of 19-11. They narrowly beat fifth-seed Lincoln Southwest 2-1, before shocking top-seeded Lincoln Southeast with a dominant 11-0 performance. Prep then knocked off the No. 2 seed Millard South 10-1. Prep then faced bitter rival Westside, losing the first of their two meetings 6-2.

With a state title on the line in a winner-take-all match, Prep started off hot, scoring three runs in the top of the first, before turning the ball over to Minnesota commit Josh Culliver. Prep led 7-2 after five innings, and maintained a 12-5 lead as Dylan Phillips came to the mound in the bottom of the seventh to close the game out. Phillips caught a pop-up for the final out and Prep was crowned state champions once again.

“I don’t think the boys felt too much pressure about repeating as state champs. Most never played varsity baseball last year so it was all new to them,” Mooney said.”We had some serious ups and downs. We peaked at the right time and came home with the big trophy.”