FORTVILLE — Legends are not born, they are made. For the semistate-bound Mt. Vernon baseball team, no words ring truer.
From comeback instincts to superstitious team bus rituals, the 2021 Class 4A Marauders are rewriting history and establishing their legacy at every turn.
And, they’re doing it with flair.
A program without a regional championship since 1971 — until now — the Marauders continue to live up to their mantra of “Trailblazers.”
In a matter of 30 days, the Mt. Vernon baseball team has not only set a single-season record for wins (26), its captured its first sectional title since 2011, a first outright Hoosier Heritage Conference crown and finally put to rest a five-decade long regional championship drought.
What’s their secret?
“I’ve been in this 26 years, and I’ve never seen a more loose group, a more focused group, and it seems like an oxymoron, but they are. They’re as loose as can be. If I feel like I’m tight, a couple of them will say something, and it’s like, ‘Oh well, it’s just baseball,’” Mt. Vernon baseball coach Brad King said.
“They say, ‘We’re going to be loose. We’re just going to play the game.’ But when it’s time to work, they work. They put in the time, and they put in the reps. It’s just a special group. One like I’ve never been around before in my life.”
Their 11-game winning streak speaks of their on-field efficiency, but their character — or cast of characters — reveals the team’s heart, starting from the top.
While traditional, in a baseball sense, the Marauders are superstitious, too, including coach King, who is quick to point out how the team bus must depart in a specific direction before heading out on road games.
“When the bus comes in, it has to pull in and it’s facing the entrance of the athletic complex,” King said. “It’s sort of facing towards our diamond.”
Only once has there been a slight deviation during the sectional tournament, and thankfully, King said, it had zero impact.
On the way to Mt. Vernon High School before games and practices, King, who lives in New Castle, commutes with assistant coaches Tony Gregory and Wayne Graham. The New Castle trio ride together and drive the exact same way. No exceptions.
The same can be said for the Marauders’ post-game antics.
On the receiving end of, now, three celebratory water-cooler dousings this season, King can attest to his players’ attention to detail when it comes to putting his body into jovial hypothermia.
“They got me with the conference championship, so then they thought, well, every time we win a championship, they have to do it. They got me with the sectional and they got me at regional,” King laughed. “That (regional) one was the coldest. That trainer, right here, knows how to put ice in a bucket.”
Why stop there, the Marauders revealed after they upset Class 4A No. 7 Cathedral, 6-3, to win the Plainfield Regional 3 title last weekend?
“We had guys with water bottles just dousing themselves in the dugout. We have a bunch of crazy guys, and they’re just loose,” King said.
While sophomore standout Eli Bridenthal, who his teammates call “Showtime,” has risen to the occasion by stealing home plate three times, including in the regional final and a walk-off to win the HHC title, 5-4, over Yorktown on May 19, the Marauders’ pulse truly flows through No. 8.
“The milkman!,” Mt. Vernon senior A.J. Swingle remarked on junior reserve Bryce Miller. “I don’t even know how it started, but I know when he’s on the field, the energy is up. If the energy is up and something is going on in his head, you can tell. When he’s here, the team is usually going crazy. He’s fun to have in the dugout, especially at the end of the game, not champagne showers but milk showers, I guess?”
The team’s official “hype” man, Miller wore his energetic enthusiasm on his sleeve, jersey, head, pants and cleats following the Regional 3 title game.
As coach King felt the icy sting, Miller poured a gallon of milk over his head to commemorate the Marauders’ historic regional championship win.
“He was going to the grocery store one day, and he got milk, and it’s been history from there,” Mt. Vernon senior Jake Stank explained. “He has a milkman shirt that (Brandon) Ecker, our athletic director, and his wife made him. It just became a thing. I don’t know how? He’s the milkman!”
A courtesy runner for the Marauders, Miller has contributed 30 runs scored in 29 games this season with seven stolen bases, but his ability to spark his teammates is invaluable.
“Maybe he doesn’t play that much, but that’s obviously a huge role to have on the team,” Swingle said. “The energy, it’s good to have that.”
Goals are just as important for the Marauders, who founded added motivation during the regional tournament from their coach, who made a rather permanent promise, if they won the title.
“Coach says he’s getting a tattoo. He said he’d do it, if we won the regional, so we’ll see if he keeps his word about it,” Mt. Vernon senior Hunter Dobbins said. “I don’t think he really expected it. I know he obviously thought we were going to win regional, but a tattoo, that’s big.”
The team will get the final say on what it will be, though some ideas are floating around as the Marauders’ postseason journey continues today at Jasper’s Alvin C. Ruxer Baseball Field at 4 p.m.
“He’s thinking something with everyone’s initials from their name and making some kind of words with it, but I don’t know if there are enough vowels or not,” Swingle said. “He might have to pull from middle names. He’s going to make it something meaningful, though. It will be something special.”
