New head coach Murray emphasizing athletic development for Mount Vernon Wildcats

BY STEVE KRAH
http://www.IndianaRBI.com

Dustin Murray was hired this summer as the new head baseball coach at Mt. Vernon (Ind.) High School.
His focus for the Wildcats this fall and winter is adding muscle and being in-shape.
“The biggest thing that I’m going to bring is off-season expectations in the weight room,” says Murray, who is a certified strength and conditioning coach and a first-year Physical Education and Health teacher at Mt. Vernon Junior High School. “This is the part of the year where we’re going to get stronger.
“We want to have accountability when it comes to athletic development.”
Lifting at 6:15 a.m. Tuesdays and Thursdays have been drawing 25 athletes per session.
“What we’re doing is baseball-specific,” says Murray. “But it’s helpful for all sports.”
Murray has been facility director for 13 years at Athletic Republic Evansville, a sports performance training center.
A few years ago, Murray did some volunteer work for Mt. Vernon head coach Paul Quinzer and takes over after Quinzer retired following the 2022 season after leading the program since 2002.
Mt. Vernon (enrollment around 625) is a member of the Pocket Athletic Conference (with Boonville, Forest Park, Gibson Southern, Heritage Hills, North Posey, Pike Central, Princeton, Southridge, South Spencer, Tecumseh, Tell City and Washington).
The Wildcats were part of an IHSAA Class 3A sectional grouping in 2022 with Boonville, Evansville Bosse, Evansville Memorial and Heritage Hills. Mt. Vernon has won 17 sectional titles — the last in 2015.
Murray’s coaching staff includes Luke Harris and Derek Foncannon. Another assistant may be added.
A exciting addition at Mt. Vernon is an indoor training facility near the football field. There will be batting cages that will benefit both baseball and softball.
Construction on the building began a few weeks ago and could be available in late spring or early summer of 2023.
Murray says there has also been discussion of adding a turf infield on the Athletic Park diamond.
Mt. Vernon Cub Baseball offers playing time for eight graders and seventh graders in the spring.
Murray was an assistant to Steve Ricketts at Evansville Mater Dei in 2019 and 2020.
In 2018, he coached for Norris City-Omaha-Enfield in Illinois. He lives in Carmi, Ill., with wife Brittany, daughter Taytem (7) and son Jagger (1).
Prior to his Norris City-Omaha-Enfield stint, he was involved strength and conditioning at the University of Southern Indiana in Evansville from 2010-18 after coaching baseball 2006-10. He landed with the Screaming Eagles when following Tracy Archuleta.
A native of Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Murray graduated from Bishop James Mahoney High School in 2000. He attended Prairie Baseball Academy while going to Lethbridge Community College. After two years, he transferred to the University of Wisconsin-Parkside where Archeluta was the coach. An “international” rule allowed him to play five years of college baseball, including three at UWP. He also helped coach the Rangers after his playing days.
“I’ve never seen him have an ‘off’ day,” says Murray of Archuleta, who has won three NCAA Division II national titles at USI and is leading the Screaming Eagles into NCAA Division I status. “Every time he stepped on the field in was with intent.
“He is always looking to better his program. He’s always high energy and ready to go in everything he does.”
As the part of honored teams, Murray is in athletic halls of fame at both the University of Wisconsin-Parkside (2016) and the University of Southern Indiana (2020).

Dustin Murray.

The Murrays (left from): Jagger, Brittany, Jagger and Dustin.

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IHSBCA selects 2021 North/South All-Stars

By STEVE KRAH
http://www.IndianaRBI.com

The same week the IHSAA crowns four state champions in Indianapolis, the Indiana High School Baseball Coaches Association will conduct its North/South All-Star Series in Evansville.
State Finals are Monday and Tuesday, June 21-22 at Victory Field with the games to be set after semistates.
The IHSBCA will hold its all-star game festivities Friday through Sunday, June 25-27 at the University of Evansville and historic Bosse Field.
Practice is at U of E’s German American Bank Field at Charles H. Braun Stadium (North workout at 3:15 p.m. Central Time, South workout at 5 Central) followed by the all-star banquet at Crescent Center at Milestones at 7 Central.
A noon doubleheader is slated for Saturday at Braun Stadium with a wood-bat single game on Sunday at Bosse Field at 11 a.m. Central. Holiday Inn Express East, 220 Kirkwood Drive, is the team hotel.
The North leads 68-63 in the all-time series.
Indiana all-stars are seniors nominated by IHSBCA members and selected by a committee.
In addition, the IHSBCA Futures Game (non-seniors) is to be staged in Evansville Wednesday, June 28.

IHSBCA NORTH/SOUTH ALL-STAR SERIES
2021 Rosters
North
Pitchers
Rex Stills (Wheeler)
Coley Stevens (Leo)
Bryce Schaum (Munster)
x-Grant Comstock (Valparaiso)
Logan Nickel (Westfield)
x-Kyle Tupper (South Bend St. Joseph)
x-Garrett Harker (Lebanon)
x-Carter Doorn (Lake Central)
Khal Stephen (Seeger)
Catchers
Karson Kennedy (Harrison of West Lafayette)
Jaden Deel (Hobart)
x-Jacob Loftus (Peru)
First Basemen
Matt Dobuck (Plymouth)
Alex Farr (Southwood)
Second Basemen
x-Kameron Salazar (Wawasee)
Riley Western (Western)
Shortstops
A.J. Bordenet (Lafayette Central Catholic)
Gavin Noble (Wapahani)
Third Basemen
Rocco Hanes (Norwell)
Aric Ehmke (DeKalb)
Outfielders
Sergio Lira Ayala (NorthWood)
x-Carter Mathison (Homestead)
x-Caleb Koeppen (Lafayette Jeff)
Jared Comia (Hanover Central)
Flex
Cal Curiel (Crown Point)
Head Coach
Tim Bordenet (Lafayette Central Catholic head coach)
Assistants
Steve Strayer (Crown Point head coach)
Nick Byall (Homestead head coach)
Shawn Harkness (Homestead assistant)
South
Pitchers
Cal Shepherd (Lawrence North)
x-Luke Hayden (Edgewood)
x-Chris Gallagher (Indianapolis Cathedral)
Drue Young (Center Grove)
x-Luke Leverton (Seton Catholic)
Nate Dohm (Zionsville)
x-Kyler McIntosh (Columbus North)
x-Holden Groher (Silver Creek)
Brady Linkel (South Ripley)
Catchers
Evan Waggoner (Bedford North Lawrence)
x-Hunter Dobbins (Mt. Vernon of Fortville)
Pierson Barnes (Riverton Parke)
First Basemen
C.J. Richmond (Park Tudor)
Parker Allman (Lapel)
Middle Infielders
x-Henry Brown (Evansville Central)
Nick Mitchell (Carmel)
x-Colson Montgomery (Southridge)
Andrew Oesterling (Oldenburg Academy)
Camden Gasser (Southridge)
Third Basemen
Jack Moroknek (Brebeuf Jesuit)
Nick Sutherlin (Greencastle)
Outfielders
Blake Herrmann (Castle)
Reid Cleary (East Central)
Ty Rumsey (Evansville North)
Parker Harrison (Columbus East)
Flex
Eli Watson (Providence)
Head Coach
Chris McIntyre (New Albany head coach)
Assistants
Ben McDaniel (Columbus North head coach)
Paul Quinzer (Mount Vernon of Posey head coach)
Chris Schaefer (Evansville Memorial assistant)
x-Denotes District Players of the Year.

Longtime assistant Smiley contributes to Sycamores’ baseball success

By STEVE KRAH

http://www.IndianaRBI.com

Brian Smiley has enjoyed success in his time on the Indiana State University baseball coaching staff. 

The Sycamores earned three NCAA tournament berths (2012, 2014 and 2019) with Smiley in the fold. From 2010-20, ISU is 340-230.

He has recruited and brought plenty of talent to Indiana State. Some of those players include Major league Baseball First-Year Player Draft selections Sean Manaea (first round), Jeff Degano (second), Jake Petricka (second), Dakota Bacus (ninth), Clay Dungan (ninth), Colin Rae (12th), Triston Polley (16th) and Ryan Strausborger (16th). 

Manaea pitched in 11 regular-season games for the 2020 Oakland Athletics.

Petricka has pitched in the big leagues with the Chicago White Sox, Toronto Blue Jays and Milwaukee Brewers.

Bacus took the mound in 11 games for the 2020 Washington Nationals.

Rae pitched in nine regular-season contests with the 2020 Chicago Cubs.

Outfielder Strausborger played 31 games in the big leagues with the 2015 Texas Rangers.

Smiley has been on ISU staffs helmed by three different men. He was hired by former head coach Lindsay Meggs in the summer of 2009. 

After Meggs left to become head coach at the University of Washington, Smiley served four years on the staff of Rick Heller. 

When Heller took the head coaching position at University Iowa, Smiley followed him to Iowa City in the summer of 2013 and came back to Indiana State upon the hiring Mitch Hannahs, whose first season as the Sycamores boss was 2014.

As assistant in his first eight seasons at Indiana State, Smiley was named associate head coach in August 2017. He’s done about everything a coach can be asked to do in his time in Terre Haute.

“I’ve done everything from laundry to you name it,” says Smiley.

His current duties include defensive responsibilities and coaching third base on game days.

Smiley is also ISU’s recruiting coordinator — a job that has been made more difficult by the COVID-19 pandemic. 

Players being recruited can not meet on-campus with coaches — though there have been times where they could tour the school through the admissions office — and coaches have not been able to see players in-person at summer tournaments because of the dead period imposed by the NCAA by Division I baseball since March.

“We’re having to make decisions based on video and a coach’s word,” says Smiley. “You don’t get a good feel of how they play the game. You’re just grading out their tools on video.”

Under ideal circumstances, Indiana State would like to see a player at least two or three times and get the assessment of multiple coaches.

“(Recruits) can’t watch us practice. They can’t eat with us. They get to know us as coaches. We can’t sell them on things we normally would. There are guys that haven’t really been here that are committed to us.”

On a positive note, fall practice went pretty smoothly for the Sycamores though the window was moved up from the original plan of ending around Thanksgiving (ISU started in September and ended in the middle October).

“It was the right decision, says Smiley. “We feel like we were pretty fortunate. We got through team segment pretty healthy. We missed a few quarantined freshmen.

“With all our instrasquads, 90 to 95 percent of the team could participate. We could have been missing main players. You have that and it’s difficult putting in anything (as far as plays or schemes).”

Indiana State experienced good weather and went from individual practice to team and back to individuals.

The university has gone to virtual classes for the rest of the semester and most of the team has already returned to their homes with a plan of coming back to Terre Haute in January.

Smiley is a 2003 graduate of Mount Vernon (Ind.) High School, where he played two seasons each for head coaches Dave Bell and Paul Quinzer and earned three all-Big Eight Conference selections and helped the Wildcats to conference titles in 2002 and 2003.

“(Bell) was intense and hard-nosed,” says Smiley.  “He demanded a lot and typically got a lot in return.”

Smiley says Indiana State alum Quinzer’s coaching style was more laid-back.

An infielder who played mostly at third base, Smiley started his college playing career Triton College in River Grove, Ill., playing for Trojans head coach Bob Symonds.

When Symonds retired, Smiley transferred to Lincoln Trail College in Robinson, Ill., and played for Hannahs.

“Mitch is a born leader,” says Smiley of Hannahs. “He’s an outstanding motivator. He is someone who is going to practice what he preaches. 

“You know what you’re going to get. The words coming out of his mouth aren’t fake. He’s genuine. He cares about his players and they know that.

“What sets him apart from others is that he knows how handle tough situations and doesn’t rush. His decision-making is on-point all the time and that’s underrated.”

After his two junior college stops, Smiley played two seasons at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock for Trojans head coach Jim Lawler, who has also been the pitching coach at Texas A&M. 

Smiley began coaching career in the summer of 2007 with Dubois County Bombers as an assistant coach. He quickly named manager of the wood bat college team and served in that capacity for three seasons. He also was a student assistant Little Rock and coached at Danville (Ill.) Area Community College for Jaguars head coach Tim Bunton.

“I did pitching at Danville and helped with everything,” says Smiley. “I learned a lot from Tim. I’m very grateful for my year at Danville.

“He was very good with cuts and relays and being in the right place at the right time.”

Brian and wife Katie Smiley have three children — Isaac (5), Christian (4) and Vivian (2). Katie, whose maiden name is Grossman, is a 2004 Evansville Memorial High School graduate who played soccer at the University of Southern Indiana.

Brian Smiley is the associate head coach for the Indiana State University baseball program. The 2021 season will be his 12th with the Sycamores. (Indiana State University Photo)

Brian Smiley has done a little bit of everything as a baseball coach at Indiana State University. His first season in Terre Haute was 2010. In August 2017, he was named associate head coach. (Indiana State University Photo)

Mt. Vernon (Posey), Southern Indiana product Brown contributing in Braves system at bat, behind the plate

BY STEVE KRAH

http://www.IndianaRBI.com

Logan Brown takes pride in being a contributor on both offense and defense.

Take a recent game for the Florida Fire Frogs at the Daytona Tortugas.

The lefty-swinging Brown produced the go-ahead run in the top of the ninth inning and then went behind the plate in the bottom half to guide his pitcher and the team to victory.

“I got a change-up and doubled over the right fielder’s head and we went ahead 2-1,” says Brown. “We won with our closer (Daysbel Hernandez).

“It’s always nice to help the pitchers out. In the end of the day, they’re the one making the pitches. But I hope they feel comfortable throwing to me. That’s always a big priority to me.”

When his son was age 3 or 4, Kevin Brown noticed that the boy was turning into a lefty. Being a professional catcher himself (the elder Brown was a receiver for the Texas Rangers, Toronto Blue Jays, Milwaukee Brewers and Boston Red Sox between 1996-2002), he let his boy keep swinging from left side but changed him to a right-handed thrower.

Logan Brown, who was born in Evansville, Ind., grew up in nearby Mount Vernon and played Mount Vernon Youth Baseball and travel ball for the Mount Vernon Wildbats (coached by Dan McNamara and including future high school and college teammate Drake McNamara), Southern Indiana Sharks (coached by Kevin Brown, J.D. Mobley and Kevin Krizan and featuring teammates Cody Mobley and Austin Krizan) and Evansville Wolfepack (coached by former big league infielder Joe Lis) and for Mount Vernon (Posey) High School.

Along the way, he played some in the infield. But his primary position was catcher and his high school coach — Paul Quinzer — trusted him to call pitches.

“(Quinzer) was a great coach,” says Brown, who was an all-Southwest Indiana Conference performer after batting .384 as a senior. “He knows you have that kind of potential.”

The trend of letting him call pitches continued for Brown at the University of Southern Indiana, where Jeremy Kuester was the pitching coach and Tracy Archuleta the head coach.

“He’s a fantastic coach,” says Brown of Archuleta. “He wants what’s best for every single player. He knows how to run a program.

“If he knows you can do better, he’s going to let you know. He knows you have that potential. He’ll say things like ‘I know you have more in your tank.’”

Archuleta has led the USI to two NCAA Division II national championships. The Screaming Eagles went 106-63 during Brown’s time on the team (2016-18) as he hit .313, .276 and .338 with 127 starts. USI won regional titles in 2016 and 2018.

Brown notes that many of his minor league teammates and opponents played D-II baseball.

Selected in the 35th round of the 2018 Major League Baseball First-Year Player Draft by the Braves, Brown has continued calling pitches as a professional.

“It’s a lot of reading the hitters and things like that,” says Brown. “It’s more than just throwing pitches. You see how the hitters react to it. You see their swing path.”

The Kissimmee- based Fire Frogs play in the 12-team Advanced Class-A Florida State League. Seeing a team one time is enough for Brown to pick up on hitters’ strengths and weaknesses.

“You can’t get repetitive or they’ll sit on pitches,” says Brown. “It can’t be the same rhythm for every at-bat.

“Throw a throw a question mark in there to confuse them. A 3-2 curve ball is enough to get them guessing.”

Brown’s background in the infield also serves as catcher.

“It translates,” says Brown. “The pitcher may spike a curve ball or slider. You stay through it and pick it.”

With a bat in his bands, Brown looks to make adjustments.

“I know the movement on baseballs is a little better (each step up the minor league ladder),” says Brown. “I’m sticking to my approach. I like to think ‘drive the ball the other way.’ But it depends on what the pitcher is doing as the game and the at-bat goes on.

“To be a good hitter, you’ve got to make adjustments throughout the at-bat.”

Brown, who turns 23 on Sept. 14, began the 2019 season with the Low Class-A Rome (Ga.) Braves and played in 51 games, hitting .301 with one home run, 11 doubles and 26 runs batted in.

In his first 35 games with the Fire Frogs, Brown is hitting .272 with three homers, five doubles and 16 RBI. He his hitting .289 with six runs driven in over his last 10 games.

Brown says he likes to emphasize his strengths and work on what he understands to be his weaknesses during the off-season.

The next two stages in the Braves system are Double-A Mississippi and Triple-A Gwinnett (Ga.).

Though he is not yet sure what the Braves have in mind for him at season’s end, Brown says expects to be in Mount Vernon at some point and helping his father at the Kevin Brown Baseball & Softball School.

Kevin Brown played baseball at USI while Logan’s mother, Rachel (then Murray and now Daniel) played tennis (Logan also played the sport in high school). Logan’s parents have remarried and he has seventh brothers and sisters in the Mount Vernon/Evansville area, ranging from 2 to 20.

Logan Brown, a Mount Vernon (Posey) High School graduate and former University of Southern Indiana player, is now a catcher in the Atlanta Braves system. (Florida Fire Frogs Photo)

 

Quinzer pushes work ethic for Mount Vernon Wildcats baseball

By STEVE KRAH

http://www.IndianaRBI.com

Paul Quinzer instructs students about rocks and athletes about playing hard.

Quinzer is a teacher of earth space science, integrated chemistry and physics at Mount Vernon (Ind.) High School.

He is also the head baseball coach at the Posey County school, a position he has held since the 2002 season.

“My philosophy is to work hard and play hard,” says Quinzer. “When we practice I’m always on them about working hard. If they work hard, we’ll have fun.

“We set goals and we try to achieve those goals. I want to get the boys into some kind of work ethic, not only for baseball but later in life.”

Quinzer is a 1982 graduate of Castle High School in Newburgh, Ind., where he was a four-sport athlete (baseball, track, basketball and football).

His baseball coach was Indiana High School Baseball Coaches Hall of Famer Al Rabe.

“He believed in what I could do,” says Quinzer of Rabe. “He allowed let me try new things. He did the best he could to help me learn how to pitch.”

Quinzer played in the 1986 College World Series with Indiana State University and graduated that year with a geology degree.

ISU Hall of Famer Bob Warn was the Sycamores head coach when Quinzer was playing in Terre Haute.

“He really recruited me hard,” says Quinzer of Warn. “He made me feel like he really wanted me.”

Right-hander Quinzer was selected in the Major League Baseball First-Year Player Draft — 1982 by the Montreal Expos (12th round) and 1986 by the San Diego Padres (10th round). His professional playing career went until 1990 when he played at Triple-A Las Vegas.

When he was done playing, Quinzer looked for a job in geology, wound up getting his teaching license and began at Mount Vernon in the fall of 1993. The first of eight seasons as an assistant to Dave Bell came in the spring of 1994. Bell led the Wildcats for 22 years for his retirement.

Mount Vernon (enrollment around 610) is a member of the Big Eight Conference (with Boonville, Jasper, Mount Carmel of Illinois, Princeton Community, Vincennes Lincoln and Washington).

Each team plays one another once to determine the conference champion.

“We are spread out big time,” says Quinzer. “The closest conference team — Boonville or Princeton — is an hour drive.

“We drive a lot at our school.”

The Wildcats have won the Big Eight seven times since Quinzer has been head coach.

Non-conference opponents include Carmi White County (Ill.), Castle, Evansville Central, Evansville Mater Dei, Evansville Memorial, Evansville North, Evansville Reitz, Gibson Southern, Heritage Hills, Henderson County (Ky.), Linton-Stockton, North Posey, Tecumseh and Webster County (Ky.).

This year will mark the first in a dozen that Mount Vernon does not play in the Braves Bash at Terre Haute South Vigo. The Wildcats will go to Webster County during spring break. Quinzer says he hopes the team can go to Nashville, Tenn., during break in the future.

The Wildcats are part of an IHSAA Class 3A sectional grouping with Boonville, Evansville Bosse, Evansville Memorial and Heritage Hills. Mount Vernon has won 17 sectional crowns (five with Quinzer on the MV coaching staff and four with him as head coach) — the last in 2015.

Quinzer has his largest coaching staff to date with Nathan Groeninger, John Schelhorn, Mark Wezet and Ron Upshaw. Wezet is the pitching coach.

Former assistant Kevin Krizan, who played at the University of Evansville, was with Quinzer for 15 years.

Krizan stepped away a few years ago to follow his sons — senior right-hander Austin Krizan and sophomore center fielder Bryce Krizan — on the diamond at the University of Southern Indiana.

Other recent Mount Vernon graduates that moved on to college baseball are Drake McNamara (USI), Clay Ford (Oakland City University), Troy Paris (Kentucky Wesleyan College) and Walker Paris (Vincennes University).

Two other alums — Cody Mobley and catcher Logan Brown — are playing pro ball. Mobley was selected in the eighth round of the 2015 Major League Baseball First-Year Player Draft by the Seattle Mariners and Brown was chosen in the 35th round of the 2018 draft by the Atlanta Braves.

MV graduates also taken in the draft include catcher Ryan Spilman (Cleveland Indians, 15th round in 2003), left-hander Bryan Rueger (New York Yankees, 20th round in 2005) and right-hander Matt Huff (San Diego Padres, 27th round in 2006).

Mount Vernon plans to field three teams in 2019 —  varsity, junior varsity and freshmen/C-team.

“We want to get as many games as possible for those younger kids,” says Quinzer. “The more games they can play, the better they’re going to be.”

A year ago, there were 38 players in the program. There are 30 this year, including 12 freshmen. Half that number are expected to play for the varsity.

The Wildcats play at Athletic Park. The on-campus field features a center field fence that is 417 feet from home plate.

“Since we went to the BBCORs, we don’t hit too many home runs,” says Quinzer.

Over the years, the facility has added new backstop — netting with bricks at the bottom. The next project is batting cages with turf.

“It’s a a little of this and little of that,” says Quinzer.

Paul and Cindy Quinzer have three children. Alexandria Quinzer is a senior nursing student at USI. Savannah Quinzer is a sophomore education major at USI. Bronson Quinzer is a junior shortstop at Mount Vernon. He hit .405 as a sophomore.

Paul Quinzer is head baseball coach at Mount Vernon (Ind.) High School.

Paul Quinzer is a teacher of earth space science, integrated chemistry and physics and head baseball coach at Mount Vernon (Ind.) High School.

Mount Vernon graduate Mobley learns to trust his stuff as pitcher in Mariners chain

By STEVE KRAH

http://www.IndianaRBI.com

For Cody Mobley, the key to pitching has become a matter of trust.

Rather than trying to blow hitters away, the right-hander in the Seattle Mariners organization has learned to rely on his ability to get hitters out by putting the baseball in the right part of the strike zone.

Mobley, a 6-foot-3, 190-pounder who was selected in the eighth round of the 2015 Major League Baseball First-Year Player Draft by the Mariners out of Mount Vernon (Ind.) High School, experienced a rough beginning to the 2018 season.

A starter throughout extended spring training, Mobley was used almost exclusively out of the bullpen for the Short Season Class-A Everett (Wash.) AquaSox. In his first game — a 2 1/3-inning stint on June 16 — he gave up five earned runs on three hits (one a home run) with four walks.

It got better from there and the righty wrapped the 2018 season on a high note. In his last 10 appearances, he was 2-1 with a 3.52 ERA. In 23 innings, he fanned 23 and walked 10.

“The whole year was a battle,” says Mobley, who made 16 appearances (15 in relief) and finished the season at 3-1 with a 5.09 ERA, 40 strikeouts and 20 walks in 35 1/3 innings. “I threw a whole lot better than my numbers show.

“I felt like I finished strong. I was limiting my walks more. Trusting myself was the main thing. I was trusting my stuff in the strike zone rather than trying to have people swing and miss.”

Mobley came to appreciate being a reliever.

“I would think too much between starts and that would hurt me,” says Mobley. “I could get in the bullpen, get hot and get in the game and that helped me.”

Delivering from a high three-quarter arm slot, Mobley employs a two-seam fastball, “12-6” curveball, slider and change-up.

His curve has been his best pitch going back to his amateur days. The slider developed into a put-away pitch this summer. He calls his slider a “show” pitch, which he seldom uses.

“It’s definitely the pitch that needs the most work,” says Mobley.

A 2015 Mount Vernon graduate, Mobley helped the Paul Quinzer-coached Wildcats win the IHSAA Class 3A Evansville Bosse Sectional in his senior year.

“(Quinzer) taught me how to compete,” says Mobley. “He was very winning-oriented.”

Mount Vernon, located in Posey County, lost to eventual 3A state runner-up Jasper in the finals of the 2015 Southridge Regional.

While he considered college right after high school and still has intentions of pursuing high education at some point, Mobley began his pro career in the summer of 2015 with nine appearances (three starts) for the Arizona League Mariners and went 2-0 with a 1.71 ERA, 19 strikeouts and 10 walks in 26 innings then polished things in the fall instructional league.

A partial tear in his elbow limited him to just one inning for the Arizona League Mariners in 2016. He wound up the 2017 season — also in the Arizona League — tired and with shoulder issues. He went back to instructional league and worked on becoming more consistent in the strike zone.

“I think it really paid off for me,” says Mobley, who turns 22 on Sept. 23.

In 35 minor league appearances (26 in relief), Mobley is 8-3 with a 4.81 earned run average. In 94 innings, he struck out 80 and walked 49.

His manager is Everett was Jose Moreno while Danieln Acevedo and Moises Hernandez shared pitching coach duties.

The next steps up the Mariners minor league ladder are Clinton (Low-A), Modesto (High-A), Arkansas (Double-A) and Tacoma (Triple-A).

Born in Evansville, Mobley has spent his life around Mount Vernon. He played in the summers for the Indiana Sharks and Indiana Spikes and then the Evansville Razorbacks when he reached high school.

Cody Mobley is the youngest child by 10 years in a family headed by waste water plant worker J.D. and nurse Nusha.

“I was blessed with really good parents that always supported me,” says Cody. “They’ve always had my back.”

Step-siblings are brothers Adam and Ryan and sisters Mariah and Kasey.

Cody Mobley, a 2015 Mount Vernon (Ind.) High School graduate, pitched in 2018 with the Everett (Wash.) AquaSox in the Seattle Mariners system. (Everett AquaSox Photo)

Right-handed pitcher Cody Mobley, a Mount Vernon (Ind.) High School graduate, was selected in the eighth round of the 2015 Major League Baseball First-Year Player Draft by the Seattle Mariners. (Seattle Mariners Photo)