Print edition: 
My advice to Maize's opponents in the Class 6A baseball tournament this weekend in Lawrence is not to pick up a stat sheet.
Under no circumstances.
On that sheet you would find countless reasons why your team doesn't have a chance.
Just show up and play Maize and try not to acknowledge its 22-0 record. And the 278 runs the Eagles have scored compared to 27 for opponents.
Eight Maize games have been shutouts. In another eight, the Eagles have allowed one run.
"It may seem like it's been boring for us,'' Maize senior Tanner Johnson said. "But we take it just a game at a time and it's been a lot of fun.''
Of course it has.
By the time infield practice is over before games, Maize's opponents are usually sitting in the dugout with frightened looks on their faces and faint cries of "Mommy'' coming from their lips.
The Eagles have a .452 batting average. Meanwhile, the pitching staff has held hitters to a .158 average.
There was, believe it or not, a close call this season. After beating Derby 18-3 in the first game of a doubleheader in April, the Eagles won 5-2 in the second game.
Derby should get some kind of medal for keeping a game against Maize that close since the average score of an Eagles game is 13-1.
Of course, it might be different in the state tournament. Or it might not.
Campus, the team with the next-best record (18-4) among the 6A competitors, looks good on paper. But in two games against Maize this season, the Colts were outscored 25-2.
As lopsided as most of the games have been, Maize insists it takes nothing for granted.
"It's not like we're just beating a bunch of nobodies this season,'' said senior Conner Knight, who is headed to Wichita State in the fall. "We just do what we do best and try not to play down to some people's level.''
The only time the Eagles struggled this season, Knight said, was during that close win over Derby.
"We got off to a slow start in that game and didn't hit like we had been hitting,'' he said. "But we stayed with it and it came out the way we wanted it to. It was getting to us a little bit in that game. We weren't as focused as we needed to be.''
Since that game, focus hasn't been a problem. The Eagles have outscored their past five opponents 65-2.
Knight, who so far is the only Maize player to sign with a Division I school, is 5-0 with a 0.95 ERA as a starting pitcher and is batting .571 with 32 RBIs.
But wait, we're just getting started.
Senior Tory Bell leads the Eagles with 51 RBIs and is batting .507. Center fielder Thomas Clay, a senior, has a .589 average and junior Ryan McBroom is at .493.
You don't see these kinds of offensive numbers in wiffle ball, which makes it easy to compare this Maize team — ranked sixth nationally by Maxpreps.com — to the 1978 Southeast team that went undefeated, won a Class 5A championship and is considered the best high school baseball team in the state's history.
Maize coach Rocky Helm, in his 13th season with the Eagles, was just a kid when that Southeast team was rolling.
"But I do remember the players who were a part of that team,'' he said, citing guys like Kevin Clinton, Doug Hoppock and Jim Thomas. "But this is probably the most complete team I've had.''
That's saying something, considering the Eagles won 6A titles in 2003 and 2005 and benefit greatly from the nearby Westurban program, which most of the Maize players grew up in.
"That's a great training ground for us, no doubt,'' Helm said. "It's the chemistry of this team that's the thing I like most, but I also like the way these guys go about their business. You can tell they've been around a little bit with some of the elite places they've played during summer ball. A lot of teams will get on a roller coaster and not handle adversity well.''
Adversity? What do Helms and his players know about adversity? Most Maize games are over by the second inning.
"Yeah, adversity this season has been pretty mild,'' Helm said.
The Eagles open state tournament play today against Leavenworth (13-9). The best thing the Pioneers have going for them is that they're in another part of the state, perhaps unaware of the way Maize has clubbed teams all season.
Maize, though, won't overlook anyone.
The Eagles' goal since losing in last year's championship game to Blue Valley has been to not let another chance pass them by.
Blue Valley is now in 5A, so the Eagles won't get a chance to avenge that loss in Lawrence. But it was already taken care of with an 11-5 win this season.
Maize has a team for the history books, but it's not there yet. Three more potential games stand in the way.
So far, though, the Eagles have bludgeoned everyone who has stood in their way.
