Derek J. Lippincott/DN Nebraska third baseman Alex Gordon throws out a runner while playing summer baseball with the Beatrice Bruins. Huskers Jake Mullinax (behind), Tim Schoeninger and Quinton Robertson also play in the summer league.

Nestled in a grove of trees and accessed only by a narrow, washboard gravel path, it hardly seems the place where you could see baseball's blossoming college stars of tomorrow.

But for more than 30 summers, players from across the country have found their way to the southeast Nebraska community, ready to hone their skills through the sweltering summer months.

Bob Steinkamp has seen them all come through Beatrice. Coaching the Beatrice Bruins semi-pro team for every year of its existence, Steinkamp is entrusted by many Division I coaches to develop promising young stars into impact players at the highest college level.

"I've been doing this for 34 years," Steinkamp said. "I know most of the coaches in the country, and we have a pretty good working relationship."

Good enough for Texas Coach Augie Garrido, fresh off the 2002 national title, to send All-American second baseman Tim Moss and College World Series MVP Huston Street to Beatrice for a summer in the MINK League, which houses teams in Minnesota, Iowa, Nebraska and Kansas.

Twelve former Bruins have reached the major leagues and are joined by scores still in the minors.

Eleven Division I players are currently found on Steinkamp's roster, including a slew of Huskers and NU recruits.

Husker third-baseman Alex Gordon leads the team in home runs and RBIs, while NU second baseman Jake Mullinax is among the squad's leading hitters. Huskers Quinton Robertson and Tim Schoeninger are also in the Bruins' starting pitching rotation.

It's a common practice for most college players to end up in summer leagues across the country, where the rosters are smaller and the chance to play everyday looms large.

"Playing every day is great," said Colin Shockey, who is expected to contend for Nebraska's starting center field spot in 2004 after transferring from Iowa Western Community College. "We face good pitching in the MINK League, and we get a lot of at-bats."

Most Bruin players find themselves in Beatrice on tips from coaches. Shockey said NU pitching coach Rob Childress found a place for him after calling Steinkamp.

The situation is far different than when the Bruins first hit the field more than 30 years ago. Steinkamp said the team started with players from the community, but he soon got tired of absences and excuses. Recruiting college players became a more dependable way to get able bodies.

"Now, we get calls as early as September and October seeing if we can take guys," Steinkamp said. "We pretty much know who we'll have before the first pitch is thrown."

Competition is getting better, too. The Bruins went 6-4 on a recent road trip to Alaska, the first Beatrice team in more than 20 years to finish above-.500, Steinkamp said.

On this night, Beatrice knocked off the Clarinda (Iowa) A's 6-5 in 10 innings. As Gordon crossed the plate with the deciding run, players high-fived to cheers and whistles from the sparse, but supportive crowd, made up mostly of the host families who feed and board Bruin players until the season ends in late-July.

That's just an added benefit of the Beatrice Bruin summer baseball campaign.