For Bryce Gehlert’s Belle Tigers, winning an outright Gasconade Valley Conference (GVC) baseball title proved beneficial when it came to selecting members of the All-GVC Baseball Team.

Nearly making up half of the All-GVC Baseball Team, Belle quartet of Hank Stratman, Garrett Gehlert, Gage Terrill and Luke Rohrer earned their spots on the squad after leading the Tigers to another outright GVC title with wins over Cuba, Bourbon and Steelville as Viburnum did not have enough numbers to field a team this spring.

Named the GVC Most Valuable Player (MVP), Stratman led the Tigers in nearly every offensive statistical category.

Hank led the Tigers in batting average (.527), on-base percentage (.566), OPS (1.431), slugging percentage (.865), hits (39), doubles (12), triples (2), home runs (3), runs batted in (26), runs scored (30) and stolen bases (30).

Stratman was also second on the team with 22 singles just behind Luke Rohrer’s 23 singles.

While their yearly showdown with Vienna lost some of its luster with the Eagles moving to the SMCC, Stratman had his best game of the season statistically against them with four hits, two home runs, six RBIs and three runs scored.

Of his team-leading 30 stolen bases, Stratman swiped five of them in two games against Newburg and Cuba.

When he was not behind the plate catching, he was also toeing the pitching rubber pitching against Belle’s toughest opponents.

Recording 30 and a third innings pitched, Stratman struck out a season-high 16 batters in Belle’s GVC title clinching win over Steelville while also reaching double digits in strikeouts against Houston and Vienna with 12 apiece.

He also led the Tiger pitching staff with a team-low 1.61 earned-run average (ERA).

Playing either catcher or shortstop, Gehlert led the Tigers with 19 walks and was third on the team with 19 runs scored.

He was also fourth on the team with an on-base percentage of .424.

At the plate, Gehlert had a season-high three hits against St. Francis Borgia to go along with three runs scored against Bourbon and three his team-leading 19 walks against Iberia.

Pitching a team-leading 47 and two-third innings, Gehlert recorded 48 strikeouts while allowing 24 runs (18 earned) on 47 hits and 11 walks.

Striking out a season-high 11 batter against Stoutland, Gehlert also posted a 2.64 ERA.

As the lone freshman on the All-GVC Baseball Team, Terrill was second on the team behind Stratman with a .434 on-base percentage, .912 OPS (on base plus slugging percentage), .478 slugging percentage, five doubles, 20 runs scored and 10 stolen bases.

Terrill had a season-high three hits against Cuba to go along with three runs scored against Bourbon.

Spending the vast majority of his time occupying the first-base bag, Rohrer was Belle’s fourth-and-final selection to the All-GVC baseball team.

Leading the Tigers with 23 singles, Rohrer was also second on the team with a .361 batting average and 26 hits.

Rohrer had a season-best three hits against Cuba and St. Elizabeth with three of his 26 singles also coming against the Hornets from St. Elizabeth.

Having their season end at the hands of Fatima’s Comets in the MSHSAA Class 3, District 8 title game, Belle could have more postseason honors coming in with All-State voting taking place later this week following the conclusion of the 75th MSHSAA Baseball Championships in Ozark.

All-District selections will be recapped in next week’s Advocate so that both the Belle Tigers and Vienna Eagles can be recognized.

Vienna’s All-District list will be released later this week after Eugene completes their season this week during the Class 2 portion of the MSHSAA Baseball Championships this week in Ozark.