Brandt Godberson

Over his 4 ½-year prep baseball career, the Remsen St. Mary’s senior has posted a 35-7 record on the mound, including back-to-back 11-win seasons in 2015 and 2016. The future Briar Cliff University pitcher won first-team Class 1A all-state honors as a junior.Saturday night in the finals of the Spalding Catholic Tournament, the .384 career hitter reached new heights, defensively.Playing third base, Wesselmann scaled the fence in foul territory at Granville’s Vosburg Park to make a crucial two-out catch in the bottom of the seventh inning. It capped off a great night for the Sioux City Journal’s Siouxland Athlete of the Week, who went 3-for-5 with a double and two RBIs in the 12-10 win over Boyden-Hull/Rock Valley.“First of all on the Spalding field, the sun is directly in my eyes and I was having trouble all night,” said the 18-year old son of Jim and Susanne Wesselmann of Remsen. “I didn’t get a good jump on the ball, but I had to react to it. I remember putting my foot up on the fence and I got up as far as I could go. My stomach was on top of the fence. I leaned over. I reached over and grabbed it. I was lucky.”“That was one heck of a climb,” said Dean Harpenau, who shares coaching duties for the defending Class 1A state champions with Wesselmann’s dad. “We’ve used him at short. We’ve used him at third. He does a great job on defense. I think his defensive numbers are just as spectacular as his offensive numbers.”Since the beginning of his sophomore year when he promoted to third in the batting order, Wesselmann has batted .441, including this season’s .440 mark with 25 RBIs for the Hawks. He hit a team-best .474 that year, then .410 for the 33-5 team that won the school’s fourth-ever summer state baseball title.“Coming into the season, I knew I was going to college to be a pitcher, but in the off-season, I worked harder on hitting,” said Wesselmann. “We lost a .490 hitter and couple of guys over .300, so coming in and being a senior, I knew I had to step up and lead the team on the offensive side. I don’t think I’ve done anything different. As a... (Sioux City Journal)

One of them is first baseman Montana Jackson, whose grand slam in the seventh inning of last Wednesday’s 7-4 win over then, third-ranked West Sioux enabled the 14-1 Westerners to avenge their only loss of the season.Another is his twin brother Aaron, who like himself, covers plenty of outfield ground for teams that improved from 13-17 in 2014 to 17-14 the following year and 25-5 last season. The 2016 squad won 13 straight games before losing in the district finals to eventual Class 1A state champion Remsen St. Mary's“I’ve done well, but my team has backed me up a lot,” said the Sioux City Journal’s Siouxland Athlete of the Week, who’s 4-0 on the mound with a 1.31 ERA and 29 strikeouts in 21 1/3 innings for the fifth-ranked Westerners.“I don’t know where I’d be without the team, the way they score runs, then they tack on a few (runs). We were losing against West Sioux when I was on the mound, but they backed me up. We got those runs back. They’ve been on the offensive side and the defensive side when I’ve been on the mound.”Allard, a South Dakota State baseball recruit, has fanned at least seven in each of his four starts, including an 8-1 win over Remsen St. Mary’s. The 6-foot-2, 177-pound right-hander has one of three shutouts for a staff that has a sparkling team 1.30 ERA and has limited opponents to a .197 batting average.Even as a freshman, when Allard went 3-3, he had more strikeouts (46) than innings (39 1/3), something which has occurred throughout a career where he’s gone 18-9 with 235 strikeouts in 169 innings.“I’ve tried to be consistent and get everything I need to be a successful pitcher,” said the 18-year old son of Tim and LaRae Allard of Akron. “I throw strikes, then I let the rest take care of itself.”Allard throws both a two-seam and a four-seam fastball, utilizing the two-seam when he feels he needs to throw hard. He also relies on a change-up and sometimes, a curve which doesn’t get as much attention as the other pitches.“Mostly, he goes four-seam,” said Akron-Westfield Coach Gordy Johnson. “When he’s on his spots, he’s tough. He... (Sioux City Journal)