The term “small ball” has an entirely different meaning in DODDS-Europe baseball.

For the organization’s small Division II and Division III schools, simply fielding a team can be difficult. So difficult, in fact, that three Division II schools with robust overall athletic programs – AFNORTH, Alconbury, and Baumholder -- either didn’t start or didn’t finish the 2013 baseball baseball season.

All three schools managed to field very competitive softball teams last spring even as their baseball counterparts went dormant. Alconbury won the Division III European championship, while AFNORTH reached the Division II title game. Baumholder finished 5-9 on the regular season, with six of those losses coming to much-larger Division I neighbors Ramstein, Kaiserslautern and Lakenheath.

But like a brushed-back hitter dusting himself off and rising to his feet, each of the three schools is stepping back up to the plate for baseball.

With all but one weekend of the season successfully completed, it appears the Lions, Dragons and Bucs will all be present when the DODDS-Europe Division II-III tournament begins May 22.

But the road back to the diamond hasn’t been easy for any of them.

Last spring, AFNORTH folded its team midseason, forfeiting scheduled May games and skipping the European tournament. The Lions were outscored 48-8 in two losses apiece to Bitburg and Lakenheath, the only four games the team played last season. The collapse came just four years after AFNORTH won the 2009 DODDS-Europe Division III championship.

Head coach Rawn Jones said his team started the 2013 season with just nine players, an unsustainably small roster rendered entirely unplayable by an early-season disciplinary issue. In the end, Jones said, the team simply “disbanded.”

“I didn’t like how we ended,” Jones said. “You always want to finish what you start.”

This year’s 14-man team, culled from the 20 who showed up for tryouts, isn’t much deeper in terms of personnel. The roster featuring four returnees and only one athlete Jones described as a focused “baseball player” in sophomore pitcher/infielder Trent Weldon. As for the newcomers to the game, Jones simply wants them to “learn to how to compete.”

The team is living up to those basic standards. The 2014 Lions are on the cusp of achieving Jones’ stated goal of completing its schedule and advancing to the tournament, and have even notched a few wins on its way. AFNORTH tripled its season win total with a Saturday sweep of Bitburg and enters its final doubleheader Saturday against SHAPE with a 3-7 record.

“If they can learn how to play together, and if we can get a fair tournament seeding, or luck, we take our chances from there,” Jones said. “If you’ve given you best and play the game correctly, that is all that is required.”

A similar mantra is sounding at Alconbury.

The Dragons also played last in 2012, beating Baumholder 5-3 for its only regular-season win and bowing out of the postseason with two double-digit losses on the first day. But the arrival of new DODEA teacher and coach David Musselman reignited the Dragons.

“Every school I was affiliated with in the States had a baseball team,” Musselman said. “I thought, ‘Why should this school be any different?’”

The program’s reboot was complicated by the fact that Alconbury was being moved from the tiny Division III ranks to the deeper and more competitive Division II level. But Musselman said his team was undeterred despite the lingering memories of the school’s uninspiring 2012 season.

“When I talked to the boys they were pumped up for playing,” Musselman said. “There was no thought but that we would field a team.”

The Dragons have maintained 12 active players, right on the edge of a passable DODDS-Europe roster, throughout the two-month season. Eight of them, Musselman said, had no experience with organized baseball; he recalled explaining the meaning of the diamond’s white lines to some of his less seasoned recruits. Older hands like Wes Reddecliff have aided the transition, Musselman said.

Perhaps predictably, however, the team’s enthusiasm hasn’t translated to the win column. A season-opening March 29 doubleheader split with AFNORTH yielded Alconbury’s only win of the year entering the final weekend of the regular season, and the Dragons will be hard-pressed to add to that total with a season-ending trip to Division I Lakenheath looming Saturday.

Still, Musselman strives to keep morale high, even as his inexperienced boys take lumps from more-talented teams he said are intentionally seeking to “embarrass and humiliate” the Dragons. He asks his players to occupy themselves with enjoying their experience with the sport, free of the psychological burden of rebuilding Dragon baseball.

“All my boys need to be concerned about is playing the game and having fun. We as a coaching staff take that very seriously,” Musselman said. “It is not their concern for building a sustainable program. That is my responsibility.”

Like Alconbury, Baumholder baseball reanimated this spring thanks to the intervention of a willing coach.

Baumholder last played in 2012, struggling through a one-win regular season that included six losses by forfeit but faring reasonably well in the Division II/III European tournament. The Bucs finished 2-2 in the postseason - their wins came against AFNORTH and Alconbury – and suffered their second loss to eventual champion SHAPE. Still, the season failed to inspire the school to field a follow-up team in 2013.

Bucs assistant football coach Erik Majorwitz, fresh off a successful reclamation project with the school’s wrestling program, volunteered to helm a 2014 edition. Majorwitz said the student interest level was easily high enough; 24 potential players showed up for the initial meeting, leaving him a 15-player roster even after the track team siphoned off a few students. Eight members of the team are freshmen, but Majorwitz said senior captains Taylor Moore and Austin Van Doren have provided a solid foundation.

But Baumholder has followed the same path as AFNORTH and Alconbury, punctuating its feel-good story of resiliency with a slew of oppressive losses. The Bucs started their season with eight straight defeats, finally breaking the streak with a doubleheader sweep of Alconbury on May 3.

“It has been tough, but I’ve tried to keep their expectations realistic,” Majorwitz said. “All I ask is that we improve each time we take the field, and I think we’ve done that.”

As the Division II tournament nears, it’s unlikely that the Lions, Dragons or Bucs have the manpower to threaten the formidable likes of Naples and SHAPE for the European title. But at this stage, success is measured in smaller steps. All three teams are set to finish the season; all three will enter the summer with at least one win to justify their efforts. For now, that will have to do.

“It is hard for young minds to understand why it takes a year or two,” Jones said. “But the group that finally gets it is the group that will hopefully win a championship.”

broome.gregory@stripes.com

Twitter: @broomestripes

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