By Pete Cava

Prep Baseball Report Indiana 

BLOOMINGTON – Even after host Indiana University bowed out of this year's Big Ten Tournament at Bart Kaufman Field, May 24-28, one Hoosier kept on playing – all the way to the championship game.  

Former Indiana high school players graced the rosters of five of the eight teams in the double-elimination tourney.  

Sixth-seeded IU led the way with 14, while nine ex-Hoosier preps wore Purdue black and gold.  The No. 8 Boilermakers were eliminated after losing to top-seeded Nebraska and No. 5 Iowa.   

IU fared a shade better.  After a loss to No. 3 Minnesota, the Hoosiers edged No. 2 Michigan 5-4 in 13 innings.  IU's run ended when the Gophers beat them in a rematch. 

Still going after IU and Purdue departed were a pair of former Indiana high school players:  Iowa freshman outfielder Justin Jenkins and Nebraska sophomore catcher Jesse Wilkening. 

Jenkins, a defensive replacement for the fifth-seeded Hawkeyes, was in centerfield when Iowa closed out the tourney with a 13-4 win over No. 7 Northwestern in Sunday’s championship game.  

The win gave Iowa its first Big Ten Tournament crown and assured the Hawkeyes of a berth in the NCAA Division I College World Series, June 17-28 in Omaha. 

Jenkins also saw late-inning action in the Hawkeyes’ triumphs over Maryland, Nebraska, and Minnesota in the semifinal round.  In two at-bats, he had a single and knocked in a run. 

The left-handed-hitter was a two-sport standout at Terre Haute South High School.  He batted .413 as a senior with 37 RBI and had seven steals for the baseball squad.  A receiver in football for the Braves, the 5-foot-10, 196-pound Jenkins was a two-time first team all-state pick.  Before committing to Iowa, he considered Indiana State and Purdue.  

Jenkins’s diamond skills could be hereditary.  Jeff Jenkins, his father, is head coach at Rose-Holman.  “He’s just a phenomenal baseball IQ,” Terre Haute South baseball skipper Kyle Kraemer told the Terre Haute Tribune-Star.  “I think that comes from being a coach’s son.”        

Wilkening, from Cedar Lake, Ind., is a 2015 Hanover Central High School graduate.  He was behind the plate for all three of Nebraska's games in the tournament.  After a first-round victory over Purdue, the Huskers lost to Iowa and then to No. 4 Maryland in an elimination contest. Wilkening had three hits in 11 at-bats during the tourney. 

Wilkening finished his prep career with a state-record 206 hits, 20 home runs, 156 runs batted in, and a .516 batting average. The Arizona Diamondbacks selected him in the 28^th round of the 2015 draft, but the sturdy 5-foot-6, 193-pound backstop opted to attend Nebraska, where he's majoring in criminology and criminal justice. 

Hanover Central coach Doug Nelson praised Wilkening’s work ethic.  “He spends a lot of time working at it,” Nelson told the Northwest Times of Indiana.  “He loves it, he works at it, he understands it and spends a lot of time on it.” 

BIG TEN TIDBITS:  The tournament brought one other Indiana prep product back to his home state.  Michigan reliever Mac Lozer, a 2017 All-Big Ten Third Team pick, appeared in the Wolverines’ two games in Bloomington.  As a senior in 2013 at North Central High School in Indianapolis, the 6-foot-1 right-hander went 6-1 with a 1.08 ERA. 

IU centerfielder Craig Dedelow (Munster) went 4-for-13 in tourney play with two homers, his 16^th and 17^th of the season. 

Purdue first baseman Jacson McGowan (Brownsburg) was a one-man wrecking crew for the Boilermakers, going 4-for-8 with a homer and three ribbies. 

Evan Warden (Western), Purdue’s second baseman, batted .400 in the tournament with four hits in ten at-bats, including a double.     

Pauly Milto (Roncalli) started for IU against Michigan and scattered seven hits over five innings while giving up two runs..

Cal Kruger (Jasper) pitched three scoreless frames in relief for IU to get the win in the Michigan contest. 

The complete list of former Indiana high school players in this year's Big Ten Tournament: 

Indiana:  Fr. LHP Cameron Beauchamp (Peru HS), Sr. OF Craig Dedelow (Munster HS), Fr. INF Matt Gorski (Hamilton Southeastern HS), So. LHP Tim Herrin (Terre Haute South Vigo HS), Fr. RHP Cal Krueger (Jasper HS), Jr. RHP Brandon Kelley (home-schooled, Evansville), Sr. OF Alex Krupa (Greenwood HS), So. INF Luke Miller (Cowan HS), So. RHP Pauly Milto (Roncalli), Fr. LHP Andrew Saalfrank (Heritage HS), So. RHP Grant Sloan (Zionsville HS), Jr. OF Logan Sowers (McCutcheon HS), Sr. RHP Luke Stephenson (Triton Central HS), Jr. INF Colby Stratten (Bloomington North HS). 

Iowa:  Fr. OF Justin Jenkins (Terre Haute South). 

Michigan:  Jr. RHP Mac Lozer (North Central HS). 

Nebraska:  So. C Jesse Wilkening (Hanover Central HS). 

Purdue:  Jr. RHP Tanner Andrews (Tippecanoe Valley HS), Fr. OF Milo Beam (Westfield HS), Fr. UT Drew Bertram (Zionsville HS), RS Sr. Brian Ghiselli (West Lafayette HS), So. INF/RHP Jacson McGowan (Brownsburg HS), Jr. OF Alec Olund (Lake Central HS), Jr. INF Harry Shipley (Cathedral HS), RS So. Evan Warden (Western HS), Fr. LHP Hunter Wolfe (Clay City HS).    

Pete Cava is the author of “Tales From the Cubs Dugout” and “Indiana-Born Major League Baseball Players:  A Biographical Dictionary, 1871-2014.”