By Nathan Rode
National Supervisor

There must be something in the water in Shawnee, KS, where Mill Valley HS is located. Or several fathers conspired about 15 years ago to turn their sons into one of baseball commodities. Jeff Strickland, the head coach at Mill Valley, has a big luxury heading into the season and he hopes it plays to his team’s advantage.

“It’s pretty unusual,” Strickland said. “This is my ninth year and the first five years we didn’t have any left-handed pitchers on our staff. Now, all of a sudden, this junior and senior class is very left-handed heavy. It’s certainly unusual, but we’ll take it. They’re definitely quality lefties too. It’s exciting.”

Mill Valley can trot out six left-handed pitchers at any given time. Most coaches would be happy with one or two. Strickland has six arms to spread across a 20-game regular season schedule.