605 Sports 

MITCHELL — The South Dakota Amateur Baseball Association honored Steve Ellsworth of Miller with the Mark Mehlhaf Comeback Player of the year award prior to the start of the Winner-South Central game Sunday afternoon.

Ellsworth, who started coaching amateur baseball in Winner in 2001 before moving to Miller. There he helped lead the Miller/Wessington Shockers/Outlaws to nine state tournament appearances including a trip the semifinals in 2009.

Last summer, Ellsworth battled health issues, which eventually led to the amputation of his leg below the knee.

Last month he was fitted with a prosthetic leg and returned to the dugout.

Over the course of the past 20 years Ellsworth has been involved in amateur baseball, Ellsworth has helped numerous players when in need. In 2014 helped lead fundraising efforts for players of the Wessington Springs Owls who lost their homes in a tornado that struck the town.

The Mark Mehlhaf award is annually presented at the state amateur baseball tournament by the Freeman Athletic Club. Mehlhaf played amateur baseball in freeman and coached basketball at Bridgewater and at Elk Point High schools. In 1981 he lost his battle to cancer.