Category: Sports

A few days ago, I had the chance to interview Dekalb Baron baseball coach Chris Rhodes. I hadn’t had a chance to catch up with Chris over the Summer, so we thought it would be a good time to talk a little baseball. To add to the festivities, Chris was able to bring his son Easton along to listen in.

This past Spring, Coach Rhodes finished up his 15th season leading the Barons. Dekalb was eliminated in the sectional semi-finals by Columbia City. With that loss, the Barons lost a number of seniors. Three of those players are going on to play college baseball. Ty Rottger is playing at Kalamazoo Valley Community College, Bayley Coleman is playing at Indiana Tech, and Nick McDonald is playing at Bethel.

Coach Rhodes told me he does with his incoming squad as the new school has gotten underway. A number of years ago, he started “open fields” in the Fall. The Barons will go until the weather doesn’t cooperate any more. Then it’s on to weights, and indoor conditioning, and before you know it, it is time to get going in the Spring once again.

I then switched gears with him to talk some pro ball, and he told me he has been a lifelong Cincinnati Reds fan. His favorite player growing up was Pete Rose. He likes “Charley Hustle” because of the way he approached and played the game. His favorite players he likes to watch now are Joey Votto & Josh Hamilton.

We talked some about the division races and the possible wild card teams. Even though Oakland has been scorching hot, he still thinks the LA Angels are going to make a run.

I asked him his prediction on a world series match up. He said as much as he likes the Reds, he thinks that the San Francisco Giants pitching is going to make the difference in the National League. Then he said that the Texas Rangers lineup is pretty powerful up & down. And that their pitching was pretty good as well. So it was Rangers vs Giants in world series. We didn’t pick a winner, but I’m going with the Rangers as the third time will be the charm.

We discussed the current state of the Auburn area youth baseball situation. He said it is in the hands of some very good people, and that a number of future Barons are well on their way to becoming part of “Dekalb Baseball.”

A week or so ago, my son Ethan’s Summer league baseball team was sitting around in the dugout before a game, when I heard the subject change to talk about a tremendous high school baseball game that took place at DHS in May of 2010.

It was a game between Dekalb & Carroll with a share of the NHC conference championship on the line.

This years Summer league team has a number of players who participated in that game. Jeremy Shelmedine, Steve Remesnik, Gavin Downs, and Zach Vanlandingham from Carroll. While ex-Baron players are Ethan Prebynski, Zach Pfafman, Casey Weaver, & Logan Sparkman.

The thing about that game that people don’t realize is, Dekalb played Prairie Hts. in a seven inning makeup game before the Carroll game on a Wednesday evening “school night.”

Skyler Rottger started on the hill for the Barons, while Remesnik toed the bump for the Chargers.

Both pitchers would be on their games from the get-go. Rottger had his only trouble of the night in the second inning when Carroll sent 6 men to the plate, and scored a lone tally. You didn’t know it at the time, but that would be the only run the Chargers would score in the game.

Skyler would end up throwing 10 innings on the night, would not walk a batter, gave up only 4 hits, and amazingly, only faced 35 batters in those 10 innings of work.

Remesnik was almost as sharp. The only run he gave in his 6 plus innings of work was when junior second basemen Ethan Prebynski blasted a home run deep over the wall in left leading off the fifth inning. Besides that HR, Ethan also had 10 assists from his second base position.

Senior Curtis Wise came on in relief for Carroll in the seventh inning, and he would go the rest of the way, which was into the 13th inning.

After those 10 innings of work, junior Zach Vance came in for Dekalb, and he would go the final 3 innings. he also did not walk a batter. 13 innings of work by Baron hurlers, and NO free passes!

You could honestly feel the tension in the air as that fateful 13th inning rolled around. In the top of the inning, with 2 outs and a runner on second, a Carroll batter drove a pitch to deep left field. Junior outfielder Chris Harpenau made a fantastic running catch to end the inning, and keep the game tied.

In the bottom of the frame, Casey Weaver led off with his second hit, a single to left. Catcher Shea Parrish laid down a beautiful sacrifice bunt that got Casey to second. Then, in a way you would never expect, junior Jarrod Forrest hit a soft “tweener” that eluded the first baseman, the second baseman, and even the right fielder who was frantically charging on the play. Weaver raced home from second, and the Barons won 2-1, and shared the NHC regular season crown.

It was certainly a game for the ages, but the epilog is this. It would be Carroll’s last defeat of the season. They would go on to win back to back state championships. Unfortunately for Dekalb, as good as they were during those few seasons, Carroll was always standing in the way come tournament time.

In the history of Dekalb Baron baseball, who had the greatest individual season at the plate, according to their respective statistics?

If you are are a student of the game of baseball, you know that baseball is based on statistics, and the bottom line is, stats don’t lie.

I was going through the DHS baseball record book, and I decided that I would list what I considered the best overall years ever by an individual player according to the numbers.

I’ll start by saying that special kudos must go out to the only 2 players who hit at least .500 with a minimum of 50 at bats. In 2003, Troy Krider hit .544 to set the all-time Dekalb record. In 2001, Travis Coleman compiled a .517 average.

These accomplishments were quite noteworthy, but I wanted to recognize special seasons where DHS players dominated every facet of the stat sheet.

If you go back to what some people consider the “glory days” of Baron baseball, Dekalb had  players in the years of 1979, 1980, & 1981 who would all qualify. In 1979, Ty Cobbs put up a .463 BA while collecting 38 hits, 17 doubles, 6 HR, 41 RBI, and scoring 31 runs.

In 1980, the year Dekalb won the state championship, Nick Phillips posted a .442 BA, had a Baron record 57 hits, had 11 doubles, 9 HR, 27 RBI, and scored 46 runs.

The following year, in 1981, Todd Cobbs batted .495, had 49 hits, 11 doubles, 7 HR, 36 RBI, and scored 30 runs.

In 1983, Bob Squires, who as a freshman, had  the winning hit in the 1980 state championship game, compiled a .471 average, had 49 hits, 12 doubles, 14 HR, 49 RBI, and scored 37 runs.

In 1993, Todd Likens hit .490, had 49 hits, 7 doubles, 4 triples, 6 HR, 48 RBI, and scored 28 runs.

In what was probably the best “back to back” seasons by a Baron player happened in 1994 & 1995. Brad Weber, who would be named “Mr. Baseball” after the 1995 season, accomplished the following. In 1994, he hit .485, had 48 hits, 14 doubles, 6 home runs, 35 RBI, and scored 30 runs. He followed that up in 1995 with a .486 average, 51 hits, 16 doubles, 11 HR, 44 RBI, and scored 45 runs.

In 1996, Jeremy Sassanella put up the following numbers. A .462 BA, 48 hits, 10 doubles, 9 HR, 34 RBI, and 33 runs scored.

Jimmy Long had a tremendous season in 1998 leading Dekalb to the semi-state championship game. He hit .475, had 56 hits, 9 doubles, 4 triples, 11 HR, 43 RBI, and 51 runs scored.

Most recently, in 2009, Zach Pfafman put a season for the ages. Zach hit .490, had 48 hits, 14 doubles, 7 HR, scored 30 runs, and had a whopping 51 RBI, a record that will not soon be broken.

Who’s season was the greatest? I’ll leave that for you to decide!