North/South All-Star Weekend
June 21-23, 2024 @ Huntington University
Friday, June 21 - Players arrive and All-Star banquet (Indiana Player of the Year announced)
Saturday, June 22 - 2 9-inning games. Players were All-Star Uniforms
Sundy, June 23 - 1 9 inning game using wood bats. Players in high school uniforms
Indiana Baseball Player of the Year
The IHSBCA is proud to announce that the 2024 Indiana High School Player of the Year
goes to Hogan Denny of Mooresville High School. Hogan was primarily a catcher and pitched in relief for the Pioneers. He was coached by Eric McGaha.
2024 Stats: 35 games hitting / 17 pitching appearances
Hitting: .480 avg. 49 hits, 42 runs, 40 RBI, 33 walks, 10 home runs
Pitching: 49 innings, 0.71 ERA, 2-1 Record, 11 Saves, 85 K's
For being the the Player of the Year, Hogan Denny wore the #1 jersey for the South squad to represent his status as the POY. No player wears #1 in the game except the Player of the Year.
On Saturday, June 22nd the two All-Star teams played 2 9-inning games. The event started off with the two teams taking batting practice and then all players were introduced along with their high school coaches before the game. After all players/coaches were introduced the fans in atttendance witnessed long time high school coach of Huntington North High School and Indiana Baseball Hall of Famer, Don Sherman throw out the the games first pitch. Next was the traditonal umpire meeting and the games started. In the first game, the South (as the vistors) started hot and went on to win 11 - 5. The second game of the day was a little more competitive when the North team scored 8 runs in the final 3 innings, however they couldn't overcome the deficit and lost 12-11 to the South team.
The South team was lead by Bedford North Lawrence head coach Jeff Callahan and the North team was lead by Caston head coach Blake Mollenkopf.
Sunday, June 23rd was the last day of the All-Star weekend and saw the South and North square off again in a 9 inning game, but this time the players would bat with a wooden bat. In addition, all players would represent their high schools wearing their high school uniforms. In this game, the North team would jump out with a 2 - 0 lead, however like the two other games in the series they ended up losing 5-3 when the South team scored 4 runs in the 7th inning. With the 3 victories the South team broke the all-time record tie. Going into the weekend the series was tied at 70-70-2 overall. Now the South team leads 73-70-2.
Below you can see the box scores for the three games.
2024 All-Star - Game 1-Box Score 2024 All-Star - Game 2-Box Score 2024 All-Star - Game 3-Box Score
The unique thing about the All-Star weekend is that the players get a chance to interact with each other, not just in competition but also get to know one another. Some might be in opposition in this series but teammates in college. After the 3rd game, the players wanted to get a group photo of all players which had never been done before.
In addition, the Don Jennings All-Star MVP award was announced. Don Jennings is an Indiana Baseball Hall of Famer from Terre Haute. And, to nobody surprise the winner of the Don Jennings MVP award went to Mooresville's Hogan Denny. In the 3 games Denny went 4-11 (.364) with 5 RBI's, 3 Runs, 3 2B's and a Home Run. He also threw 2 innings allowing only 1 hit, striking out 2 and giving up 0 earned runs.
Congratulations to Hogan Denny and the rest of the All-Stars and a huge thank you goes out to Huntington University for hosting this annual event. Next year the All-Star series and Future's showcase which occurs on the Wednesday before the All-Star games will be held at Loeb Stadium in Lafayette, IN on June 18-22, 2025.
