• Click here to see player profiles for the rest of the All-Nebraska First Team

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It's an almost brand-new crew of players — a nice blend of seniors and youngsters — that make up the 19th World-Herald All-Nebraska softball team.

Ten of the 13 players honored — eight from Class A and five from Class B — are being honored for the first time. The two repeat selections are University of Nebraska recruits — Papillion-La Vista sophomore outfielder Gina Metzler and Beatrice senior infielder Alicia Armstrong.

Lincoln Southwest's Tania Carroll also is being honored for the second time as an outfielder after she was an All-Nebraska pick in 2009.

Just more than half of the first- and second-team selections — 14 — are from Class A, with Class B landing 10 spots and Class C the other two.

Seven seniors, three juniors and three sophomores are honored on the first team, which is based on nominations by coaches and observations of World-Herald writers.

There were four solid candidates for honorary captain — pitchers Taylor Erlenbusch of Millard South and Kaylan Jablonski of Omaha Skutt, Armstrong and Lincoln Southwest infielder Liz Dike.

Erlenbusch was selected because when she was asked to do even more than she had the past two years, she simply led the Patriots to their second Class A state title.

"That's what puts her over the top," Millard South coach Steve Kerkman said. "If we didn't have Taylor, we wouldn't have had the season or success we had. Instead of being the co-No. 1, she had to be the No. 1 pitcher for us."

The Patriots (29-3) won 25 of their final 26 games and went undefeated in six postseason games. It's well-documented that Erlenbusch would be responsible for almost all of Millard South's innings because Chrissy Harris was sidelined until the final week of the season with an injury.

Erlenbusch was 23-3 with a 0.87 ERA. She had 12 shutouts, four one-hitters and a perfect game against Omaha Westside in the first round of the Class A state tournament in Hastings.

In the Class A championship game, Erlenbusch allowed just one earned run in the Patriots' 6-2 victory over Southwest.

Kerkman said he realized just how much this season meant to Erlenbusch when she took a no-hitter into the seventh inning of a 1-0 victory Sept. 22 over Papillion-La Vista South. She had 15 strikeouts to lead the Patriots in avenging one of their three losses.

"You kind of got the feeling at that point that if she can persevere, we've really got a good shot (of winning state)," Kerkman said.

Erlenbusch battled back problems and migraine headaches through her high school career. Kerkman said she never used those ailments as an excuse.

"The ability for her to play well was never a question," Kerkman said. "You just never knew when her back would hurt or a migraine would flare up. Even when they did, you could never tell."

As the Patriots' clean-up hitter, Erlenbusch also did plenty to help her pitching performances. She hit .410 with an on-base percentage of .438, but teams still occasionally would intentionally walk catcher Blake Ringle to get to her.

"There would be a few teams not pitch to Blake in the three-hole," Kerkman said. "She took that personally."

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