Four baseball players from Cedar Rapids Prairie are preparing to play a series of games on the other side of the world.

Ty Mougin, Tyler Butz, Brennan Hammer and Tyler Votroubek are members of an Iowa AAU squad that will leave Thursday for a seven-day tour of Japan.

The Iowans will participate in a cultural exchange, enjoy some sightseeing and stay with host families in Yamanashi, Japan.

Hammer said he's looking forward to traveling around the globe.

"I thought it would be a pretty cool experience. Baseball comes second to that. It's more about the trip," he said. "And what's better than playing baseball? I'm looking forward to that, too."

Mougin, Butz, Hammer and Votroubek graduated from Prairie this year after helping the Hawks win 27 games and reach the Class 4A substate finals, where they lost to Xavier in 12 innings.

Mougin and Votroubek will be teammates at Wartburg College next season. Hammer will play at Heartland (Ill.) Community College and Butz will join the Kirkwood Eagles.

The 14-man team, comprised of players from around the state, will leave Thursday from the Des Moines International Airport. They'll fly to Denver, Seattle, Tokyo and Yamanashi on their long journey to Japan that is scheduled to take approximately 18 hours.

"I'll bring an I-Pod for sure. And I'll try to fall asleep as much as I can," said Butz.

"I have some books to read for college," said Mougin. "That will help."

The trip is being arranged by the Iowa Amateur Athletic Union (AAU). Yamanashi, Japan and Iowa are "sister states," and a team from Yamanashi played a series of games in Iowa last August, including a game in Cedar Rapids that was sponsored by the Metro Sports Report.

Trip directors contacted high school coaches in Iowa and asked for nominations. Prairie Coach Matt Thede told his players about the trip and the four Hawks jumped at the opportunity.

"It's going to be fun," said Mougin. "It's going to be a good experience for all of us. We've all looked up some cultural differences and stuff like that, trying to get prepared a little bit."

"It will be cool playing in a different country against different people," said Butz. "It's something new. This is an experience of a lifetime, really."

The Iowans will leave Japan on Aug. 16 and head in the opposite direction. They'll fly from Tokyo to Newark, N.J., and then to Des Moines.

They will play anywhere from nine to 12 games.

"It will be nice," said Butz. "It will be the last time we hang out together before going off to college, so it will be real neat to spend time with those guys before we all leave."

The players have to pay for their own plane tickets, which cost approximately $1,700. They also participated in fundraising. "The only cost is the plane ticket," said Hammer. "We stay with the host families and they provide everything."

The other players on the team are Zack Fricke (Waterloo West), Austin Gehl (Cascade), Jon Greiner (Indianola), Jake Hadaway (North Polk), Michael Kinning (Johnston), Joey Lehmann (Dyersville Beckman), Dan Moeller (Indianola), Adam Noethe (Dyersville Beckman), Cody Olson (Ankeny) and Tyler Stika (Iowa City High).

The head coach is Denny Barton of Urbandale High School.