Repeating is difficult. Just ask the Miami Heat, who needed a miracle shot by Ray Allen to take home their second NBA championship in a row. The Westside baseball team, unfortunately, was not able to bring home two straight championships, after winning the spring state championship last school year.

The team, playing under the name of their sponsor, KB Building Services,  suffered a difficult 8-2 loss against rival Creighton Prep in the Class A American Legion state championship game on Saturday, Aug. 3. Losing the championship to a rival was difficult, but the team does not put an emphasis on Prep.

“That’s tough,” Greco said. “They’re [Prep] always such a rival for us. When you become so focused on beating one opponent it can help you beat that one opponent, but you don’t carry that same energy to beat everybody else. There have been many years where we’ve beaten Prep but we don’t play well against anyone else. We try to take the focus off Prep.”

But, being state runner-up was enough to take the team to the regional tournament in Fargo, ND. It was the first regional Westside has been to since 2009, but the eighth for Greco. The team started out the regional with a loss, 4-2, to Carrol County of Iowa, but bounced back to win three straight and make it to the American Legion Great Plains Regional Final, where they fell to Burnsivlle, of Minnesota, 15-5.

The key players in the team’s impressive state and regional tournament run were the pitchers, according to senior baseball player Drew Fitzmorris.

Jake Meyers was definitely a big contributor from both the pitching stand point and he batted lead-off, so that was big,” Fitzmorris said. “Our whole pitching staff in general helped keep us afloat and get us through to state, and on to regionals, and that consists of both the Waldron twins, Matt and Mike, as well as Jake, like I already mentioned. Those are kind of our main dudes, along with Brock Nemecek.”

Fitzmorris, who was injured during the spring regular season and state championship, enjoyed being able play this season.

“It was a lot different [to play rather than watch],” Fitzmorris said. “In the spring I felt almost helpless. I definitely felt [I was] a part of the team, but in the summer I felt I had a lot more responsibility and a lot more I could control about the game. It was definitely a better feeling.”

The team will lose only one starter to graduation. Fitzmorris felt the team will have a good oportunity to compete for championships next year, after the experience it has collected the past two seasons.

“We have a lot of young talent and a lot of inexperienced guys, so to make it that far is definitely a building block for us next year,” Fitzmorris said.

To prepare for next year, the team will take a similar approach to seasons past.

“Really no different than what we’ve done before,” Greco said. “We might have some more advanced drills, more advanced teaching, but we do so much on the mental game. We try to be physically better, mentally better, we want them to know the rules and all of the nuances of baseball. The difference will be the stuff that we do might be a little more advanced than in years past.”