During the school’s spring break, the Lutheran South High School baseball team traveled to St. Petersburg, Florida, for a tournament. While they competed fiercely – winning five of their seven games against teams from New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Illinois – what they accomplished was bigger than baseball. 

For the fifth year in a row, members of the Lutheran South baseball team purchased items for the Delores Food Pantry at Hope Lutheran Church. In total, over 400 food, personal care and miscellaneous items were donated to the pantry. 

“We feel very blessed to get to go and travel and play in this tournament, and we feel that it’s important for the kids to understand that there’s more than just baseball and that we want to give back to people that are less fortunate than us,” Lutheran South head baseball coach Mike Callihan said. 

To generate funds to purchase the donated items, the team hosted its yearly “Rock ‘N Roll Bingo” event on Feb. 22. Over $10,000 was raised for baseballs, uniforms and other team needs, with approximately $800 going to the food bank.

Divided by their Florida room assignments, each group of Lutheran South baseball players were given $75 with the goal of purchasing the most items possible without going over the allotted dollar amount. The group ending with the most items and the group closest to $75.00 without going over won a lunch provided by Callihan. 

“We kind of make it a competition with the boys. It creates a little bit of bonding with the players. It’s just a fun little way for us to give back, but it also teaches the players that there’s so many things more valuable than baseball with what we’re trying to do,” Callihan said. 

This year marked the fifth time the team has worked with Hope Lutheran Church. Though their relationship has always been good, this year’s trip made the bond even stronger.

“They’ve always welcomed us, and they are so appreciative of what we do. When we do donate, we usually have a meal there, and this year, there were several volunteers that stayed with us and had dinner with us and just chatted for an hour or so about just things down in Tampa, just talking about baseball,” Callihan said. “Baseball has many languages, there’s so much in common that people have.”