Senior shortstop a valuable weapon for Braves

<p>When Steve Mirizzi took over as Indian Creek’s baseball coach before last season, he had a good degree of familiarity with the talent he was inheriting.</p><p>The one great unknown was Wyatt Phillips, who had opted not to play for the Braves as a sophomore.</p><p>“Honestly, I didn’t know anything about him,” Mirizzi said. “I just had heard through the grapevine what kind of player he was and what he could bring to the table. I remember that first workout he came in … he just kind of showed up, and you could see right away he had the tools.”</p>[sc:text-divider text-divider-title="Story continues below gallery" ]<p>Those tools were on display all of last season, when the shortstop topped the Braves in most offensive categories while leading the team to county, sectional and regional titles.</p><p>Baseball has always been Phillips’ first love; he has been playing high-level travel ball for the past several summers. Sitting out a full high school season was tough, he says, but he points out that he gained in some ways from his absence.</p><p>“Overall, running track (in 2017) has helped my infielding skills and has helped me gain speed and quickness,” Phillips said. “Even throwing, it’s helped me gain strength in my legs and use of my core, so I can throw harder.”</p><p>Mirizzi has been able to put that arm strength to good use. Phillips doubles as Indian Creek’s No. 3 starting pitcher, allowing the team to still bring some heat from the mound while giving senior aces Trevor Ankney and Dustin Sprong some rest.</p><p>He finished last year with a 4-1 record, a 1.46 earned-run average and 54 strikeouts against just 17 walks in 38 1/3 innings. Still, Phillips is most valuable at short.</p><p>“He’s just very consistent for us,” Mirizzi said. “He can make the routine play, and then he’s going to make a spectacular play and wow you every once in a while. Obviously, he’s got the arm strength to make up for anything that’s in the hole.”</p><p>At the plate, Phillips serves as the anchor of the Braves’ lineup. Working out of the No. 4 spot, he was 8 for 12 over a recent four-game stretch with seven runs scored and nine driven in. When Center Grove walked Sprong to get to Phillips during the Johnson County tournament, Phillips made the Trojans pay with a three-run homer that put the game away.</p><p>Though he has the power to take the ball out of the yard, as he did a team-high seven times last season, Phillips is usually content to do whatever it takes to bring runs across.</p><p>“There’s usually runners on base,” he said, “and all I have to do is just poke it to the outfield to score a run, move them around. I think with my on-base percentage and batting average, I’m pretty good at scoring runs and getting RBIs for the team.”</p><p>As a smaller school, Indian Creek is full of multi-sport athletes that don’t specialize in any one particular thing. Phillips, though, has always a baseball player through and through. He even opted not to play football this past fall because he knew that baseball held the key to his athletic future — and his academic one, too.</p><p>After graduation, Phillips will head to the University of Indianapolis, where he’ll have a chance to hone his baseball skills while pursuing a degree in business management. The end goal, he says, is to be able to help grow his father’s construction business when his days on the diamond are behind him.</p><p>Even with his short-term future secured, though, Phillips isn’t getting complacent.</p><p>“Going to college to play baseball has been one of my dreams ever since I started playing,” he said, “and now that I get that opportunity, I’ve just got to keep working hard and improving my skills.”</p><p>That work ethic is one of the traits that Mirizzi is most proud of. Though Phillips isn’t the most vocal player on the Indian Creek roster, he’s clearly one of the most respected and one of the guys who helps set the tone by setting the right example.</p><p>“He just leads the way by his actions,” Mirizzi said. “A lot of the younger guys look up to him and see his work ethic, and that’s just huge as a coach to have somebody like that.”</p><p>Mirizzi may not have known what he had in Phillips when he arrived, but he’s now pretty secure knowing what the senior is going to bring to the field every time out.</p>