UIndy outfielder saving his best baseball for last

<p>Devon Hensley knows what it’s like to play through pain.</p><p>Hensley, the starting center fielder for the University of Indianapolis baseball team, has experienced plenty during his career. Nonetheless, the senior returns each time with a greater resolve and sense of purpose than before.</p><p>“It’s been a grind overcoming adversity,” said Hensley, a former two-sport standout at Center Grove. “My dad taught me at a pretty young age that you can play through pain, but not through an injury. I was probably 9 or 10 the first time I heard that.”</p><p>Hensley, who turns 22 today, is the son of former Greenwood boys basketball coach Bruce Hensley, who retired following the 2016-17 season.</p><p>Devon’s maternal grandfather, former race car driver Eldon Rasmussen, competed in three Indianapolis 500s in the late 1970s. Toughness is in the blood.</p><p>“At this point I’m just kind of used to it. You try to do what’s best for your team,” said Hensley, who since the start of his sophomore baseball season at UIndy has endured a torn right labrum, a broken jaw, a dislocated left shoulder and a herniated disc in his lower back.</p><p>“Competitively, I just have always wanted to be on the field that day.”</p><p>Early in his sophomore season, Hensley tore his labrum sliding into second base when his right hand jammed into the base. Instead of taking time off, he remained in the lineup until getting hit in the jaw with a pitch while squaring to bunt in a game at St. Joseph’s.</p><p>“It was a fastball that was tailing inside and it got me right in the jaw,” Hensley said. “I didn’t lose any teeth, but it did shift some of my teeth.”</p><p>Following surgery in March 2017, his mouth was kept shut with rubber bands for six weeks and Hensley adapted to a liquid diet. He wasn’t even able to eat soft foods such as mashed potatoes and SpaghettiOs (sans meatballs) until a month after the injury.</p><p>Hensley missed the remainder of the season, his weight plummeting from 185 pounds to 160 pounds.</p><p>Despite missing so much time, Hensley had still played in too many games as a sophomore, starting 21, to qualify for an athletic redshirt. He came back to make 37 starts as a junior, participating in 45 games overall for a UIndy squad that advanced to the championship game of the Great Lakes Valley Conference tournament.</p><p>Hensley is currently enjoying a productive April, batting for average (.452), driving in 14 runs and scoring 10 himself. He’s doing it all while wearing a brace on his left shoulder and a C-Flap face protector on his batting helmet.</p><p>Hensley majors in sports marketing and is on pace to graduate in December. He’ll first serve an internship at his alma mater by working in Center Grove’s athletic department during the fall semester.</p><p>He’ll have no shortage of athletic experiences to share with Trojan athletes should they be interested.</p><p>“I’m really looking forward to going back to Center Grove and working with them,” Hensley said. “It will give me a better understanding of what goes on behind closed doors that maybe I took for granted when I went there.”</p>