Life is timing in many ways. In 2004-05 Jared Broughton began his career at Lutheran High School. Jared is my nephew and we were very close. At the time I was coaching at Emmerich Manual High School and Jared would come to our practices over the years for basketball and baseball. I was facing a situation where I would not be able to see Jared play in high school.
I decided that I would stop coaching basketball at Manual and Coach Finchum welcomed me to his staff at Lutheran for the 2004-05 season while I was still teaching at Manual. Looking ahead to the baseball season, I was expecting to have one of my best teams at Manual. I was having some apprehensions about missing Jared play baseball. I knew he was going to be a really good player. At the time,
Mr. Gary St. Clair was the baseball coach and principal at Lutheran. He decided to give up coaching in 2004 and the baseball coaching job was open. Certainly the timing was great for me. Perhaps others were not too excited about me becoming the Lutheran Baseball Coach but the timing was a God-thing for me. I remember interviewing for the position with AD Finchum and Mr. St. Clair. They decided to hire me as the Baseball Coach for 2005 as there were no candidates from the school and even though I would still be teaching at Manual. Thanks to Jared, I ended up at Lutheran. Hopefully not too many people will blame him.
As Jared was beginning his high school career, I knew he would be very good. He had played with the Indiana Bulls for two years and had been a dominant Little League player. As Jared completed his career, he surpassed any expectations that I had for him. He was an extremely hard worker. His mental approach to playing baseball was better than any other player I have coached. He was a leader and well liked by his teammates and highly respected by our opponents and other coaches.
Here are some of Jared's baseball accomplishments:
All-State - 2008 (IHSBCA)
North/South All-Star Selection - 2008 (IHSBCA)
Marion County All -Star Baseball Team 2006, 2007 & 2008
Lutheran MVP/C0-MVP 2006, 2007 & 2008
Lutheran Baseball Record Holder for many categories
In his career, the teams with Jared won 62 games and lost 44, 58.5% winning percentage.
As a freshman, Jared established himself quickly. I had a lot of faith in Jared and had him hit third in our batting order from the beginning. He never hit anywhere else in the order. As I recall some folks were not too happy with my decision and I am sure Jared had some pressure and comments coming his way. Regardless, Jared had a great freshman season as a hitter, pitcher, third baseman and teammate. Each following season got better and better.
Following is a chart that shows Jared's statistics as a hitter in his career. He is undoubtedly the best hitter in Lutheran Baseball history:
YEAR AVG HITS AB RUNS RBI 2B HR BB HBP K
2005 .446 33 74 34 34 7 6 16 2 8
2006 .413 33 80 29 31 9 6 11 1 8
2007 .605 49 81 41 42 11 13 32 5 6
2008 .627 42 67 44 46 6 12 28 4 7
CAREER. .520 157 302 148 153 33 37 87 12 29
Jared's Career Batting Average and RBI were among the Top 10 in Indiana history for many years.
In his junior and senior seasons, Jared had several games where the opposing coach decided they were not going to pitch to him. This tactic was most evident in Jared's last appearance in the 2008 Sectional against Bethesda Christian. Their coach, former Major League pitcher Bill Sampen, decided that Jared was not going to beat them. Jared was walked twice, hit by a pitch once and grounded out to shortstop when he swung at a pitch out of the strike zone just to have a chance to make something happen.
I should mention that the bats back then had some more juice than these days, but Jared would have put up great numbers using a wood bat!
Obviously Jared made many contributions from the batting box, he also was a very good pitcher for us over his four years. As a pitcher, Jared was the winner 16 times and also had four saves.
Jared had a total of 180.2 innings pitched for his 16 wins. He made 30 starts and had a career ERA of 3.76. Jared pitched against several big schools where we competed well but came up short: Guerin,
West Lafayette, Decatur Central, Martinsville, Bedford North Lawrence, Lapel and Triton Central. Jared had pitching wins against 14 different schools and defeated Scecina and Beech Grove twice each.
Jared was an outstanding fielder, primarily at third base but also some shortstop. For his career, Jared compiled a Fielding Average of .860 with 146 Assists, 75 Put Outs and 36 Errors.
Here are some memorable games for Jared:
1- On April 5, 2005 Jared played his first game. He got his first hit in his 4th At Bat as he walked twice then grounded out against Covenant Christian. His first hit also resulted in his first RBI.
2- Also his freshman season, Jared had a great day against Sheboygan Lutheran in a double header. He went 8 for 8, 4 home runs and 13 RBI. He was also the winning pitcher in one game.
3- On May 20, 2006 we played Bedford North Lawrence (4A) at LHS. They were very good as we lost both games of a doubleheader. In one game Jared hit two home runs.
4- Against Heritage Christian on April 30, 2007, we had a duel between Jared and a HC player named Josh Lyon who went on to IU for baseball. Josh was a lefthanded hitter and that day hit 3 home runs. Jared almost kept pace with two homers and a double of his own.
5- A big game was at Chatard on May 17, 2007. Jared got their attention with 2 home runs.
6- At that time Lapel was a big rivalry. It started before I got to LHS but it was going strong in 2007. They had beaten us in the Sectional in 2006 and we were going up against them again in 2007. We were playing them at Marian College in the Sectional on May 29. We had an early lead and were threatening again with Jared coming to bat. Lapel brought in the pitcher who had shut us out in 2006, David Addington, a hard throwing righthander. Jared put up a fight and worked a full count. On the next pitch Jared drove the ball down the right field line for a two run home run that ended the fight for Lapel.
THE SWING!
THE CELEBRATION!
7- On May 15, 2008 we went back to Chatard. His first time up, Jared hit a bomb. They walked him the next 3 times.
There were many other games where Jared did something memorable. In his career Jared helped set a standard of play for the players who followed. It is one thing for a player to have a great season, but to do it when everybody knows who you are and wants to stop you is another. Jared met all challenges and most of the time came out on top.
After high school Jared went to Vincennes Junior College and had two excellent seasons. In his sophomore season he hit a walk-off home run to send Vincennes to the JC World Series, a first for Vincennes. Jared was an All-American player for Vincennes.
Following Vincennes, Jared went to the University of Dayton. He had a back injury and red-shirted. In his 4th year, Jared played with a strong group of players and they won their conference and went to the NCAA Tournament at Texas A&M. While there, Jared hit a home run in one game and also got a single off of now Major Leaguer, Michael Wacha, in another.
Jared made great contributions to Lutheran Baseball. It was wonderful for me as a coach and uncle to see him play for these four years. Jared was an excellent teammate and leader for his teams. He definitely left his mark at LHS.
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