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June 13, 2009

Vikings looking for state berth

West Vigo baseball team plays in semistate today

By Andy Amey

TERRE HAUTE — West Vigo’s postseason high school baseball history with Jasper — both the team and the city — has been a frustrating one the past few years.

In the 2000 season, two games after knocking off top-ranked Indianapolis Cathedral, the Vikings lost 4-3 to the Wildcats in the semifinal round of the state finals when Jasper — which went on to win the state — scored three times with two outs in the bottom of the sixth inning.

In 2003, the Vikings won their opening game of the Jasper Semistate only to lose 8-4 to the host team in the championship game.

And in 2004 and 2008, West Vigo lost close semistate games at Jasper to eventual state champions New Palestine and Crawfordsville, respectively.

So last Saturday, when the Vikings won the Class 3A Southridge Regional by routing Jasper 11-0 — not in the Wildcats’ park, but at least in their county — could a monkey have been lifted off their backs?

“Probably for me there was,” coach Steve DeGroote admitted this week, “but I don’t know for [the Vikings].”

His players may be better historians than he realizes, however.

“We couldn’t have more confidence than we do right now,” said catcher Jeremy Lucas, who admitted relief to having Jasper in the past.

“Beating them by 10 runs was a big accomplishment,” third baseman Cameron Fagg agreed. “But we’re staying humble still. We’ve got two more games to win.”

West Vigo’s first of those two potential games is this afternoon at the Avon Semistate, where the 27-1 Vikings face 23-7 Brebeuf in the second of two games. Shakamak plays Vincennes Rivet in a 1 p.m. Class A tournament game, so the West Vigo contest should begin sometime around 3:30.

“Brebeuf is a good team and so are we,” said Jordan Pearson, who could be West Vigo’s lone pitcher the rest of the season. “Give us a hard week of practice and we’ll be ready to play.”

“We’ve got to keep our bats going like we did in the semistate,” said Lucas. “We know Jordan will do his job as usual, and we know our defense will do its job.”

The Vikings know at least one member of Brebeuf’s Braves. A summer team called the Pony Express has included Fagg, Lucas and Pearson and also Brebeuf center fielder Kevin Sims; Sims and Fagg will be teammates in the fall at Wright State.

“We’ve played with [Sims] the past few summers,” Fagg said. “There’s been talk that we’d see each other at the semistate.”

West Vigo finished the season ranked third in the state. Top-ranked Andrean remains in the tournament, playing Delta today in the northern Class 3A semistate, and Brebeuf defeated second-ranked Crawfordsville last week in regional play. But, as is already documented, the Vikings are no strangers to big-time foes in postseason play.

“After last year’s heartbreaker [when West Vigo lost a close game to Crawfordsville, which recorded a one-sided championship-game victory] I think we had the realization that we were pretty tough,” DeGroote said. “Now all the work these kids have done has kind of come together.”

The veteran coach said he loves the passion and enthusiasm his current team plays with.

“They pull for each other,” he said. “Seniors are pulling for freshmen … if I show confidence in [a younger player] it doesn’t mean much, but when the older players show confidence in the younger players it’s something.”

Pearson, like Lucas an Indiana State recruit, enters today’s game with a 13-1 record and a 1.81 earned run average — not to mention a .448 batting average, a school-record 50 runs and 36 stolen bases that’s two off the school record set several years ago by Sean Lowe.

Lucas leads the team with a .495 batting average, a .577 on-base percentage and a .903 slugging percentage. He’s three behind Casey DeGroote’s school record for hits in a season, one behind John Cox’s school record for doubles in a season and also close to the career record for doubles.

Fagg is batting .429. He’s tied with Lucas for runs produced this year, and is three behind Pearson in runs scored — matching the previous school record of 47 himself. And the rest of the lineup includes Tyler Wampler (.402), Aaron Welch (.391, 6 homers, 38 RBIs), Brodey McCalister (.309), Scott West (.229), Cody Thornton (.358) and Dylan Aff (.364). The team has also set a school record for most triples, and its team batting average of .384 would also be a record if it can be maintained.

“Everything is working for us,” Lucas concluded. “We think we’re the team to beat if we’re at our best.”

“It’s good to be back in the semistate,” Pearson said. “We’re just looking forward to playing whoever we can.”

“Brebeuf is a good ballclub, or they wouldn’t be where they’re at,” DeGroote said, “and they beat the defending champion. But my only concern is whether we are playing our best ball.”



Indiana high school

baseball semistates

Semistates

Today

At Kokomo

Class A — Fort Wayne Canterbury (14-9) vs. Lafayette Central Catholic (26-4), 11 a.m.

Class 3A — Andrean (31-2) vs. Delta (17-10), to follow.

At South Bend (Coveleski Stadium)

Class 2A — Hammond Bishop Noll (24-8) vs. Cass (19-8), Noon.

Class 4A — Crown Point (30-2) vs. Fort Wayne Snider (23-3), to follow.

At Avon

Class A — Shakamak (16-8) vs. Vincennes Rivet (13-8), 1 p.m.

Class 3A — Brebeuf (23-7) vs. West Vigo (27-1), to follow.

At Jasper

Class 2A — Heritage Christian (23-6) vs. Evansville Mater Dei (20-12), 1 p.m.

Class 4A — Westfield (23-5) vs. Castle (26-4), to follow.

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