Two championship level teams, two different backstories

Linton junior Nathan Frady (left) and Shakamak junior Brady Yeryar as both are on regional title teams.

Greene County is the unique position of having two regional baseball champions just 11 miles apart. On the statewide level, Shakamak and Linton are two peas in a pod. Locally, we know that’s not the case.

For Linton, their path to being in the final four of Class 2A was different. They had never been there before. Its best player in Josh Pyne, now the face of Indiana University baseball, graduated and moved on. So did Coach Matt Fougerousse who retired after 11 seasons.

In came Jacob Harden to coach the team. You could see his energy and passion for the game instantly and the players soaked it up. The first practice I saw back in March the team was full optimism. Harden and team had adopted the motto of “6-18” for the date of the state title game at Victory Field. They dedicated their season to Coach Bart Berns as he was being treated for cancer at the time. Everything was about making the kids believe they could go far.

Credit Athletic Director Darren Clayton on the hire of Harden. In small towns, people want the new coach to be “In the family.” Harden does not check that box but he has the persona of WWE wrestler and the kids eat it up. The seniors in Bracey Breneman, Jaydan Miller, Gabe Eslinger brought over the winning pedigree from the undefeated football season. Juniors Nathan Frady and Luke McDonald eventually got the point where Linton had two ace pitchers. Senior Japheth House returned from injury and has not stop smiling ever since.

All the positive energy carried the team to a SWIAC title, Every time adversity hit, Linton had the attitude to battle back and recover. That happened in the sectional final over Mitchell and the regional final against Forest Park.

Shakamak is different story. They don’t need to be talked into their potential as the Lakers just look up at the photos on the wall of their gym of all the winning baseball teams. While Linton players and coaches produce great quotes, Shakamak is typically short on words. Eventually, they all the say the same thing of “We need to play Laker baseball.”

From what I can deduce, “Playing Laker baseball” means to play hard and when you lose don’t make an excuse.

The best example came after Shakamak lost to Linton on May 7. Shakamak had lost at Loogootee, 17-10, in game that went late into the night and had to get on the bus the next morning to play Linton. Shakamak lost 3-1 as it looked like they got tired. When asked if the Loogootee game tired his team out, Coach Jeremy Yeryar simply said, “No excuses.”

Shakamak had plenty of excuses it could have used. They lost seven seniors from its state runner-up team last year. It had lost nine of its last 11 games leading into the sectional.

The Lakers did not care. They don’t want to hear about how young they are, about rebuilding and they sure as heck never cared enough to talk about how small their school is. Believe me, I’ve tried.

Saturday, both schools will slug it out at different locations for a state title birth. I couldn’t tell you if either school is favored but with these two, does it really matter if they are the underdog?

Nathan Pace is the Sports Editor of the Greene County Daily World and can be reached at npace@gcdailyworld.com. His “Low Budget Sports Show” airs weekly on Facebook Live.