Christensen's Decision to Stay Fuels Washington

CEDAR RAPIDS - Chad Christensen loves the Yankees. But the spring day he changed his mind and decided not to be one helped make Cedar Rapids Washington a state tournament baseball team.“I'm just absolutely thrilled that I was able to stay here and be a part of this team,” Christensen said.The all-state shortstop-pitcher planned to spend most of the summer playing amateur ball in New York for the Bayside Yankees to prepare for a career at the University of Nebraska that begins this fall.But Christensen rethought things and decided he wanted to stay home. Washington had a lot of returning players, a lot of fellow seniors he had grown up playing baseball with. That was too tough for him to leave.Washington is 32-8, winner of 17 games in a row and the No. 2 seed in Class 4A. The Warriors play Iowa City West in a tournament quarterfinal tonight at 8 at Principal Park in Des Moines.“Once we found out Chad was coming back, our confidence shot up so much,” said Washington's Mitch Dostal. “We haven't lost in a very long time, and that's because our seniors are just huge leaders. Chad's a great player. But he's an even better teammate than he is a player.”That's saying something because Christensen is one of the best players the Metro has seen. A four-year starter, Christensen is hitting .525 this season with 15 home runs. His 42 career homers are a Metro record.“We have a great group of guys, and he just kind of completes the puzzle,” said Washington Coach Byron Schlotterback. “I think the day he decided to come back, to stay here, was the day we knew we had a shot. We got beat last year (in the substate final) by Jefferson, 2-0, and we set our goal that day that we wanted to be standing here a year from then with (a substate final win). We never wavered.“Had Chad left, we would have never wavered. But we're a lot better with Chad Christensen out there.”Christensen doesn't talk much about himself. “We've got a great group of guys that just work hard every day,” he said.But there's no question he's their leader. He's helped lead Washington to its first state tournament appearance since 2000. And he's ready to play at Principal Park.“I was actually there a couple of weeks ago to watch Josh Hamilton play,” Christensen said of the Texas Rangers slugger's injury rehab appearance in Des Moines. “That was fun. I'm psyched to go back and be able to play on that field. It's going to be awesome.”