Phone:
317-846-6601 Fax: 317-575-4244 Website: www.ihsaa.org
Blake Ress,
Commissioner
____________________________________________________________________________________________
June
18, 2005
THIRD
TIME THE CHARM FOR BROWNSBURG
After
placing second each of the past two seasons, Brownsburg finally cashed in
posting a 6-4 victory over Evansville North in the Class 4A state championship
game at Loeb Stadium in
The
top-ranked Bulldogs of coach Pat O’Neil completed a
perfect 35-0 campaign and became just the second baseball state champion to
accomplish that feat. The last was the 1978 Evansville Memorial team that
finished 30-0.
Brownsburg
scored three times in the bottom of the second inning to take a 3-1 lead.
Senior second baseman Cory Dragstrem’s triple to left
center brought home Nick Shipley and Sean Veza, who
had singled and doubled to get on board, respectively. The next batter, Austin Nickol, then hit into a fielder’s choice for the second out
of the inning scoring Dragstrem.
The
Bulldogs added single runs in each of the fourth, fifth and sixth innings to
take a 6-2 lead into the seventh.
The Huskies
didn’t go quietly in the top of the seventh, however, as Evansville North put
two runs on the board and had bases loaded with one out before Brownsburg
turned a double play to end the game.
Veza led
Brownsburg going 3-for-3 scoring three times including his ninth home run of
the season – a shot over the left field wall in the fourth inning. T.J. Baumet also went 2-for-3 with a score for Brownsburg.
Evansville
North took a 1-0 lead in the second inning on Keith Mercer’s double to right
that scored Drew Grimm. Grimm had doubled to center to lead off. Those were two
of a 4A game record four doubles by North in the game. The Huskies added
another run in the fifth inning when Keith Mercer scored from third on a
throwing error by the catcher.
Lance Lynn
went the distance for Brownsburg striking out 12 batters and finishing 16-0 for
the year on the mound.
Dan Sparrow
coached Evansville North (24-7) to the runner-up finish, its
second in four years.
Drew Grimm Named
Winner of L.V. Phillips Mental Attitude Award
Evansville
North senior first baseman Drew Grimm in the 2005 winner of the L. V. Phillips
Mental Attitude Award for Class 4A as selected by the IHSAA executive
committee.
Grimm was
valedictorian of his senior class of 286, earning an Academic Honors Diploma
with a perfect 4.0 grade point average.
He is a National Honor Society student who earned his citizenship rating
each semester. Grimm was active in
student council, class council, SADD, and Art Club.
“Drew is an
intelligent, mature, hard-working student athlete,” says Evansville North
principal Brenda Weber. “He sets high
expectations for himself in all that he does.
My respect for Drew’s athletic skills in baseball, his leadership
skills, academic talent, and hard work ethic, is equaled by my regard for his
personal strengths. In an urban school
setting, he has the ability to pull very diverse groups together to work for a
common goal.”
On the
baseball field, Grimm led the Huskies to their second appearance in the state
championship game in four years. The
first-team All-Southern Indiana Athletic Conference selection batted .474 this
season with team highs of 35 runs, 37 RBI, and seven homers. The versatile Grimm also played tennis for
four years, he was a volunteer with Special Olympics basketball for two years,
and he was a volunteer for Tri-State Food Bank for three years.
Grimm
became the second Evansville North player to win the award, joining 2002
recipient Kyle Smith.
The son of
Dan and Lisa Grimm, Drew will attend
Indiana
Farm Bureau Insurance, the corporate partner of the IHSAA, presented a $1,000
scholarship to