Seymour hands out baseball honors

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The Seymour baseball team honored its players Wednesday at the high school cafeteria for a successful 2015 campaign.

Owls senior Mitchell Moore picked up plenty of honors as he was awarded Most Valuable Player, Pitcher of the Year, Hitter of the Year, .500 club, Hoosier Hills Conference and All-District first team.

This season, Moore led the Owls with 32 hits, including seven doubles, one triple and a home run.

On the mound, Moore finished 7-2 with 64 strikeouts, 25 walks, 52 hits and 22 earned runs.

Moore has also been nominated to the All-State team and the North/South All-Star games.

“Mitchell is a heck of a player,” Owls coach Jeremy Richey said. “He’s our guy on the mound and won seven games for us. He led us in hitting and RBIs and other offensive categories. Mitchell had a good junior year and a great senior year. We hope that our younger kids will step up and fill those kind of shoes.”

Five seniors graduated from the Owls’ program, a special group because a majority of them were the first Richey coached for all four years.

Richey said Moore, Seth Stuckwisch, Bobby Kaufman, Brandon Shafer and Clayton Mettert all helped the program grow.

“I think the first thing you have to talk about is the legacy they’re leaving in terms of work ethic,” Richey said. “Every one of them is leaving here better personally. I think the program is better because of it. I think that if you’re a senior class, that’s all you can ask for — leaving the program better when you leave it.”

For the first time, the Owls handed ouyt the Doug Hill Memorial Leadership Award.

The award honored the late Hill, who was a part of the 1970 team.

Boys and Girls Club director Steve Stanfield presented the award, which was sponsored by the 1970 baseball seniors. Stanfield was a co-captain with Hill during the season.

Stuckwisch was presented the award for his leadership on and off the field.

“It’s great,” Richey said of the new award. “Hopefully that leads into other classes. The class of 1970 called us with the idea, and I said ‘absolutely.’ It’s a great way to honor our alumni, and it’s special for us and them.

“We’re excited, and it might open up some things for other classes that want to honor someone in a special way. The alumni is huge for us. If we can honor alumni we’re going to do it.”

A Hoosier Hills Conference honorable mention and a .500 club award also was given to Stuckwisch.

Other members of the .500 club included Alan Perry, Luis Muñoz, Keenan Bohall, Jacob Ahlbrand and Jorge Vega.

Golden Glove awards were presented to Muñoz, Vega and Satoshi Hirose for their strong efforts in the field.

The Baseball Scholar Athlete award went to Mettert. The award combined ACT, SAT and other academic achievements.

Kaufman and Shafer each received the Coaches Award who represented some of the best qualities of the program.

For his constant determination and energy on the field, Bohall was presented the Owl Hustle Award.

This season the Owls’ varsity team went 15-12 while making it to the Seymour Sectional championship game. The junior varsity squad finished 5-10, and the freshman team went 3-9.

This was the first time the Owls had hosted a sectional tournament.

“It was a really cool atmosphere,” Richey said. “The facility worked great. Curt Nichols did a great job on the PA and we represented ourselves very well.”

Richey said that around 20 kids in the Owls’ program will play on travel baseball teams this summer.

The Owls also will compete together in about eight games prior to the fall and are hitting the weight room three times a week.

This season, it was undeniable the difference from the 2014 campaign for Richey.

“Consistency,” Richey said of the 2015 squad. “Last year our highs were high and the lows were low. I think, this year, we were able to weather that some. We played a little more consistent than we did last year. That’s the challenge of the program. We want to make sure we’re always moving forward.”

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