The baseball rocketed off the bat of Center Grove’s Caden Curry, certain to go off or over the wall during a hotly contested Memorial Day sectional battle in Mooresville.
With almost any other high school player manning center field, Curry would have been standing on second at a bare minimum, if not trotting all the way around the bases. But Max Clark isn’t your typical high school player.
The Franklin sophomore went full Jackie Bradley Jr. on Curry, ranging back to the wall and swallowing the ball up with his glove.
Though the Grizzly Cubs wound up losing the game in extra innings, the nonchalantly spectacular play served as a reminder of what national travel baseball scouts have known for quite some time and local high school fans got to see for the first time this spring:
Max Clark is just different.
Whether playing center, pitching or at the plate, Clark was a dominating presence in his first season in a Franklin uniform, and he is the Daily Journal’s Player of the Year.
Clark, ranked as the No. 2 sophomore in the country by Prep Baseball Report, batted .450 with six home runs and 30 RBIs for the Grizzly Cubs despite numerous teams pitching around him (he walked 30 times in 116 plate appearances). He also used a 90-something mph fastball to lethal effect, striking out 120 batters in 50 innings while going 6-0 with a 0.84 earned-run average.
Everything he was expected to do, and then some, got done.
“Offensively, defensively — and his striking out 12 to 15 batters a game really condensed the game for us, and we haven’t had that in several years,” Franklin coach Ryan Feyerabend said.
Because of his commitments with the Indiana Bulls, an elite travel team, Clark hadn’t had the opportunity to play a game in his hometown with his closest friends until this spring.
He said the “six or seven years” of waiting were well worth it. Even with a pandemic lingering, Franklin regularly packed the bleachers for home games — and the on-field energy was also noticeably different than it is for Clark on the summer circuit.
“Every time that we played Center Grove, Mooresville, a big rival, there was a bunch of energy,” he said. “Everyone was going back and forth with each other, and we were just kind of going at it for seven innings. It was outstanding.”
The teams that were good enough and confident enough to pitch to Clark often rued doing so; he homered twice in four games against Center Grove, once against Mooresville and once against 4A semistate qualifier Mt. Vernon.
Many others chose to just not give him any pitches to hit, preferring to take their chances against someone else in the Grizzly Cub lineup. But while some stars might have grown impatient with such treatment and tried to force the issue, Clark was fine with taking the free base when it was given.
“I know that the next guy behind me and the guy after him definitely have my back,” he said. “Obviously, it stinks getting pitched around, but it’s kind of a respect thing. I know I can also help on the bases; I can use my speed, steal bases (he had 31), score on balls in the gap, etc. Any time I can get on base, that’s helping the team.”
Indeed, it helped Franklin — which had hovered around the .500 mark for the four seasons before the 2020 campaign got erased — improve to 20-9 this spring, with high hopes of even greater success over the next year or two.
Additionally, Clark has helped generate a greater enthusiasm for baseball in the community. Youth players come out to high school game in droves, and on one recent evening every baseball, softball and even football field in town was packed with young boys who hope to suit up for the Grizzly Cubs one day.
“He’s definitely starting to attract a pretty good crowd, which is awesome to see,” Feyerabend said. “Young kids recognize him, obviously, because of the little bit longer hair and the way he plays.
“He’s been a super great ambassador for what we’re trying to do here at the high school, and he’s definitely got some young kids interested.”
Major league scouts are interested, too. They’ve started showing up in Franklin to check out Clark, and that interest should only intensify as the 2023 MLB draft draws nearer.
Though Clark, who verbally committed to Vanderbilt nearly two years ago, still says he wants to play in college — he counts playing summer ball in the prestigious Cape Cod Baseball League among the items on his to-do list in the sport — that perspective could change if he ends up becoming the first Johnson County player drafted in the first round out of high school since Center Grove’s A.J. Zapp in 1996.
Fortunately for Clark, he has two years left before having to make any such decisions. In the meantime, he’s focused on maintaining or elevating his standing with those scouts — and his teammates are right there with him, working toward the postseason hardware that eluded them this year.
“We’re just trying to get better every single day,” Clark said.
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The 2021 All-County team for baseball:
Max Clark, Franklin sophomore: Excelled at the plate (.450, 6 HR, 30 RBIs, 31 steals, 30 walks), on the mound (6-0, 0.84 ERA, 120 Ks in 50 IP) and defensively in center field for the Grizzly Cubs.
Drew Culbertson, Center Grove sophomore: Batted .379 with 15 doubles, three homers, 41 runs scored and 21 driven in while anchoring rock-solid Trojans infield.
Caden Curry, Center Grove junior: First baseman provided a fearsome power bat for Trojans, hitting .325 with four home runs and 29 runs batted in.
Logen Devenport, Franklin junior: Emerged as a star, hitting .388 with two game-winning homers, 28 RBIs and 11 steals while also giving the Grizzly Cubs another reliable starting pitcher.
Mitchell Evans, Center Grove junior: One of the state’s top offensive threats, hitting .419 with 13 doubles, five triples, seven homers, 45 runs, 36 RBIs, a 1.338 OPS and 15 stolen bases.
Sam Griffith, Center Grove junior: Another steady producer near the top of the Trojans’ lineup with a .347 average, six doubles, four triples, 36 runs scored and 28 batted in.
Owen Guilfoy, Center Grove junior: Delivered consistently at the plate for county and sectional champs, hitting .327 with three homers, 37 runs and 28 RBIs.
Drew Helton, Whiteland freshman: Starred immediately for the Warriors, batting a team-high .381 with 14 RBIs while also excelling on the mound (3-1, 1.77 ERA).
Grant Sawa, Center Grove sophomore: Area’s top defensive backstop also provided a spark at the bottom of Trojans’ order, batting .302 with a home run and 14 RBIs.
Jacob Wilson, Center Grove junior: Established himself as a top-tier hurler with a 7-1 record, 2.19 ERA and 66 strikeouts, including 11 in sectional championship victory.
Drue Young, Center Grove senior: Trojans’ go-to starter in big games went 7-0 with a 1.09 ERA, striking out 77 while walking just 13 … Signed to play at Indiana Wesleyan.
Honorable mention
Nolan Ankney, Indian Creek; Garrison Barile, Center Grove; Mason Britt, Indian Creek; Caden Cornett, Center Grove; Jonathan Crowley, Whiteland; Noah Detling, Edinburgh; Drew Doty, Franklin; Nick Dwenger, Whiteland; Zach Ferguson, Center Grove; Jace Fowler, Franklin; Trey Harney III, GCA; Jackson Henry, Franklin; Cade Kelly, Greenwood; Jackson Klem, Franklin; Josh Miller, Greenwood; Carter Modlin, Indian Creek; Ben Murphy, Center Grove; Charlie Overton, GCA; Riley Palmeter, Edinburgh; Justin Partyka, Indian Creek; Zak Rasener, Greenwood; Caden Wilburn, Whiteland
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