JASPER — It wasn’t the ending the Mt. Vernon Marauders expected.
Competing in their first baseball semistate title game in 50 years, as a Class 4A final four team, the Marauders entered Jasper’s Alvin C. Ruxer Field on Saturday afternoon with IHSAA state finals aspirations.
Unfortunately, a team built on chemistry and perseverance ran into not only a formidable southern semistate opponent in the host Jasper Wildcats but also its worst imaginable day.
After five innings, there would be no patented comeback for the Marauders, who watched their season conclude by run rule, 17-2, to unranked Jasper, which collected its 21st straight victory.
“Maybe it was a culmination of a bunch of bad things going against us today, and I’m not one to make excuses ever, but today just wasn’t our day,” Mt. Vernon head coach Brad King said.
A quick 2-0 lead by Mt. Vernon in the top of the first proved the best it would get for the Marauders (26-7), who had won 11 consecutive to earn their opportunity, just one step away from a first-ever trip to the state-title game and Victory Field in downtown Indianapolis.
While the momentum that fueled Mt. Vernon’s historic season and playoff run appeared briefly in the top half of the first, it quickly vanished in the bottom half as Jasper (30-2) took a 4-2 lead in front a near-capacity crowd.
The Wildcats, which haven’t lost a game since getting shut out, 3-0, by Columbus East at Ruxer Field on April 23, were 15-2 at home prior to the first pitch.
Their 16th home victory was initiated in the bottom of the first as the Wildcats worked a questionable strike zone to their advantage.
They reached base five times with one out in the inning and gained additional traction when Mt. Vernon starter Eli Clotfelter was pulled with one out after getting struck in the shin with a sharp comebacker on an RBI single by Ben Henke.
“The umpire squeezed us a little bit, and a lot of the pitchers were starting 2-0, 3-0, but it happens,” Mt. Vernon senior catcher Hunter Dobbins said. “It was 17-2. We didn’t put too many hits up, so regardless, we wouldn’t have won that game. We didn’t come out how we were supposed to, and it happens.”
Clotfelter (8-2) attempted to finish the inning, throwing a warm-up pitch after Henke’s line-drive hit undercut his leg and sent him to the ground, but the senior couldn’t continue.
The injury forced the Marauders to go to the bullpen earlier than anticipated. Clotfelter was relieved by fellow senior A.J. Swingle, and the left-hander induced a pair of pop ups to escape the first inning.
“He’s really tender walking on it. Whenever (Eli) puts pressure on it, it hurts,” King said. “As soon as I went out to the mound, he was like, ‘This isn’t good.'”
In the bottom of the second, the Wildcats utilized three errors, six walks and six hits to put the game out of reach, taking a 15-2 lead with an 11-run frame.
Swingle last 1.1 innings pitched as the Marauders’ pitching staff battled the patient Wildcats’ hitters and the strike zone. Swingle and Clotfelter combined for six walks issued, 10 hits surrendered and 15 runs.
“It’s a different mindset when you’re out in the middle of the mound in front of the crowd rather than down in the bullpen preparing,” King remarked on Swingle’s immediate in-game insertion. “They can tell you that you can have as many (warm-up pitches) as you want, but that kid gets out there and he will feel like he’s rushed. So, it played a little bit.”
The Marauders used four pitchers in the game after losing their two aces through the first two innings, and despite 17 runs scored against, the staff was only charged with seven earned.
The Wildcats logged 14 hits, drew eight total walks, loaded the bases seven times and struck out in three at-bats.
The Marauders committed three errors were limited to six hits total and a pair of RBI by Eli Bridenthal and Jake Stank.
In the top of the first, Swingle got the Marauders going with a one-out double before Dobbins singled to put two runners on base. Swingle scored during Stank’s at-bat, and Bridenthal drove in courtesy runner Byrce Miller with a two-out single.
The Marauders’ hits were recorded by Austin Hear, Caleb Bell, Joel Walton, Bridenthal, Swingle and Dobbins.
“I was feeling really good. We took a really good batting practice at Loogootee on our way down, and we were sharp. We were focused. We stayed loose. Nothing was different today then any game before,” King said.
“We jumped out 2-0 and we were feeling pretty good, and I’m not going to put anything on the umpire, but it seemed like we didn’t get some calls that we should have and we didn’t early on. We really had to bear down and go after a team like that, who if you have to throw strikes, they’re going to hit it. And, they did.”
The Wildcats had nine batters reach base at least once with three extra-base hits. The order’s top-six hitters were a combined 12-for-18 with 10 RBI.
Eli Hopf went 3-for-3 with a triple and a walk. Andrew Wallace was 2-for-3 with an RBI, Ross Peter went 3-for-3 with four RBI and a double. Jobe Luebbehusen was 2-for-4 with four RBI and a double.
“Again, we felt like we were throwing some strikes, and we weren’t getting the call, and then when you have to go straight down the middle, any good team, especially at this level they’re going to hit it,” King said.
A bad-hop off first base on a routine ground ball to lead off the bottom of the second marked the first of three errors in the game for Mt. Vernon, as the breaks never quite materialized for the visitors.
“Again, that’s uncharacteristic. We field the ball at 95 percent, and they had the ball hit the bag at first base and skips into outfield, where in the previous inning we hit into a double play and it just hits off the mound and kind of jumps up,” King said. “It was just the hop was against us on both.”
The game-time temperatures, long innings and insurmountable deficit led to several Marauders’ starters exiting after the third and fourth innings as King played every senior on the roster.
“We had a great season. One game doesn’t define us. I think, we’re one of the best teams (at Mt. Vernon) of all time. Plus, a lot of kids are going on to play in the future, and we lost to a great team, so we can’t be too mad,” said Dobbins, who left the game after the third inning due to heat-related fatigue. “Before the season, I never thought this would happen, but great things happen to great people.”
For the Marauders, the 2021 campaign will go down as the greatest of all time.
Mt. Vernon set a new regular-season mark for wins, a new overall single-season record for victories, won its first outright Hoosier Heritage Conference championship, first sectional title since 2011, first regional game in 49 years and first regional title since 1971.
The team’s final four appearance was the first in program history.
“We earned the right to be here. Like I told the guys, the final score does not define our season. We have been trailblazers all year, and in my opinion, this is the best Mt. Vernon team in the history of the school. No doubt about it,” King said.
“If the kids just look at this game and lets it define us as a season, then they’re missing out on a heck of a year. And, if people look at it that way, they’re missing out on a heck of a year because we played a lot of exciting baseball this year. That’s who we are. We’re winners. These kids are winners.”
And, they set a new standard moving forward after King’s first, full season at the helm due to the lost COVID-19 pandemic year in 2020.
“I looked at our dugout, and I told them embrace this because this will be us again next year. And that’s what the mindset has to be. We’re going to come out and we’re going to work hard and we are going to try to earn this spot every year to be right here, one step away from Victory Field,” King said. “Eventually, we’re going to knock down that wall, too.”
Bridenthal, a sophomore, will return in 2022 with the most pitching experience and as the Marauders’ starting shortstop. While he headed towards the team bus on Saturday, he already began to formulate a plan for next year.
“The seniors taught me so much this year, Hunter Dobbins, especially. Every day in practice, anything I needed help with, he would help me with it. He made me a lot better baseball player. Joel Walton, too. He taught me a lot. I’m grateful for all of them,” Bridenthal said.
“I just want to remember this and be here the next two years that I’m at Mt. Vernon and maybe even go to state. That’s my goal, at least. I learned a lot about leadership, and I’m going to use that in the future.”
