Crull sees maturity, speed as assets for Centerville Bulldogs

By STEVE KRAH

http://www.IndianaRBI.com

A number of factors have combined to get Centerville (Ind.) Senior High School baseball off to a strong start in 2021.

One of them is time.

“I think it’s maturity,” says Bulldogs head coach Tracey Crull as his team took 13-2 mark into its May 4 home game against Union City. “We started five freshmen and a sophomore two years ago and we took our lumps.

“Then we took a year off for COVID, but the boys kept playing travel ball.”

Centerville players also added muscle and athleticism.

“We’ve got amazing weight training program led by our football coach Kyle Padgett,” says Crull. “These boys have bought into it and become bigger and stronger.

“Our overall team speed is a strength.”

With that asset, the Class 2A No. 5-ranked Bulldogs often turn singles and walks into doubles and doubles become triples.

“We put pressure on other teams,” says Crull. “These kids hit the ball really well and we have some really good arms. We’ve got six kids who throw 82 (mph) plus. That’s a luxury at the high school level.”

Centerville owns a team batting average around .380 with a combined earned run average near 2.00.

“Those two combinations are pretty lethal,” says Crull, who has been the Bulldogs head coach since 2013 after 12 seasons as an assistant to Mike Baumer. “Coach B was very even-keeled. He never got bent out of shape. 

“We kept everybody calm in difficult situations.”

Senior Cameron Newman has committed to continue his academic and baseball careers at NCAA Division III Elmhurst (Ill.) University.

A 1988 Centerville graduate, Crull played left field for Bill Richardson.

“He was absolutely no-nonsense,” says Crull. “He would say, ‘play the game’ (the way it’s supposed to be played).

“I say that to the boys a lot — just play the game.”

Assisting Tracey Crull this spring are brother Scott Crull plus Jason Searcy, Blake Babcock, Jeremy Blake, Steve Frye, Logan Moistner, Jason Martintoni.

Scott Crull played for Indiana High School Baseball Coaches Association Hall of Famer Lloyd Michael at Hagerstown, where he graduated in 1995 and Tracey watched the Tigers play.

Searcy, Babcock, Blake and Moistner are all former Centerville players — the first three for Richardson and the last for Crull. Frye is a 1979 graduate of Frankfort High School in West Virginia. Martintoni played for a University of Indianapolis team that placed third at the NCAA Division II national tournament.

Born in Richmond, Ind., Tracey Crull grew up in Centerville, attended Indiana University-Bloomington and Indiana University East (Richmond) and earned a masters degree at Ball State University. He began teaching at Centerville 20 years ago. He is a business educator for the junior high and high school.

Located in Wayne County, Centerville (enrollment around 520) is a member of the Tri-Eastern Conference (with Cambridge City Lincoln, Hagerstown, Knightstown, Northeastern, Tri, Union City, Union County and Winchester Community). Each team plays each other one time.

The Bulldogs are part of an IHSAA Class 2A sectional grouping with Hagerstown, Northeastern, Shenandoah and Union County. Centerville is a 2021 sectional host. The Bulldogs have won seven sectional titles— the last in 2011.

In 2021, there are 25 players for varsity and junior varsity games.

Centerville plays on a lighted on-campus diamond that received a brick and betting backstop and a 10-inning LED scoreboard a few years back.

Pre-COVID, the Bulldogs had a team in the East Central Indiana Junior High Baseball League ran by Wapahani’s Brian and Jason Dudley.

Also feeding the CSHS program are the Centerville Youth League (T-ball through seventh grade). All current varsity players are involved with travel ball.

Centerville (Ind.) Senior High School head baseball coach Tracey Crull. (DAJO Photo)

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Alum Hale takes over reins of Hagerstown Tigers

By STEVE KRAH

http://www.IndianaRBI.com

Hagerstown (Ind.) High School has enjoyed plenty of diamond success over the years, particularly in the past 15.

Since 2006, the Tigers have earned six sectional title and one regional crown racked up many victories.

Hagerstown was ranked No. 1 among IHSAA Class 2A teams for much of 2019 and wound up 28-2, losing to Indianapolis Scecina Memorial in the semifinals of the Park Tudor Regional.

With two young daughters, Tigers head coach Brad Catey opted to vacate the head baseball post and concentrate on softball.

New head baseball coach Jay Hale, a 2006 Hagerstown graduate, looks to keep program momentum going by emphasizing organization, discipline and fundamentals just like his high school head coach Lloyd Michael, an Indiana High School Baseball Coaches Association Hall of Famer.

“He taught the fundamentals of baseball better than anybody,” says Hale, who expects to have eight players back who dressed for varsity in 2019.

A left-handed pitcher, outfielder and first baseman when he played for the Tigers, Hale was part of a team that won 26 games with sectional and regional titles his senior season.

Catey was a Hagerstown assistant in 2006.

“I was always hitting my spots,” says Hale of his pitching. “I had four pitches in high school and college.

“I always adjusted to my scenario.”

Hale pitched two years at Vincennes University for head coach Jon Adams. Ted Thompson, who is now head coach at Tecumseh High School, was a Trailblazers assistant and Hale credits him for teaching him much about catching.

Hale spent his last two collegiate seasons at Northern Kentucky University for head coach Todd Asalon and pitching coach Dizzy Peyton.

“He taught me more about staying focused, being relaxed and having fun with the game,” says Hale of Peyton for whom he pitched sidearm as a senior to get more playing time. The two have stayed in-contact. “I take a little bit from all the coaches I’ve played for or coached with.

“I have to put the puzzle together and figure out what works. Some don’t respond to a mellow voice. Some crawl into the turtle shell when you yell. Those are the things I have to work through.

“I knew this opportunity was going to arise. I had to step up my game. There are so many different techniques.”

Hale’s goal the past two years is to focus on hitting fundamentals.

“There’s always something knew,” says Hale. “Those old-school guys stick with what they’ve known for years and it still seems to work. Hit the ball where it’s pitched.”

Hale notes that most high school pitchers want to throw outside so he will encourage his hitters to go the other way if that’s where they are pitched.

“We’ll play small ball and hit-and-run,” says Hale. “We’ll spread out (in our stances) and work on firing that back hip over the top of the plate and not pull out the front side. We’ll be more of a linear hitter and try hit the ball up the middle.

“It’s all about timing, balance and making good contact. We’re pounding those three things. We’re aiming to put the ball in play and hit line drives from gap to gap. We’re focused on the fundamentals of the lower half.”

With pitchers, Hale breaks it down into three sections: lower half, middle with the shoulders going last.

“A lot of kids want to leak that front shoulder and hip open,” says Hale. “You’re losing that energy.”

That’s where hitters lose power and pitchers give up velocity.

Hale’s coaching staff features varsity assistant Andy Senese, pitching coach Danny Davis, junior varsity coach Jared Ward and assistant/scorekeeper Kelly Bicknell.

Hagerstown (enrollment around 350) is a member of the Tri-Eastern Conference (with Cambridge City Lincoln, Centerville, Knightstown, Northeastern, Tri, Union City, Union County and Winchester).

The Tigers are part of an IHSAA Class 2A sectional grouping with Centerville, Northeastern, Shenandoah and Union County. Hagerstown has won 11 sectional titles, including six since 2006.

Hale has been to vice president the past couple years at Hagerstown Little League, where Shawn Lieberman is president. Lieberman was part of Hagerstown’s IHSAA Final Four team in 1999.

A few years ago, the Hagerstown Tigers travel team began as an 8U squad and are now up to 10U. Nate Logston, a member of the 1999 team, and Patrick Vinson, who coached Major division state champions in 2019 and the father of recent graduate Grant Vinson, run that squad made up of all Hagerstown players.

“We want to keep the kids together and grow the third, fourth and fifth graders,” says Hale.

Jay and Abby Hale have three boys — fourth grader Jaxon, third grader Jonah and kindergartener Jace.

Jaxon Hale and his father picked the Los Angeles Angels with Mike Trout as their favorite Major League Baseball team.

A construction management major major at NKU, Hale works as a project manager for Duke Energy.

A 8U Hagerstown team was Coach Pitch district champions in 2019.

Hale umpired Major division games at Hagerstown Little League and got to know some of the junior high players.

The Jeff Combs-coached Hagerstown Heat 14U team has been together since players 8 or 9. This year, they will play in a junior high league in east central Indiana.

“We’ll see if we want to start a team at the school level,” says Hale. “The gap now is to keep junior high schoolers involved.

“The idea is to develop and challenge them for the next level.”

Jay Hale, a 2006 Hagerstown (Ind.) High School graduate, is now head baseball coach at his alma mater.

 

Hagerstown graduate Bartlett looks back on Mizzou diamond days, first year of pro baseball

By STEVE KRAH

http://www.IndianaRBI.com

Effective pitching can be compared to real estate.

It’s all about location, location, location.

Cole Bartlett learned to locate his two-seam fastball more during his final college baseball season and carried it over into his first professional campaign.

Bartlett, a 6-foot-2 right-hander and 2013 Hagerstown (Ind.) High School graduate, finished up his playing days at the University of Missouri and was selected in the 25th round of the 2017 Major League Baseball First-Year Player Draft by the Arizona Diamondbacks.

“I was able to locate that fastball more,” says Bartlett, who also throws a circle change-up and curve ball. “It’s something I really worked on at Mizzou with (pitching) coach (Patrick) Hallmark.”

After four varsity seasons at Hagerstown, including winning 10 games as a senior, Bartlett appeared in two contests as a Missouri freshman in 2014. That summer, he pitched for the Sedalia (Mo.) Bombers of the MINK League. He tore the ulnar collateral ligament in his pitching arm and had Tommy John reconstructive surgery August 2014.

Rehabilitation time kept him off the mound for about a year. He was a medical redshirt at Missouri in the spring of 2015 and resumed pitching in practices and intrasquad games that fall.

Bartlett went 3-5 with three saves and a 3.90 earned run average, 26 strikeouts and 11 walks in 55 1/3 innings over 31 appearances (28 in relief) in 2016. That summer, he pitched for the Plymouth Pilgrims in the Northeast Collegiate Baseball League.

In 2017, he went 6-3 with a 3.19 ERA, 53 strikeouts and 22 walks 79 innings over 19 appearances (14 in relief).

After the draft, he made one-inning stint with Arizona League Diamondbacks then was sent to the Missoula Osprey of the short-season Pioneer League. He went 1-0 with four saves and a 2.53 ERA, 30 strikeouts and four walks in 32 innings over 21 appearances (all in relief).

“It went pretty well,” says Bartlett of his first pro season. “I put put up some good numbers, got good experience and gained a lot of knowledge.”

One thing he learned is that the tempo of the game is faster in the minors than it is in college — even in the ultra-competitive Southeastern Conference.

“In college, we played more small ball and bunted runners over,” says Bartlett. “Pro ball is really not like that. Everyone is swinging the majority of the time.”

It also becomes more serious when players begin getting paid to play.

“Everything is on you,” says Bartlett. “if you don’t want to get better that’s on you. You really have to take initiative of your own career.”

Since Bartlett had already logged a substantial amount of innings in the spring, the Diamondbacks restricted his use in the summer. The rule for him and other rookies was one day of rest for each inning thrown.

“I was pretty max effort every time I went out there, especially out of the pen,” says Bartlett. “I would sit 88 to 92 mph. My fastball gets a lot of movement. It’s basically a sinker.”

Hallmark was his pitching coach at Missouri for one season. Former Tigers head coach Tim Jamieson handled the pitchers in Bartlett’s second and third seasons and Matt Hobbs was pitching coach his freshman year.

“(Hobbs) told me, ‘Never turn your back to the hitter. Show them you’re confident,” says Bartlett. “(Jamieson) worked with me on my change-up.”

Indiana High School Baseball Coaches Association Hall of Famer Lloyd Michael was Hagerstown head coach in Bartlett’s freshman campaign before Brad Catey took over the program.

Bartlett remembers that Michael believed in discipline.

“We had to run strong to first base and do everything right,” says Bartlett. “That’s what stuck with me.”

A catcher and shortstop when he was not pitching, Bartlett remembers that Catey liked to play small ball.

Being a pitcher only, he never got a chance to hit at Missouri.

Did he miss it?

“I did,” says Bartlett. “But after seeing guys throw 100, I was OK with not hitting.”

Bartlett played from T-ball through age 12 at Hagerstown Little League then with the Centerville (Ind.) Yard Dogs travel team. He attracted the attention of the Dayton (Ohio) Classics and was asked to try out. He ended up playing for them in the summer the rest of his high school days.

The youngest of Charlie and Rhonda Bartlett’s three children, Cole earned a degree in agribusiness management at Missouri.

“I’ll fall into that once baseball is done,” says the 23-year-old.

Brother Lex, who is four years older than Cole and a former Hagerstown baseball player, earned an agribusiness management degree at Purdue University and now works for Crop Production Services in Williamsburg, Ind., near Hagerstown. The Bartlett boys grew up on a 600-acre farm.

Their sister, Connor Allen, attended Indiana University-Bloomingtoin and IU-East in Richmond is now an elementary teacher in the Shenandoah (Ind.) school system.

Cole is spending the off-season in Longmont, Colo., the hometown of fiancee Sophia Mastronardi (a 2017 Mizzou graduate).

He has been working out and recently began throwing at Extra Innings Longmont as he prepares to report for spring training in Glendale, Ariz.

Cole Bartlett, a graduate of Hagerstown High School and the University of Missouri, is now a pitcher in the Arizona Diamondbacks organization. (Missoula Osprey Photo)

Alum Catey keeps success going at Hagerstown

By STEVE KRAH

http://www.IndianaRBI.com

Respect for all the little things have led to big things at a little school.

Hagerstown was ranked No. 1 much of the season in IHSAA Class 1A baseball in 2017.

The Tigers lost in the Carroll (Flora) Regional championship game to eventual state runner-up Rossville and finished 28-5 in Brad Catey’s sixth season as Hagerstown head coach.

Hagerstown reigned at the Seton Catholic Sectional.

Catey spent his whole pre-college school career in Hagerstown (K-12) and graduated in 2000 before studying and playing basketball at Indiana University East in Richmond. He played several positions for Indiana High School Baseball Coaches Association Hall of Famer Lloyd Michael — shortstop as a freshman, second base as a sophomore, left field as a junior and catcher as a junior.

“I moved wherever Lloyd needed me to move,” says Catey, who was part of 1999 squad that lost to eventual state champion Evansville Mater Dei in the 2A Indianapolis North Central Semistate and also played football and basketball for the Tigers.

Third baseman Cory Childs was a 2A first-team all-state selection for Hagerstown in 1999 while pitcher Jesse Johnson earned that distinction in 2000.

Catey spent four seasons as a Hagerstown assistant before taking over for Michael with the 2012 season.

“He taught me to respect the game,” says Catey of mentor Michael. “We made sure we do the little things right. We always ran on and off the field. We backed up the plate. You give yourself a chance to win.”

Hagerstown has won three sectionals (2013, 2016, 2017) and six crowns in the Tri-Eastern Conference (which also includes Cambridge City Lincoln, Centerville, Knightstown, Northeastern, Tri, Union City, Union County and Winchester) with Catey in charge.

At the same time, the Tigers have produced three first-all-staters — pitcher Cole Bartlett (2A) in 2013, outfielder Owen Golliher (1A) in 2016 and pitcher Drew Pyle (1A) in 2017.

Right-hander Bartlett pitched at the University of Missouri and was taken in the 25th round of the 2017 Major League Baseball First-Year Player Draft by the Arizona Diamondbacks. He is with the Missoula (Mont.) Osprey.

Hagerstown’s success got Catey a spot on the North coaching staff for the 2017 IHSBCA All-Star Series in Muncie, where he got to coach TEC Player of the Year Trey Kelley one more time before he headed off to Earlham College.

“That was an awesome experience,” says Catey, who served on a South staff led by Plainfield’s Jeff McKeon and also featuring Batesville’s Justin Tucker and Columbus East’s John Major. “I got to coach a lot of (NCAA) Division I talent.”

H-town goes back to 2A for the 2018 season — and likely the Cambridge City Lincoln Sectional field — with plenty of optimism.

The junior varsity squad, coached by Bruce Charles, went 22-0 last spring.

“We don’t like to rebuild; we reload,” says Catey. “It makes my job a little easier.”

Hagerstown graduates Charles, pitching coach Dan Davis Jr. and outfielders coach Jay Hale (outfielders) are all expected to be part of the staff in 2017-18.

Hagerstown Little League has served as a high school feeder program for years. Many current juniors and seniors represented Indiana at the Great Lakes Regional when they were that age.

To help maintain the relationship with HLL, each high school player is required to umpire two games a year.

“That’s one of the reason we keep our numbers so high,” says Catey. who had 38 players on varsity, junior varsity and C-team squads in 2017. “For a 1A school, that’s really good.

“Most our guys have found a good travel team. We encourage our guys to find a little better competition.”

Among those travel organizations are the Hagerstown Heat, Indiana Prospects and Indiana Nitro.

Across Indiana, the 2017 season brought with it the new IHSAA pitch count rule (1 to 35 pitches requires 0 days rest; 36 to 60 requires 1 day; 61 to 80 requires 2 days; 81 to 100 requires 3 days; and 101 to 120 requires 4 days).

Hagerstown had a number of quality arms to get through its schedule, including Kelley (Class of ’17) and Pyle (Class of ’18).

“It didn’t seem to effect us that much,” says Catey. “We had a lot of people we could use. Some other teams had to drop JV games because they had to use guys in varsity games.

“The biggest equation is the JV and varsity pitches they can pitch in a week.”

Catey leads students through simple equations as a math teacher at Hagerstown Elementary.

Recently, he has been teaching young girls how to slide. Oldest daughter Lilly (7) is an 8U softball player. Brad and Darcy Catey’s youngest daughter is Peyton (5).

Hagerstown High School baseball head coach Brad Catey celebrates a 2017 sectional championship with daughters Peyton (left) and Lilly (right).