A big turnaround year for the Montezuma baseball program now includes a conference championship. The Braves wrapped up the South Iowa Cedar League title on Wednesday night with a victory over Keota, their first conference championship in 20 years.

Montezuma coach Tyler Lown says to win 21 games and go from 8th place to first in the conference is about the kids working hard. He says they made a lot of changes in the mental and physical approach, and the players did it for the team and not themselves.

Lown says his team has excelled in a number of phases, and have found a lot of ways to win. He says they sacrifice a lot with bunts and steal bases, and have also hit home runs.

Montezuma closes out the regular season on Friday against North Mahaska and those two teams will meet again next week in a class 1A district tournament opener. He says they will do what they can to get better and keep preparing and hope to be good enough to get better and move on and will not change a whole lot at this point.

Montezuma is ranked seventh in class 1A.

By Chris Varney, KGRN, Grinnell