One day late, but titles still sweet for Millard North, Skutt Catholic and Lincoln Lutheran
– For the Nebraska School Activities Association
Even if they were a day late, the 2026 Nebraska School Activities Association’s state baseball tournament championship games were drenched in drama Saturday at Werner Park as all three finals were decided by one run — two of them in extra innings.
In Class A, Millard North turned the tables on Lincoln East from last year’s title game as this time it was the Mustangs coming out on top to earn the program’s first state championship since 2005.
Class B featured a walk-off winner as Bubba Day’s RBI single in the bottom of the eighth lifted Omaha Skutt Catholic past Elkhorn North for the SkyHawks’ first title since 2017.
In the opener, Lincoln Lutheran captured its first state baseball title in Class C, closing out the game with an unassisted double play by Warriors second baseman Cooper Thome to defeat Elkhorn Mount Michael Benedictine.
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Class A: Millard North ends 21-year title drought with extra-innings win
Millard North ended a 21-year title drought and avenged last year’s heartbreak in the process with a 6-5 eight-inning victory over Lincoln East Saturday night in the Class A state tournament championship game at Werner Park.
The fourth-seeded Mustangs (26-10) broke a 5-5 tie in the top of the eighth when Deacon Hurley laced a two-out triple into right field, scoring Carson Burke.
Hurley said he knew exactly what to look for at the plate against Greyson Bjorkman, who had pitched 6 2/3 innings of scoreless relief for the Spartans.
“I was sitting fastball,” Hurley said. “In the other at-bats, he was really hanging curveballs. I knew he was gonna come back to his fastball, so that’s what I was looking for right there.”
The win served as a measure of redemption for Millard North, which lost to the second-seeded Spartans 5-4 in the championship game a year ago.
“We had a bad taste in our mouth from last year from that team especially,” Hurley said. “Those guys got us last year and we just wanted to get them back. So that’s what we did.”
After getting a postgame ice-water dousing from two of his players, Millard North coach Bob Hlavac said that the program’s standard is to be in this position every year. The Mustangs last won Class A in 2005 — 15 years after winning their first title in 1990.
“I think it’s awesome. It’s great for the school,” Hlavac said of winning state. “We have such great support from the administration and the students, obviously, and it’s good to get Millard North where it needs to be.”
The game got off to an explosive start as Lincoln East led 4-3 after the first inning, powered by Bryson Rhodes’ bases-loaded triple in the bottom of the frame. Millard North had scored three unearned runs in the top of the first with the help of a Spartans error and Caden Shafer’s two-run single.
After Millard North tied the score 4-4 in the top of the second on an RBI double by Tatum Mabus, Lincoln East answered in the bottom half of the inning as Dele Odulate’s double scored Brodie McIntire, giving the Spartans a 5-4 lead.
The Mustangs pulled even at 5-5 on Shafer’s solo home run to left field. The senior finished 2 for 4 at the plate with three RBIs.
While the bats produced the winning run, Millard North’s pitching staff anchored the effort.
Mustangs starter Colin Driffill fought through a shaky first inning as Lincoln East scored four in the first and added a fifth run in the second. However, the senior right-hander held the Spartans scoreless in his final four innings of work, striking out six, before handing the game over to Smith.
A senior left-hander, Smith provided two shutout innings of relief to secure the win, striking out five. That included the game-clinching strikeout with the tying run at third base.
For Hlavac, the final half-inning was a tense reminder of last season’s Lincoln East comeback that denied the Mustangs a state title.
“We got into the eighth inning there and they got a guy on base, and (he) gets over to third,” Hlavac said. “Last year was just rolling through my head, but Smitty was really good up on the mound there in that eighth inning. He earned it up there.”
Notable: Lincoln East was making its fourth consecutive appearance in the Class A state championship game, winning in 2023 and 2025. The Spartans ended with a 32-3 record. … Longtime Omaha World-Herald sports writer Mike Patterson threw out the honorary first pitch prior to the Class A state championship game. Patterson, who was covering his final state high school baseball tournament, will retire this summer, closing a journalism career that spanned more than four decades.
Class B: Day’s walk-off hit lifts ‘Cardiac Catholics’ to crown
Omaha Skutt coach Damon Day calls his team the “Cardiac Catholics.”
After Saturday’s Class B state championship game, it’s easy to see why. In a back-and-forth thriller at Werner Park, the top-seeded SkyHawks rallied to defeat No. 2 seed Elkhorn North 10-9 in eight innings, capturing the program’s first title since 2017.
The game-winner came in the bottom of the eighth off the bat of Bubba Day. With the bases loaded and Elkhorn North employing five infielders and two drawn-in outfielders with one out, Day delivered a long fly ball to right field, landing over an outfielder’s head for a walk-off RBI single.
“We’re not going to give up,” Bubba Day said. “I mean, you saw this past week. We had two walk-offs prior to this.
“When the game got close, we didn’t panic and we just played our game of baseball.”
The eighth-inning rally for the SkyHawks (28-6) started when Charles Diederich led off with a single to center field and was safe at second as Easton Elam reached on a fielder’s choice. After Diederich was picked off second base for the first out, Brenden Ruth was hit by a pitch and Nathan Christensen singled to left, loading the bases for Day.
“It’s awesome, but I give (credit) to my teammates,” Bubba Day said. “The guys on base before me made it a lot easier to do my job.”
Skutt found itself in a 6-2 hole after 3 1/2 innings. Facing a 9-7 deficit in the bottom of the seventh, the SkyHawks were down to their final out before a rally sparked with Day’s sharp single up the middle and consecutive RBI doubles from Lucas Heller and Sean Hipsher sent the game to extra innings.
For Skutt coach Damon Day, watching his team battle back was nothing new. All four of the SkyHawks’ wins in the state tournament were one-run games.
“They’ve got an easiness to them and they don’t get too riled up on some things,” Coach Day said. “We never made last year a battle cry or mantra, but I think that hardened us for these one-run games this year. And I think that last year’s failure was definitely a triumph this year for us.”
Bubba Day led Skutt’s 14-hit attack, going 3 for 4 with a double, two RBIs, a walk and a sacrifice bunt. Heller (2 for 5 with two doubles and three RBIs), Hipsher (2 for 4 with two doubles and two RBIs) and Christensen (2 for 4) also had multi-hit games for the SkyHawks.
Day, the coach’s son, also earned the win on the mound, pitching a scoreless eighth inning, striking out two. And, moments after his game-winning single, the younger Day got to have a gold medal placed around his neck by his dad.
“It was a special, special moment,” Damon Day said. “I’m just super proud of him for stepping up in the moment and bringing it home for me. He wanted to do it so badly, and I knew how bad.
“You could tell earlier in the tournament, (Bubba) was really pressing. Today, he played free and footloose with it all, and I’m just a super proud dad.”
Notable: Connor Wurdeman led Elkhorn North, going 3 for 5 at the plate with a double and four RBIs. Wurdeman’s two-out, two-run double in the top of the seventh gave the Wolves an 8-7 lead, which was increased to 9-7 when Wurdeman scored on Jake Janssen’s single. Janssen (2 for 5 with an RBI), Ethan Asmus (2 for 5 with an RBI) and Charles Riesselman (2 for 3) joined Wurdeman with multi-hit outings for Elkhorn North (26-7).
Class C: Glines pitches opportunistic Warriors to first state title
An offensive outburst wasn’t necessary for Lincoln Lutheran to capture its first state baseball championship.
Instead, the third-seeded Warriors relied on a dominant pitching performance from Braxton Glines and a game-ending double play Saturday afternoon, winning the Class C state title with a 3-2 victory over Elkhorn Mount Michael Benedictine at Werner Park.
Glines retired the first nine batters he faced on his way to tossing a complete game two-hitter.
“I was confident. My approach was just to throw strikes (and) let my defense work,” Glines said. “Sometimes we made a few errors, but it’s all right. I just had to refocus.”
Glines struck out seven and walked one. The senior right-hander allowed zero earned runs, despite the Warriors committing three errors in the field.
“Braxton Glines is an amazing story,” Lincoln Lutheran coach Logan Ryan said. “Finally healthy, he gets to pitch and be our ace all year and we call him ‘Big-Game Brax’ for a reason. That’s because we know he’s going to show up, throw strikes and do whatever it takes to get us to this point.”
Lincoln Lutheran’s victory was certainly unconventional. The Warriors managed just one hit the entire game — a second-inning single by Preston Rodencal — yet plated three runs by capitalizing on four Mount Michael errors and drawing nine walks.
The Warriors produced all of their offense via three two-out errors in the first two innings. Kruz Fiddler scored in the bottom of the first on a two-out infield error and in the second, Jake Bokelmann came home on a two-out error when Preston Rodencal’s single to left field was misplayed. Rodencal later scored on a dropped fly ball for a 3-0 lead.
“It’s just been such a weird tournament,” Ryan said. “Our offense wasn’t quite swinging the way that we had all year, but pitching and defense just carried us all the way. I don’t think that if you told me we would have one hit that we were going to win today, but I’m definitely gonna take it.”
Mount Michael (14-13) chipped away at the 3-0 deficit, scoring in the fourth on a sacrifice fly by Miles Wewel and again in the sixth on an RBI double by Leo Sheridan.
The Knights threatened to tie the game in the bottom of the seventh, putting the tying run in scoring position with one out. However, pinch-hitter Noah Troester lined out to Warriors second baseman Cooper Thome, who caught the shot off Troester’s bat and stepped on the bag for an unassisted double play, securing the victory.
“Good barrel on that ball. One foot one way or the other, and that might be a tied-up ballgame,” Mount Michael coach Tom Swanson said. “It’s just how it goes.”
The championship marks a rapid ascent for a youthful Lincoln Lutheran program that includes just two seniors in Glines and Gavin Cornell. For Glines, who missed nearly all of his junior season due to injury, the title was the culmination of years of persistence.
“We go through a lot throughout the season, throughout the offseason — injuries, this and that — but we just fight till the end,” Glines said. “We just battle, so I love it.”
Notable: After losing in its district final and needing a wild-card berth to qualify for the state tournament, fortune appeared to smile on Lincoln Lutheran. Between “Squirt, the rally fish” — purchased by a member of the student body earlier in the week during a lengthy rain delay and adopted as the team’s mascot — and winning the state title game with just one base hit, things just seemed to go the Warriors’ way during their title run.
