Luke Helton and Grant Herron grew up playing their favorite sport on many of the same diamonds, against similar opponents and against one another.
It took being 200 miles from home to strike up a friendship.
Teammates on the Morehead State baseball team, Helton, a sophomore starting pitcher who played at Whiteland, and Herron, a freshman reliever from Center Grove, enjoy trying to lead the Eagles to their seventh winning season in the last eight years.
“Luke and I had always known of each other,” said Herron, a right-hander who leads the team in saves with two and was credited with the win — the first of his collegiate career — in Morehead State’s 5-2 victory at then-No. 1 Louisville earlier this month. “I would probably say hi to him when I saw him.”
During the summer, Helton and Herron played for the Turf Monsters, a baseball team in the Grand Park Summer League in Westfield. It served as a precursor for the experience of home games at Morehead State’s Allen Field and bus rides to destinations such as West Virginia, Charlotte and Marshall.
Due to last spring’s onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, Morehead State played 15 games before having the remainder of its season canceled. Helton contributed in four outings as a reliever, striking out six batters in his 5 2/3 innings.
Morehead State coach Mik Aoki now uses Helton as part of his three-man rotation during weekend games, the others being senior right-hander Jason Goe and soph righty Matt Bettio. The starter for midweek games is done on a rotational basis, with senior Will Lozinak mostly stepping into that role.
“Last year was kind of a free sample of college baseball. It’s definitely a lot different. You can still throw good pitches and get hit,” said Helton, who has meshed an 89 to 90 mile-per-hour fastball with a changeup and slider in his five starts this season.
“I like my role a lot. We’ve been playing pretty well against the big schools. It’s definitely cool to play at the different places, but when the game starts it’s still a baseball field.”
Over the weekend, the Eagles won three of four games at Norfolk State, with Helton improving to 2-1 on the season by pitching the first five innings of a 5-1 win. Morehead State is 10-10 going into this weekend’s three-game series at UT Martin.
Herron, meanwhile, didn’t get to experience a senior season of high school baseball due to the shutdown of spring sports. The Daily Journal’s co-Player of the Year in 2019, Herron was slotted to pitch for what was expected to be a very talented and senior-oriented Center Grove squad after going 7-1 with a 1.02 ERA and batting .400 with five home runs as a junior.
Understandably, he’s savoring every aspect of getting to play a baseball season in a new environment with teammates he now considers friends — including Helton.
“When I got here, I didn’t really know what I would be,” Herron said. “Before the season, the coaches told me I would be a reliever. I enjoy the role. I’m just trying to embrace it and come in in bigger situations and get the last outs.”
