Turning Back the Clock: Marauders chasing history at baseball regional

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Mt. Vernon players celebrate their Class 4A Sectional 9 tournament championship victory after defeating Pendleton Heights, 8-0, on Monday, May 31, 2021. ( Tom Russo | Daily Reporter)

FORTVILLE — The last time Mt. Vernon High School won a baseball regional championship, not a single player on the current roster was born.

Potentially, their parents weren’t either.

Marauders head coach Brad King jokingly admits he was 8 months old way back in June of 1971 when Mt. Vernon captured the Southport Regional title en route to an elite eight appearance at the Bloomington Semistate.

To put the long-standing drought into context, a postage stamp cost 8 cents the last time Mt. Vernon hoisted its lone regional championship trophy.

The Flintstones based Fruity Pebbles breakfast cereal was first released that same year, and the original Starbucks opened its doors for business in Seattle’s historic Pike Place Market, along with Taco Bell in Downey, California.

Nebraska won the NCAA football national title. The Baltimore, not quite yet Indianapolis, Colts were Super Bowl V champions, and Roberto Clemente and the Pittsburgh Pirates beat the Baltimore Orioles in seven games to win the World Series.

Former U.S. President Richard Nixon was Time magazine’s Man of the Year. Barry Manilow wrote the State Farm jingle, “Like a good neighbor, State Farm is there,” while Ferdinand Lewis Alcindor Jr. changed his name to Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. Jerry Springer also began his four-year term as mayor of Cincinnati.

Times sure have changed.

“It has been a real long time. I did a little research today, and we’ve won seven sectional championships, and five times we’ve lost in the first game of regional,” King said. “So there’s only been three times where our program has won a regional game. The ‘71 and ‘72 teams, they both won.”

In 1971, the Marauders had 14 regular-season victories before winning six straight during the IHSAA’s fifth of now 54 state tournament series.

The ‘71 team beat New Palestine, 6-4, Pendleton Heights, 2-1, and Eastern Hancock, 12-0, to seize the Greenfield-Central Sectional that spring.

At the Southport Regional, the Marauders knocked off the host Cardinals, 3-1, and beat Warren Central, 13-3, for the title before outlasting Shakamak (Jasonville) during the Bloomington Semistate semifinals, 14-9, in eight innings.

Their run ended in a 1-0 loss to Columbus in the semistate finals, but in 1972, the Marauders were at it again, claiming the Greenfield-Central Sectional by eliminating Eastern Hancock, 6-2, and the host Cougars, 11-1 in five innings, for the title.

Mt. Vernon beat Warren Central in the Southport Regional semifinals, 5-2, but then the Cardinals got their revenge and halted the Marauders, 4-3, in the finals.

Since, the Marauders haven’t been as fortunate, losing five regional games in five tries in 1975, 1984, 1992, 1995 and 2011 (Class 3A).

“In the last 50 years, we’ve only won three regional games, not just regional titles. It’s a long time,” King said. “Myself and (assistant) coach (Wayne) Graham, we’re the only two on the coaching state who were even around at that time. It’s amazing. It really is.”

Already setting a new regular-season wins record at 22, which bested the 1991 squad’s 21, the present-day Class 4A Marauders (24-6) also secured the program’s first outright Hoosier Heritage Conference championship this season after sharing their only other title in 2009.

Their current nine-game winning streak led to the program’s first sectional championship in 10 years and the team’s fourth IHSBCA’s All-Star selection in senior standout Hunter Dobbins, who joined Chad Kleine (1991), Troy Montgomery (2013) and Zach Spears (2015).

Coach King has coined his 2021 Marauders baseball team trailblazers, and despite the magnitude of the opportunity ahead this Saturday at the Plainfield Regional, they’re not ready to quit.

“We’ve been loose the last couple of weeks, and that’s with some big games. You’d think, if they were going to get tight, that’s when it would have happened, but when we had the conference championship on the line (with Greenfield-Central only a game back), they stayed loose. We get rolling into sectional, and they stayed loose, again,” King said. “And, right now, we’ve had really good practices.”

Nothing is fazing the Marauders, and for good reason. The core group has established chemistry by playing together since junior high, while their approach to the game is simplistic.

“We just go out and say, ‘Let’s play ball and don’t give the other team anything. Don’t force anything. Don’t get greedy. Just go play,’ and that’s kind of been our mantra all year,” King said. “We haven’t really been concerned about who we’re playing. Our biggest opponent is us.”

At the Plainfield Regional, the Marauders opponent, on paper, is Franklin Central (9-19) at 11 a.m., who beat New Palestine on Monday night, 10-6, to win its ninth sectional championship overall and second in four years.

The Marauders upended the Flashes, 10-3, at home on April 5, but neither team revealed much.

“They didn’t see our arms, and we didn’t see theirs. They have two pretty good pitchers,” King said. “They threw their No. 2 (Sam Mettert), started him in the sectional championship, but I believe we’ll see (Phil) Pritchett, and he’s a lefty. My understanding is he has a pretty good fastball. He has some good arm-side run with it and a pretty good curveball, so he’s going to be a challenge for us. He beat Fishers and he’s had some other nice outings.”

Mettert, a senior, is committed to Wabash Valley JC, while senior infielder Cyrus Robinson is a Kentucky Wesleyan recruit.

The Flashes opened the 2021 season 0-9 before winning four of their last five, including a 4-3 victory in eight innings over favored Roncalli during the Franklin Central Sectional semifinals.

“That’s the thing about tournament time. You get on a roll, and I know it’s cliché, but the records really don’t matter. If you get on a roll, and you start pitching it well, and you’re playing solid defense, all you have to do is scratch a run or two across the board and you’re going to end up with the win,” King said.

“That’s what they did against Roncalli, and they came out and hit a lot better and put the ball in play against New Pal, so I’m sure their confidence level is up.”

The same can be said for the Marauders, who turned their second shutout loss this season — an 8-0 setback against Greenfield-Central on May 11 — into an 85-28 margin of victory the last nine games.

The Marauders have scored six or more runs in 23 games this year, including in 20 wins. They are averaging 8.83 runs per contest, and they’re doing it with seven players hitting .286 or better.

Dobbins, a Ball State recruit, leads the lineup with a .577 batting average (45-for-78), 10 home runs, 12 doubles and 39 RBI. Senior Jake Stank, an Anderson University commit, is hitting .309 with 27 RBI, and junior Landon Clark, an Oakland recruit, has a .289 average with three triples, six doubles and 16 stolen bases.

Senior Joel Walton carries a .495 batting average with 13 doubles, four home runs and 35 RBI. Sophomore Eli Bridenthal is third-best on the team with a .382 average, 11 RBI and 10 stolen bases. Nate Weaver, a senior, is hitting .286 with 12 RBI.

“We just go out, keep plugging away at the plate, having a good approach, knowing that if one or two guys aren’t hitting, these other five guys will,” King said. “It’s been good. They’ve all kept a level head, stay loose and they know what the prize is and that’s what they’re shooting for.”

They didn’t allow a single run during the Pendleton Heights Sectional, defeating Muncie Central, 19-0 in five innings, and the host Arabians, 8-0, behind a complete-game, one-hitter by senior A.J. Swingle, who is 8-0 on the season with 74 strikeouts in 56.1 innings pitched.

Senior Eli Clotfelter, a Volunteer State recruit, is the team’s second ace at 7-1 with 69 strikeouts in 44.0 innings. The Marauders pitching staff sports a 3.59 ERA with a .215 batting average against.

Mt. Vernon will need both arms to make a run at the regional title with 4A No. 7 Cathedral (23-5) the favorite in the other semifinal game against Terre Haute North Vigo (12-7) at 1 p.m. The championship game is set for 8 p.m.

The Fighting Irish are captained by senior Chris Gallagher, a right-handed pitcher, who is committed to Wright State, and senior outfielder Camden Jordan, a speedy Louisville recruit.

“They may be the stepping stone we have to get through as well,” King remarked on Cathedral. “But then again, Terre Haute North, they’re pretty good as well.”

First, the Marauders need to end one drought before facing the next, namely one that’s spanned 49 years.

“I haven’t told them the last five times we’ve been to regional, we’ve lost that first game. That will be something that will be in the discussion (today) prepping to go into Saturday, just to let them know, there again, here’s another trail to be blazed,” King said. “Then before we play that night, if we’re fortunate enough to win, the next one is 1971. If those guys want to be the best Mt. Vernon team there is, at least on paper, you have to at least get to that one, right?”