Taylor baseball standout Logan Barnes had been antsy for months, waiting for Tuesday to arrive. He made his college choice last fall, but had to wait to make it official.
“I’m so excited. I’ve been waiting on it for the past three months now,” Barnes said Tuesday, the day he signed to play baseball at Danville Area Community College. “I committed three months ago so I’ve been waiting for this day for a while.”
Barnes had all the information he needed to pick the school in Danville, Ill. It helped that he had friends on the inside. Cameron Clark, a senior on last season’s Taylor team, is a freshman at Danville now, as is former travel ball teammate David Anderson. The strongest input came from former Taylor player Seth Vautaw, who played at the two-year school and is now a junior on Ball State’s squad.
“It factored in a lot. They both seemed to like it a lot,” Barnes said of conversations with Clark and Vautaw.
“Seth Vautaw talked to me about how they do things old school [at Danville], in the way he likes. And I know the way he liked it in high school and that’s the way I like it, so I figured that’d be a good fit for me,” Barnes said.
Another local product, Western’s A.J. Vazquez, is a sophomore on the Danville squad.
Taylor coach Brent Owens thinks Danville will be a good fit for his shortstop.
“Logan is that type of old-school baseball player,” Owens said. “He’s not the type of kid that only plays the game three or four months a year. He’s the type of kid that works on his baseball game 12 months a year.”
Barnes led Howard County last season as a junior with a .443 batting average and with four triples. He was also among the county leaders in runs (25), doubles (seven) and steals (10). In addition, he threw 30 1/3 innings for Taylor with an ERA of 2.31 and a 4-2 record.
The school and the program of skipper Tim Bunton sold themselves when he visited.
“I really liked the coaches, they had a lot of good things to say and the campus is nice,” Barnes said. He added that it helped that he’d be able to study his major of choice — pre-med — at Danville.
Barnes thinks Danville will use him in a middle infield spot. He said as a player, he offers “speed and just kind of a utility player. I can hit wherever, and I can bunt the ball and so the things I need to do to get the team a win.”
That’s what Owens saw from Barnes in his first three seasons as a varsity player.
“He’s a very heady baseball player; he’s baseball smart,” Owens said. “He does all the little things right and he’s definitely a coach’s player from a standpoint that he knows what a coach expects from him, and he’s literally like an extension of a coach on the field. He’s a great kid to have around.”
Barnes also excelled in tennis at Taylor, and is playing basketball this winter.
Sports
Titans’ Barnes picks Danville Area CC
He follows Taylor pipeline to Danville’s baseball program.
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GASKINS: Hibbert’s block was thing of beauty
For the better part of the NBA season, ESPN devoted all kinds of time on SportsCenter episodes to replays of two dunks. Anyone who watches any ESPN at all surely knows the two to which I’m referring: 6-foot-11 DeAndre Jordan of the Los Angeles Clippers posterizing 6-3 Brandon Knight of the Detroit Pistons, and 6-8 LeBron James of the Miami Heat hammering home a dunk over 6-2 Jason Terry of the Boston Celtics.
Day after day, ESPN commentators lavished endless praise, which quickly grew tiresome. The dunks were strong, but Jordan and James were much taller and heavier than Knight and Terry and the dunkers also caught perfect alley-oop passes with the defenders in poor positions to defend. Still, ESPN commentators loved these plays.
I kept wondering if a great defensive play would receive the same kind of love. -
Coons, Walker, Glassburn reach Victory Lane
When the dust settled Sunday evening at the Kokomo Speedway, a pair of drivers who have visited Victory Lane in the past at the local oval found themselves there once again while a talented up-and-comer hit the hallowed ground for the first time.
Jerry Coons Jr. had his way in the sprint car feature and Craig Walker seemed to get faster as the laps wound down to win the Street Stock main event, however Kokomo High School sophomore Kory Glassburn had to scratch and fight before scoring the first feature win of his career in the Thunder Car A-main. -
Field is set for Indianapolis 500
After being bumped from the starting field while sitting on the qualifying line on pole day, Josef Newgarden turned the fastest time on bump day, assuring himself a spot in the Indianapolis 500.
The field of 33 cars will have one final opportunity to practice on Friday before next Sunday’s 97th running of the 500.
One year ago the Sarah Fisher Racing Team withdrew Newgarden’s entry on the first day of qualifying and had to qualify on bump day. This year the team decided not to make another qualifying run and got bumped. -
Athlete of the week
Cole led the small-school Comets to the Kokomo Sectional title, their first title since 1998.
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Kats regain tennis throne
At 10:51 a.m. Saturday morning, the bulk of Kokomo’s girls tennis team sprinted from the viewing hill to the east entrance of the tennis courts to mob No. 1 singles player Morgan Mohr as she came off the court following her 1-6, 6-1, 6-1 victory over Eastern’s Courtney Clark.
The No. 3 singles match was still raging, but the team match was already won. The Wildkats had reconquered the throne from two-time defending champion Eastern and were once again champions of the Kokomo Sectional. -
Eastern boys track claims first sectional title since 1998
The boys track and field coach at Eastern High School from 1987 until last season, Paul Nicholson’s parting message to his team was simple: “Don’t deny the gift.”
That motto left such a lasting impression on the Comets’ returning athletes that they had it screen printed on their 2013 season T-shirts.
With Nicholson in attendance to celebrate with them, new coach Austin Roark and the Comets outlasted host Kokomo to win their first sectional title since 1998 Thursday night, topping the Wildkats by 3.5 points, 124.5-121.
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Eastern, Kokomo favored in boys track sectional
Some of the names and faces have changed, but the plot remains much the same.
The Kokomo boys track and field sectional, much like last year, will likely be a two-horse race between the host and three-time defending champion Wildkats and Eastern, a team looking to break through and win its first sectional title since 1998. -
Cole to jump at Miami University
Eastern athlete Grant Cole has only been a long jumper for two seasons, but being turned on to the event late in his career has landed him a scholarship to Miami University.
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Comets roar to sectional title
As the old adage goes, it’s harder stay on top than it is to reach the top.
Eastern’s girls track and field team entered the 2012 postseason hoping to put in a strong enough effort to claim the program’s first sectional title.
Having done so, the Comets entered Tuesday’s postseason opener — the Madison-Grant Sectional — with a much larger bull’s-eye on their backs than in previous years.
Eastern proved up to the challenge, scoring a landslide victory to repeat as sectional champions with 125 points. -
Dexter leaving Eastern
Eastern girls basketball coach Jeremy Dexter has stepped down from the Comet program after accepting the AD job at Churubusco last week. Churubusco is in Whitley County about 15 minutes west of Fort Wayne.
Dexter led the Comets to a Class 2A state runner-up finish this past season. - More Sports Headlines
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