The East Central Starz baseball team cruised past the competition in the 12-and-under division of the Lincoln County Athletic Association this summer.

The Jonesburg squad finished with a 14-0 record, including a 16-6 win over Hawk Point in the LCAA 12-and-under championship game on July 20 at Warrenton. They won all of their games by an average margin of seven runs a game.

“It’s awesome,” Starz coach Ryan Maskey said. “I’m glad that we got this group of boys. They got along and played together really well.”

The Starz were inspired by Maskey’s current fight with cancer. He was recently diagnosed with the disease for the third time.

Maskey said he was happy that he was available to coach his team in the championship game.

“I had to do my chemo on a Wednesday and we ended up getting to play on a Thursday, so it worked out,” Maskey said.

The Starz were made of players from Wellsville, Montgomery City and Martinsburg. The players were Brayden Christian, Grayson Dunlap, Landon Helderman, Cooper Huff, Andrew Maskey, Crews Meyer, Ty Norris, Lukas Oliver, Alex Poindexter, Chason Sachs, Colton Schofield and Tyson Sewell. The Starz played in a league that also had teams from Warrenton, Hawk Point, Elsberry, Old Monroe and Troy.

“It’s a good group of boys that really came together,” Ryan Maskey said.
The team was sponsored by 18 area businesses, including Myers Funeral Home, Sachs Construction, Montgomery Hardware & Home Center, Jean Franc Salon, Shelter Insurance in Wellsville, State Farm in Montgomery City, Radiance Therapeutic Massage, New York Life Insurance in Wellsville, Peoples Savings Bank and the Bank of Missouri.

“We had almost all of our roster paid for through sponsorships,” Maskey said.

The Starz, who played all of their home games at Optimist Park in Jonesburg, began their season on April 25 with a 7-4 victory over Warrenton. On July 5, they defeated Sellenriek Construction of Jonesburg 11-4 during the Rally For Ryan game in which all of the players wore T-shirts in honor of the cancer-stricken coach.

The Starz began their postseason play on July 18 with a 16-0 win over Elsberry in a semifinal game at Warrenton. Two days later, they matched their season-high offensive output in the victory over Hawk Point in the finals.

“We had a lot of walks,” Maskey said. “We got timely hits when we needed it. We pulled together as a team. We never lost focus.”

There were a total of eight Jonesburg teams – five baseball and three softball – in the LCAA this summer. Two other Jonesburg teams participated in the postseason tournament. The Hans Angus Farms 8-and-under softball team and the Mike’s AutoCrafts 14-and-under baseball squad were eliminated in the first round of their respective tournaments.