The Iowa Spring Wood Bat League got off to a very successful start this past weekend, with 10 games in two days at the Atlantic High School field in Atlantic, a quaint farming town of 7,500 people in west-central Iowa.

Players in the Iowa Spring League literally come from all over the state, so the effort is made to move the weekend games around geographically so that most of the kids/families have a set or two of games that are “closer” to home than others. Games will also be played in Des Moines, Carroll and Cedar Rapids.

I’m sure it didn’t hurt Atlantic’s cause that Trayce Peterson, the coach at Atlantic HS, has his son Taylor playing in the Spring League.

The League was one of the original projects for Jerry Ford and Perfect Game, having first opened play in 1996. Iowa, of course, does not play high school baseball during the spring and the summer baseball schedule doesn’t start until late May. Not only does the league give young Iowa players a chance to gain valuable experience when they otherwise wouldn’t be playing, it enables the professional scouts to get their evaluations on the top Iowa talent each year, a situation that would be virtually impossible without the Spring League.

Not surprisingly, virtually every Iowa high school player who has been drafted since 1996 has played in the Spring League, along with a like number of future Division I signees.

The PG staff organizes the league and provides all the uniforms, baseballs and umpires. They also scout each game and keep the statistics. Thus my own spring baseball season started on the scorebook/radar gun with a marathon session of Iowa baseball in beautiful 60 degree spring weather.

The three top pitchers in the state, RHP Dean McArdle (2009/Sioux City North), RHP Matt Koch (2009/Cherokee Washington) and RHP Jonathan Keller (2010/Cedar Rapids Xavier) didn’t pitch opening weekend, but virtually all the other top players were suited up.

One thing to keep in mind about spring baseball in the Upper Midwest is that pitcher’s arms aren’t in shape yet and velocities are going to be down significantly from later in the spring. While it was in the 60’s the entire weekend, that was a welcome fluke and it was in the teens a few days previously. The grass on the field hasn’t come out from winter dormancy yet and can’t even be cut.

On the other hand, the bats did seem to be in mid-season form. There were at least 6 or 7 home runs hit with wood bats on a full size high school field, which was pretty impressive.

Here are some individual highlights:

-- SS Kellen Sweeney (2010/Cedar Rapids Jefferson) hit one of those home runs, a grand slam over the straight away centerfield fence, and drove in 5 runs on Sunday for the Navy team. Sweeney would be a top prospect playing in California or Florida right now, too, and playing Iowa spring ball didn’t seem to hinder his brother, Ryan, from reaching the big leagues three years out of high school.

-- LHP Matt Dermody (2009/Norwalk, signed with Iowa) lost 15 lbs from his already lean 6-5 frame over the winter from basketball and mononucleosis, so he has some catching up to do. He did touch 87 mph with a fast and loose arm, though.

-- RHP Ryan Torgerson (2009/Des Moines Johnston) looked impressive, with a 83-85 mph fastball and a power 75 mph curveball that had some serious downer break to it. He should be throwing upper 80’s with no problem by the end of the spring. Torgerson is signed with Des Moines Area CC (D-Mac in the local language), currently the #1 ranked team in NJCAA Division II play.

-- 3B Nick Suckow (2011/Waukee) might put himself on the early prospect lists for 2011. He’s 6-2, 190 lbs and very athletic looking. He hit the first pitch he saw in his first game over the street in back of the left field fence and it eventually ended up under a bush against a house. His second swing was a hard line drive that left the third baseman protecting himself from the ball.

-- Suckow has a 2010 teammate at Waukee HS named Will Artino who may also work himself onto the national prospect lists. A left handed pitcher, Artino is listed at 6-8, 195 but having stood next to him, this looks like a case where someone might have misstated his height on the shorter side. He looked a good 6-10 to me. Artino was up to 84 mph during the fall and although he didn’t touch that on Saturday, he throws easily and repeats his delivery well.

-- Sioux City North HS was mentioned above for RHP Dean McArdle, who is going to Stanford. That program should be proud of itself for not only its baseball but for its academics. McArdle’s catcher Chad Piersma, is a left handed hitting 6-4, 205 lb athlete who will be playing baseball next year at Dartmouth.

-- C Spencer Navin (2010/Des Moines Dowling) only played in one game but looked very good, with close to plus raw arm strength and a strong 6-1, 190 lb build. He could well be the top catcher in the state and should get strong regional recruiting attention.

-- LHP Taylor Kaufman (2011/Glenwood) was very impressive, showing a quality three pitch mix, including a 83 mph fastball, while striking out the first 8 hitters he faced on Saturday. His velocity projects very well both short and long term. Kaufman’s father, Curt, coaches his Spring League team. He is a former Major League pitcher, throwing 40 games with the Yankees and Angels between 1982 and 1984.

-- RHP/OF Jonathan Hartley (2011/Iowa City) broke up Kaufman’s bid to strike out the side three times in his three inning outing by launching a deep home run to left field off a 3-2 fastball. Hartley came back the second game on Saturday and had a 2 Rbi walk off single to lead his Steel team to a comeback victory. Not a bad way to start the season.