Gary Dudgeon
North Decatur participates in three spring sports for boys - golf, track-and-field and baseball.
The golf team was troubled by inconsistency all year with only junior Zack Dwenger scoring well at most meets. As a result the team finished 4-11 in dual meets.
The same problem plagued the baseball team which posted a 3-15 season with pitching and errors proving to be downfalls.
Where North Decatur shined was in track-and-field where Stephen Speer and Luke Wenning threw the shot and discus well all season and both qualified out of East Central. Other performers who qualified out of the sectional were Shane Smith at 800 meters and Eric Lusk in the long jump ad the 4X100 relay team. Derek Moore ran the distances well all season but did not advance.
At the Connersville Regional, the Chargers were unable to qualify anyone, but the squad had the best team finish of the three county schools with Stephen Speer leading the way. His fourth place finish in the shot put was the difference maker in the team standings,
But the school’s best performances for the spring season came off the baseball team where Adam Warren and Ben Wenning waged a heated battle for the team’s batting average crown. Warren had the edge .449 -.446 at season’s end.
This single statistical category only tells part of the story, however. Wenning, the Chargers clean-up hitter the last two years, excelled in nearly every category of hitting and, despite catching, arguably the most demanding position on the field, he had no errors.
His slugging percentage based on total bases on his hits was a team-high .625 and his on-base percentage where walks and hit batsmen are taken into consideration was .523. When he was called upon to steal a base, Wenning was a perfect three-for-three.
In 18 games he had 25 hits and led the team with 11 RBI's.
“We teach our pitchers that when they throw a breaking pitch, they throw it down in the strike zone. Consequently, many balls are in the dirt when they reach (Wenning),” said Coach Garry Sauley. “ I can only remember one time all year where he was unable to stop the ball. That is a terrific confidence builder for the pitchers..”
In that situation, the pitcher gets charged with a wild pitch.
When he was queried about passed balls, Sauley said, “ I can’t remember him having a single passed ball all season.”
Those stats don’t show up as errors in the box scores, but the errors that do show in the field percentage were nonexistent as far as Wenning was concerned. He was a perfect 1.000 for the season and he threw out 17 enemy base runners in 18 games.
Even with gaudy offensive numbers deserving of being Most Valuable Player, his fielding statistics are even more impressive. His all-around play makes the Daily News proud to honor Ben Wenning as its Spring Athlete of the Season for North Decatur High School.
