The first time I heard about Caleb was from Jared Broughton. Jared told me that he was with Caleb at a baseball camp at Notre Dame. He thought Caleb would be pretty good. I am guessing I thought that I hope so but we have all heard of players who were pretty good prior to high school that did not turn out to be so good. In Caleb's case, Jared was understating how good Caleb was!
Caleb had an outstanding career at Lutheran. He had great offensive numbers, was an excellent pitcher and was an outstanding defender at four positions: shortstop, third base, centerfield and pitcher. He was extremely athletic with speed and strength. A true 5 tool player. If I was to select a Lutheran pitcher for one game as a starter, it would be Caleb. When reviewing his offensive stats, one has to keep in mind that he hit in the lead-off spot which makes his numbers even more impressive.
Honors that came Caleb's way in his career include:
-drafted by the San Francisco Giants 2010
-selected as a North/South All-Star. 2010 (IHSBCA)
-voted to the All-State team 2010 (IHSBCA)
-selected to the ICC Baseball team 2010 (1st year of Conference)
-chosen as Lutheran MVP 2010, 2009
As we will see in the following chart, Caleb had three very good years through his Junior season. His Senior season was spectacular.
YEAR AVG HITS AB RUNS RBI 2B 3B HR BB HBP K SB
2007 .384 33 86 36 20 7 - 7 15 6 18 5
2008 .366 26 71 31 20 4 - 7 28 6 20 14
2009 .423 30 71 25 16 9 1 3 25 1 16 16
2010 .548 51 93 45 44 6 4 15 20 4 18 16
CAREER .436 140 321 137 100 26 5 32 88 17 72 51
As you can tell from Caleb's statistics, he was pretty special. He hit in the lead off spot for a couple of reasons. One, he got more at bats. Second, it would be hard to walk him as the first batter of the game for us since he could steal second base. It is a credit to his teammates that they were on base for him to drive in 100 runners in his career batting lead-off. His 15 home runs in a season is a LHS record, and he is second in career home runs to Jared Broughton's 37. I acknowledge that the bats of the earlier 2000's had more juice to them than the bats of today, though Caleb and Jared would still have hit their share of home runs.
As I cited previously, Caleb was an outstanding pitcher. He could blow batters away with his fastball and fool them with a curveball that could drop off the table. He could be dominating. Let's look at his pitching stats. To demonstrate how smart I could be, Caleb did not pitch at all his freshman season!
YEAR IP HITS K BB W L S ER ERA STARTS
2007 - - - - - - - - - -
2008 52.1 42 72 27 10 2 - 24 3.21 8
2009 66.2 50 105 30 6 6 - 27 2.83 12
2010 58.2 32 86 40 8 5 2 22 2.62 9
TOTAL 177.2 124 263 97 24 13 2 73 2.88 29
Caleb's 24 career wins is a Lutheran Baseball record. Of those 24 wins, 15 came from his starting a game and 9 resulted from him entering the game in relief. His wins from Starts were against:
Southwestern Beech Grove Scecina Chatard
Beech Grove University (2) Liberty Christian Indiana Deaf
Perry Meridian Bethesda Christian (2) Edinburgh (3)
Relief wins came versus:
Lapel Guerin (2) Beech Grove (2) Indiana Deaf
Trinity Lutheran Cardinal Ritter Indy Kings
Caleb's losses came against very good competition:
Roncalli Chatard (2) Scecina (3) Park Tudor (2)
Guerin Trinity Lutheran Shakamak Speedway
Decatur Central
Another exciting aspect of Caleb's play was his ability to play multiple positions on the diamond. As a Freshman, Caleb started at shortstop. He did a very nice job compiling a Fielding average of .849 with
14 errors from 93 chances.
Caleb also played shortstop his sophomore season along with pitching. This season was his best in the field with a Fielding Average of .932 based on 74 chances and only 5 errors.
I have to admit that I do not remember why, but as a Junior, Caleb moved to Centerfield and did a great job Caleb had 6 errors in 2009 but 3 of them occurred in the first game when he started pitching and then went to shortstop. That game must have encouraged the move to CF. After getting used to CF, Caleb played the last 21 games and only committed one error and ended the season with a Fielding Average of .870.
For his Senior year, Caleb again moved positions. Caleb did play some shortstop but he primarily played third base. Going back and forth between positions is not the easiest thing to do but Caleb had a solid season with a Fielding Average of .852 with 81 chances and 12 errors.
I still can visualize a couple of plays Caleb made that were ESPN Top 10 worthy. His outstanding athletic ability gave him the opportunity to make plays that other guys were just not going to make.
As I think back to Caleb's career, I typically recall his last 12 games. Over that time period, he was the best high school baseball player I have seen. Most importantly, we won 11 consecutive games until losing in the Regional final to North Central of Farmersburg. Over those 12 games, Caleb had a Batting Average of .650.
He was 26 for 40 with 8 HR, 3 2B, 21 Runs, 22 RBI, 12 Walks and 2 HBP, 5 Stolen Bases and only 3 strikeouts.
A game that stands out was against Edinburgh, at Edinburgh. In those days the Lancers were pretty competitive. We would face them again in the Regional. I am thinking Caleb was aware he might get drafted by the Giants. The scout for the Giants came to Edinburgh for the game. Perhaps Caleb was a little nervous, and he struck out to lead-off the game. His next time up he hit a home run deep to left center field. In his 4th time at bat, he also homered. I am guessing the Giants scout was duly impressed.
Here are some other memorable games and milestones for Caleb:
On April 13, 2007, Caleb hit his first home run as a Saint. the game was at Lutheran against Southwestern. We won the game 13-2 and Caleb was 2 for 3 with a HR and 3 RBI.
We played Pike at Lutheran on May 1, 2007 and came away with a 12- 2 victory. Caleb got us on the board in the bottom of the 1st with a 2-run homer. He would get a second home run in the 5th inning for his first multiple homer game.
On May 10, 2007, we went down to Martinsville for another game against a 4A school. We started out great with 6 runs in the first two innings. Caleb was a big part of the scoring with 2 home runs and 3 RBI. The rest of the game did not go as well as we ended up losing 16-10 in a big offense day.
Playing Scecina was always a big game in that they were a Conference foe and typically a good team. On May 17, 2008 we played Scecina at Speedway in a 3 team round-robin as we played Speedway in the first game. Caleb led off the game with a home run. He singled in the 3rd inning and homered again in the 4th. For the game, he was 3 for 4, 2 HR, 3 runs and 4 RBI. To top it off, he also pitched his first complete game victory as we won 14-5. Quite a day!
A big game for us was on May 22, 2008 at Holder Field against Perry Meridian. This game was Senior Night for the Falcons and I am guessing they scheduled us to most likely get a win. Caleb was our starting pitcher for the game and did a great job. He ended up going the distance for a 3-2 win. It was a big win for us as it was the first time we had beaten a 4A school since I became the coach. We were down 2-0 after four innings. In the 6th inning, Caleb led off with a single and with singles from Jared Broughton, Michael Longworth and Brad Naffziger, we came back to tie the score. In the top of the 7th inning, Jordan Jones got the game winning RBI and Caleb held them in the bottom half to seal the win. Caleb retired the last 8 batters in order.
On May 8, 2009, we were playing Speedway at Brebeuf in the County Tournament. Caleb was our starting pitcher and batting in the lead-off spot. Speedway scored in the top of the second due to an outfield error. We came back to tie the score in the bottom of the 3rd when Caleb drove in Easton Kirstein who had doubled to start the inning. The game remained tied until the top of the 7th. Speedway scored on a 1B, a stolen base and another single. Unfortunately, in the bottom of the 6th inning, Caleb had led off with a single, stole second and a sacrifice bunt moved him to third base with one out. Disappointingly, our next two hitters struck out to end the inning. So we go to the bottom of the 7th down a run. They made an error on our lead off hitter's groundball. With our luck, our next batter hit into a double play, 6-4-3. the next two batters singled and Caleb was on deck but our hitter mad an out to end the game. Caleb pitched great against a good Speedway team giving up only 4 hits and striking out 7 batters. He also was 2-3 and had our only RBI. A tough loss.
We had a good run to finish the season in 2009 and played Shakamak at Shakamak in the first game of the Regional, June 6, 2009. It was a good experience to play at annual baseball power Shakamak. Shakamak does not have football so baseball became their main sport over basketball. We were the home team for the game. Caleb was our starting pitcher and things got off to a shaky start. Shakamak scored two runs in the top of the first. They combined a walk and three hits for the runs. To our credit we came back starting in the bottom half of the first. Caleb was walked to lead off our half of the inning. He then stole 2nd. Matt Ryan singled with two outs to score Caleb. Going into the bottom of the 3rd, we were down 2-1. Caleb led off the inning with a home run, 2-2. The score remained tied until the 6th when we scored a run 2 hits, a walk and a HBP but only got the one run. Things did not go well for us in the top of the 7th. Their #9 batter got on base due to an error. Caleb struck out the lead-off hitter. The next hitter singled, then a walk and another hit and they had 3 runs. We got one run back in the bottom half but could not tie the game. Caleb was 2-2 with a home run, 2 runs, 1 RBI, a stolen base and 2 walks. He also pitched very well but we just could not close out the win. Shakamak ended up getting beat in the
Semi-State.
Caleb had several big games as a senior. On May 15 we played Covenant Christian at LHS in a
doubleheader. We won both games and in the 2nd game, Caleb had 5 RBI and a home run in the 10-8 victory.
On May 20, 2010, we traveled to Chatard for their Senior Night game. Caleb was our pitcher and shut down the Trojans as we won 12-1. Caleb also was 2-3, scored 2 runs, had a triple, an RBI, and walked twice.
In the Sectional Championship Game, Caleb was 2-2, scored 2 runs, had 2 home runs, 3 RBI, a walk and was hit by a pitch as we won 12-1.
In the Regional, Caleb had a great day. In game 1 versus Edinburgh, Caleb was 3-3 with a double and home run, 3 runs and an RBI as we won 11-7. In the second game against North Central - Farmersburg, he was 1-1 with a double and RBI and a run scored but was walked twice as we lost 8-5. Caleb had only 4 innings available to pitch in the Championship Game and allowed only 1 run. If things had gone better in Game 1, he would have had 6 innings available and I think we would have won.
Caleb completed his high school career by playing in the IHSBCA North - South Series in Richmond. I remember that he got at least one base hit and made a great play at third base.
Caleb was a great player for Lutheran High School. It was certainly enjoyable for me and the other coaches to have him on our side!
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