This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2010, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.

In the early part of the 1A baseball season, the most glaring hole for Salt Lake Lutheran was whichever one the ball found to escape the infield.

So suspect was the fielding of this group of rookies and reluctant recruits that unconventional methods of securing outs became common.

In the team's finale against Tabiona on Oct. 1, catcher Andrew Cataldo unleashed a half-cocked, looping attempt to throw out a base stealer. Despite Lutheran's employ of an extra infielder, the ball skipped past second base and into center field at the quaint ballpark in the Avenues.

The play caused a frustrated father, hunched forward on the gray wooden bleachers along the third-base line to lament, "Who's on second?"

The team's season ended that day in a 22-3 loss, the culmination of a 2-8 season and a comedy of errors.

But this team, despite having little discernible talent for baseball, was no failure.

After all, this group of players almost didn't have the chance to come together and become the lovable losers of 1A baseball.

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Few in numbers • Last spring, when students were asked to commit to the Lynx baseball program, the volunteers were too few to field a team for the fall season, when 1A baseball is played in Utah. Administrators were close to canceling the season entirely.

"You just couldn't get it off your mind," said junior Josh Mekata, Lutheran's pitcher, sometimes catcher and leadoff hitter. "What can you do if you don't have a team?"

Mekata has played baseball since he was 4 years old. Other students at the school didn't have such a connection to the game.

Athletic director Darren Morrison talked to students in the halls and e-mailed their parents, imploring them to join the team that he himself played for in the 1990s.

But in a private school of 57 students, the boys were more interested in cerebral pursuits.

Nathan Salas Manful was focused on trying to get into the U.S. Naval Academy in two years. He wants to be a Marine.

Dane Dickerson is a musician. He taught himself to play the guitar at 12 and also picked up the trumpet and ukulele.

Mekata, 17, had other interests besides baseball, of course. He has 42 hours of flying time and intends to get his pilot's license next May.

But slowly, after hearing about the plight of the baseball team, young men who had never before played the sport volunteered.

"I think I watched the World Series two years ago," Kyle Rudy said. "I was up with my uncles hunting, so it wasn't even my choice."

Rudy is a senior who hopes to go to college in computer engineering. He plays first base and pulls his baseball socks up over the cuffs of his pants.

He asked himself: "Hey, it's my senior year, what do I have to lose?"

Salas Manful became the second baseman, Dickerson, the right fielder. Cataldo, who hadn't played in high school, learned in Little League how to catch and not flinch with the swing of a bat.

It gave the Lutheran High Lynx just enough players to take the field. After that, the game itself became the challenge.

In all, seven of the dozen players who suited up for the team this fall had never played baseball.

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Base running a mystery • For the season finale against Tabiona, one last student was recruited to join the team, replacing one lost to injury and another to poor grades. Senior Zack Welch had never played before, but he was there on the bench — the team's 10th man.

"Do you know how to run bases?" coach Michael York asked him, in need of a pinch runner in the first inning.

Welch looked at him blankly.

"You don't know how to run bases." York said. "Do you have cleats?"

Another empty stare.

"You don't have cleats."

A few pitches later, York pounded a helmet onto Welch's head and sent him out to second base.

He hollered at his greenest rookie.

"Zack, you've got to run to this one first," he said, pointing to third base before moving his focus to home plate. "Then that one."

Next up, left fielder Tastan Sperling smacked a double, sending Welch rumbling clumsily around third and into home.

The Lynx went on to score three runs that inning, the most in any this season other than in their two wins against Mount Vernon. The score stood at 4-3 after the first inning, a stark contrast to the 17 runs Lutheran allowed against Tabiona in the same frame on Aug. 19, when Tabiona won 39-2. The improved score was a victory in itself and representative of the team's growth through the season.

"They're getting better," said Salas Manful's father, Steve.

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Tangible progress • In fact, the team's progress throughout the season was nothing short of remarkable to those who tracked it.

On Sept. 22 against Mount Vernon, Salas Manful turned to first in an attempt to complete a double play before realizing the runner would be safe at first.

In the same game, Mekata hit the team's only home run of the season, a shot down the right-field line that cleared the fence and dropped into the adjacent cemetery.

His teammates, despite not being taught or having experienced a homer, knew to wait for Mekata at home plate and congratulate him.

"They're actually playing baseball," York said. "They're actually doing things that are part of the game."

The Lynx went on to defeat Mount Vernon twice for their only victories of the season.

After their final loss, the players gathered on a berm in left field around York, who offered final words of encouragement, wisdom and faith to the best bad team in Utah.

"Do you think God's up there smiling a little bit?" York asked.

"Oh, yeah," the players responded, not quite in unison.

"Do you think he likes sports?" York asked, earning scattered nods from the players in front of him. "He wouldn't have created them if he didn't."

Then one voice from the group piped up.

"I think he got bored when he created soccer," Mekata said.

The players laughed because they knew no moment during the season on this patchwork team had been a bore.

Still smiling, York said, "Let's load everything into the truck and say goodbye to the field."

boram@sltrib.com On Twitter: @oramb, @tribpreps —

Salt Lake Lutheran High School Lynx

• Record: 2-8

• Finished with the second-fewest wins of any team in the state.

• Seven boys on the team had never played baseball before this season began.

• The school matched its win total from 2009.