Top athletes in most high school sports are now more commonly identified, scouted and publicized earlier in their careers.

But occasionally, stars still have an old-fashioned high school career, a slow build though their years as underclassmen with everything coming together for a triumphant senior season. Sunrise Mountain’s Troy Balko is having one of those seasons.

As a sophomore, Balko was a bench player. As a junior, he became a solid member of the batting order and an extra arm in the bullpen.

This season, he has been one of the most dominant pitchers in the state — 7-0 with an 0.31 ERA with 62 strikeouts in 45 1/3 inning — and the Mustangs’ best batter, hitting .442, 33 RBI, four home runs and a .500 on-base percentage.

"He committed 100 percent in the offseason to building his arm strength and becoming a bigger, faster, stronger athlete and he did," Sunrise Mountain coach Eric Gardner said. "That’s the content of his character. Troy Balko has an amazing foundation, from his family support and his faith background. He’s one pf the most humble, genuine leaders I’ve been around in my program’s history."

Balko started playing at young age and played club baseball.

He attended Deer Valley schools until high school but open enrolled at Sunrise Mountain for academic as well as athletic reasons.

"When I first got here, I really liked the atmosphere and the classes, it was a change with the block scheduling. Me and two of my friends came over here from the Deer Valley district and we really enjoyed it," Balko said.

Called up during his sophomore year, mostly as a pinch hitter, Balko joined a 2016 team that moved up to the big school division for one year.

While he did not play much, he watched lots of top level high school baseball. And he realized he needed to put in more work to keep pace.

"It made me realize this was something I wanted to do. It was getting real and I needed to catch up," Balko said.

As a junior Balko hit .405 with 12 RBI and a .494 on base percentage. The Mustangs were back among schools their size in 4A.

But with seniors Clay Schwaner, Timmy Mendez, Aaron Broderick, Dylan Sund and Grant Dowty, there was no room on the mound.

"Last year I hardly pitched at all. We had a ton of senior pitchers and I think I threw six innings," Balko said.

Actually, according to the 2017 Mustangs’ statistics on MaxPreps, he pitched 3 2/3 innings, only furthering his point.

Balko said during that season he worked on flat grounds played long toss. Then he started throwing a lot in the summer and his recruiting took off. He committed to pitch for UNLV in the fall based on his summer performance.

"I was going into this season really confident and still am," Balko said. "I feel like my offseason prepared me for the role I’m in right now."

It was apparent very early, during the always anticipated Liberty game. Balko said his adrenaline was through the roof.

He took a perfect game into the fifth inning of a 10-0 rout. That started a streak of 29 straight inning that peaked with an 8-0 shutout of Mesa Red Mountain — now ranked No. 4 in 6A — in the Boras Classic.

"The 29 innings was cool. But I think the Red Mountain game in the Boras Classic was a big step up for me. That was a good test because, obviously, they’re a really good team," Balko said.

He’s the latest in a long line of late bloomers in the Sunrise Mountain program. That includes Joel Kuhnel in 2013, Kyler Riordan in 2017 and Schwaner last year. All had slow, steady development as pitchers.

"Last summer, we knew he was a projectable guy for us. He threw in intersquad games and bullpens and our pitching coach was constantly talking about the ability this guy was going to have," Gardner said. "We just weren’t able to use him because of the staff we had. I think there’s a lot to be said about physical growth he had over the summer, and the overall strength improvement."

He, and the Mustangs’ other six seniors, had extra offseason motivation. Sunrise Mountain won 12 straight regular season games heading into the playoffs.

But an error-filled inning dashed those hopes and Tempe Marcos de Niza upset the Mustangs 7-5 in the quarterfinals of the single-elimination tournament.

"We’re really motivated to get there," Balko said. "It took a big toll on our seniors and whoever played last year. It’s lighting a fire under us." Balko said.

Gardner said his off-season work also translated at the plate.

"He doesn’t sit in the box and people are going, ‘Wow, look at this guy.’ He just does the simple things, singles, doubles. He doesn’t strike you as a guy you’d fear," Gardner said. "He kind of goes about his business the same way on the mound. One of the biggest compliments I continue to get are from the umpires, who tell me after games that this is one of the best guys we’ve seen all year, with his composure and how he handles the game."

Balko still projects as a pitcher and Gardner said he is attracting the attention of pro scouts thanks to his command of his off speed pitches.

But unless he jumps up draft boards as fast as he rose among the list of top players in Arizona this spring, Balko will head to UNLV.

Sunrise Mountain's Troy Balko (#12) throws a pitch against Liberty on March 1 at Sunrise Mountain High School in Peoria. [Jacob Stanek/West Valley Preps][/caption]