By JONNY ZAWACKI

News Sports Writer

All of the hard work that Dylan Steinke has put in since he was in little league has finally paid off as he will play baseball at the collegiate level. Steinke signed his Letter of Intent last week to continue his career at Delta College.

“I chose Delta because the coach was really welcoming and two of my lifelong best friends are already there competing in athletics. I was really pondering college football, but I decided to look at a more affordable option to meet my career goals. I’ve always wanted to compete at the college level for baseball and I’m looking forward to the experience the next two years,” Steinke said.

Off the field, Steinke will be studying mechatronics and he recently acquired a trades scholarship.

The signing will continue a recent trend of not just Hillman athletes, but other local athletes choosing to continue their athletic careers at Delta.

“We love Northeast Michigan and we have plenty of players on our current roster from the area and all of them have helped us to great success. We needed a catcher for next season and heard from some of our guys that Dylan was a player. We worked him out in January and it was easy to see that defensively, he is a college caliber catcher,” Delta College coach Dan Smith said.

Steinke has dedicated most of his playing career to one position, catcher and has been a mainstay behind the plate. He has caught since he was nine-years-old and helped his team make two visits to Little League state tournaments.

The success continued on to the high school level and Steinke has spent a lot of his time playing travel ball with different clubs throughout the summer.

Currently, Steinke is having a stellar senior season. He currently leads the team in just about every offensive category. Steinke holds a .478 batting average and a .603 on base percentage. He has scored 19 runs and driven in 15, along with drawing 14 walks, has an impressive 1.364 OPS and has stolen 24 bases.

“We want blue collar, hard working, coachable players and it’s been our experience that these traits are personified in the way Dylan plays the game. It does take time to get acclimated to the speed of the college game, so as a freshman, Dylan will have to learn to think and react faster. Once he’s shown that he is capable of thinking like a college catcher, as long as his classroom decorum and work ethic are on par with our expectations, we’ll throw him into the fire!” Smith said.

Steinke will have his shot to impress during the fall season where he will see significant time behind the plate.

Despite a few weeks left in his senior season, Steinke is looking forward the challenges that he will face at the next level.

“My goals and expectations are to make memories and new friends that will last a lifetime and go on to a bigger college for baseball,” Steinke said.