Fall Baseball Season Ends

Centerville -- The Indian Hills baseball team wrapped up its fall workouts with three different events, concluding what coach Cam Walker said was a productive and exciting fall season.

The annual Golden Falcons World Series was staged with assistant coaches Brett Monaghan and Brandon Crisp drafting teams under the watchful eyes of coach Walker.  The series was won in five games by Team Monaghan. 

Coach Monaghan said, “I was happy to see the players compete like they did.  Win or lose, it is great for our guys to end the fall in a competitive manner; we really saw an elite level of play during the series which was exactly what we were hoping for as a staff.”

A three-team double elimination tournament was then set up with the teams battling for bragging rights for the winter workout months.  The Grey team was the victor after some close games and come-from-behind heroics in the championship game. 

Walker commented, “We want our players to experience and be prepared for whatever they may have to do on the road to the World Series in the spring.  This was a great way to expose them to not only playing in a competitive environment, but it allowed them to get a feel of what it is like to be involved in a tournament setting.”

The fall campaign ended with a day where the coaching staff ran the entire squad through a pro-style evaluation.  The players ran a 60-yard dash, threw from their position to record arm strength and all pitchers threw live to hitters with both videotaped for evaluation at a later date.   This gave the coaching staff an opportunity to see how far each player’s tools had improved during the intensive fall development program.  

One of the most exciting things to watch develop during the fall season, according to Walker, was the overall team speed.  Three times during the fall, the players were tested in the 60-yard run.  In August, after the initial test, ten Falcons ran the 60 in under 7.0 seconds.  The second time, in September at the Indian Hills Scout Day where college and pro scouts timed the players, there were 16 players who ran under 7.0.  At the fall Evaluation Day, after the team had been on the “Empire Sports Performance” strength and sprinting program for 75 days, the Falcons had 20 players run a 6.9 or better in the 60, with four players running a 6.4 or lower. 

Walker, a 2012 JUCO Hall of Fame inductee, was amazed at the results he observed over the course of the fall.  “After 26 years of doing this, I have had one player on all my teams who ran a 6.4 or better.  I am in awe that this year we can field a team that can potentially have four players running a 6.4 or better and a whole lineup that runs 6.8 or better!”  

“I am proud of the time and effort the players and coaches have put in this fall and how that is transferring to the field.  I’m excited for the 2013 spring season to start in mid-February.”

The Falcons return three All-Region performers from 2012 – outfielder Adam Deneke, first baseman Taylor Ostrich and pitcher Jake Stalzer.  Ostrich signed a letter-of-intent with Old Dominion University in November and Stalzer signed with Elon University.

Expectations are high as the Falcons head into their winter workouts. The level of talent coupled with a hard-working group of players has the coaches and players believing Indian Hills baseball is headed for a very successful 2013.