More room to grow for Clinton Prairie baseball after historic run to IHSAA 1A semi-state

LAFAYETTE Clinton Prairie baseball coach Matthew Scott welcomed the new voice and addition he received when former head Crawfordsville football coach Kurt Schlicher was hired to revamp the Gophers on the gridiron in 2022.In addition to the football knowledge Schlicher possessed, he had played college baseball at Indiana State."When I came in three years ago, he was forced to take me and I'm not sure if he knew who I was," Schlicher said.

"I didn't even know who he was.

He opened the door for me and that allowed me to work with pitchers and hitters."More: IHSAA state baseball preview: 5 things to know about Clinton Prairie's semi-state runMore: The story behind the Mulberry scoreboard used in 'Hoosiers'After three consecutive losing seasons, Clinton Prairie rebuilt itself into a state contender this spring, making history with its first IHSAA regional title and semi-state title appearance, along with its first sectional title since 1993.While Clinton Prairie was outclassed by Kouts 5-0 in the IHSAA Class 1A semi-state final Saturday, June 14 at Loeb Stadium, the Gophers became of the top run scorers in the state of Indiana."A couple of years ago, we were terrible," Scott said.

"There's no other way to put it.

These seniors have battled through, and we are going to miss them quite a bit.

A great group of kids and the leadership we've gotten out of them has been incredible.

What a ride."Clinton Prairie hounded Fort Wayne Canterbury, 17-5, in the first semi-state game in six innings and scored more than 10 runs 14 times in 2025.Junior shortstop and pitcher Kye Jacobs went 4-for-4 with two RBIs and three runs scored against Canterbury, made a hit-saving catch diving to his right and turned a double play fielding a diving ground ball.Jacobs validated himself as one of the top shortstops in the Lafayette area and will return for his senior year after batting .560 with an on base percentage of .625, .933 slugging, 28 RBIs and 37 runs scored."The last two years we struggled a little bit and that helped us to grow to build some momentum into this year," Jacobs said.

"Now that we know what it's like to be in the semi-state finals, even though we lost, we know what it's like for next year."Clinton Prairie (19-8) in its semi-state championship received a clinic in pitching from Kouts freshman Billy Miller.Miller is one of the top ranked recruits in the country for the class of 2028.

His fastball has been clocked as high as 92 miles per hour with a curveball and slider combination that kept Clinton Prairie off balance through the evening.Not only was Miller's movement unpredictable, but he threw his curveball with command and hit corners.Miller recorded 12 strikeouts while Clinton Prairie allowed all five runs to score with two outs."There's a lot of work to be done this winter, there's a lot of swings to be had and ground balls to be fielded," Jacobs said.

"That's just something that as a group, I know we're going to put in the work.

I think the biggest thing to approach is seeing the spin out of the hand that way we don't have to guess.

We don't have to sit fastball.

Just see it out of the hand and put a good swing on it." Ethan Hanson is the sports reporter for the Journal & Courier in Lafayette.

He can be reached at [email protected], on Twitter at EthanAHanson and Instagram at ethan_a_hanson.This article originally appeared on Lafayette Journal & Courier: Clinton Prairie baseball reaches IHSAA semi-state, falls to Kouts.

This article has been shared from the original article on yahoo, here is the link to the original article.