PAT KEM: SHORTSTOP, LEADER,WINNER

As a coach you never really know how a player is going to develop in their high school years and how they will contribute to the program. When Patrick Kem came to Lutheran High School in 2013/14, I was very happy about the potential Pat demonstrated as a freshman in the 2014 season.

Pat joined a team that had several very good players in the class two years ahead of him and he fit right in. Playing with that class and winning games was a factor that influenced his career.

In his three years as a starter, Pat's teams had a record of 52 wins and 21 losses. He was on four Sectional Champion teams and one Regional Champion team. A special career.

Pat made his debut on the baseball diamond for Lutheran on May 21, 2014 versus Lapel. He was a pinch hitter and and was the last batter of the game, a 7-3 loss. Pat came to bat 10 more times that freshman season and had 6 hits including one double. Hitting .545 as a freshman was a great beginning to his career.

As a sophomore Pat played second base and hit 9th in the batting order. Our 2015 team was very deep with upper classmen and Pat played a key role in the team success. Pat did not start out so well going 2 for 11, .182, after 8 games. For the season, Pat ended up hitting .328 and played solid defense. I believe the experiences of his sophomore season established a strong foundation for the rest of his career.

Pat's junior season was an interesting one. We had several games rained out and ended up with only 21 games including the Sectional and Regional. As a junior, Pat moved from secondbase to shortstop, taking over for Cody Moncel. He also took over as one of our team leaders. In 2016, Jake Reid and Spencer Owen were the senior leaders and due to the rainouts, pitched most of the games. Our team ended up with a record of 14 and 7. We lost to Clay City and a player named Hunter Wolfe in the Regional. Wolfe was a lefthanded pitcher and an excellent hitter who played at Purdue and Dayton following high school. Pat put together a very good season hitting .384 from the lead-off spot. He led our team in Runs Scored (27), Stolen Bases (17), and some other categories. He was Honorable Mention for the All Marion County Team, and our only player selected to the Indiana Crossroads All-Conference Team.

As the 2017 season began, we thought the season may be a rebuilding season. We did not have many returning starters (3), two of which were sophomores. Pat was our only returning senior starter but was joined by seniors Zach Sanders and Jacob Faubion in our everyday line-up.

Pitching in 2017 was going to be a question mark. We had a returning staff that had a combined two career wins. As the season progressed, our two main starters were Matthew Alter (Soph) and

Aiden Bradbury (FR).

Starters were: 1B Alter/Bradbury 2B Alex Kem (FR 3B Carson Thomas (JR)

RF Jared Sneed (Soph) C Noah Wood (Soph) SS Pat Kem LF Zach Sanders

CF Jacob Faubion DH Brett Reid (Soph)

The regular season was a good one. We ended up with a record of 13 wins and 7 losses. Pat hit in the lead-off spot and was a spark on offense. The factor that set Pat apart was on defense. He had an incredible season. He was involved in getting 124 outs including 79 assists from the shortstop position. To bring perspective, his 79 assists in a season was 25 more assists than any other LHS infielder's season. Credit also goes to the pitchers during the season to get batters to hit so many ground balls. Regardless, a great season of defense from Pat who had 45 put outs to go along with the 79 assists and a .921 Fielding Average.

For our team, the first game of the season game proved insightful into how the season was going to proceed. We played Perry Meridian in a double header at Holder Field. The team PM had was not one of their best, but still was pretty good. In the first game, Matthew Alter started and after four innings the score was 0-0. As was going to be important in our season, Pat led off the fifth inning with a walk. (During the season, a remarkable factor was Pat leading off an inning/game with a base hit or walk that helped us score runs). Jacob Faubion got an base due to an error. Noah Wood doubled to drive in both runners for a 2-0 lead.

For Perry Meridian in the 5th, Matthew K'd the first hitter but the 2nd batter reached base due to an error. The next two hitters singled and they scored to make the score 2--1. Their #3 hitter walked to load the bases. It was clear that Matthew was tiring so we decided to bring in freshman Aiden Bradbury. Aiden was making his high school debut under very difficult circumstances, but rose to the occasion by striking out the Perry clean-up hitter and getting the third out on a pop out to Pat.

The Saints held the lead and won 2-1. Two key factors for our season revealed themselves: Pat leading our offense and defense with Matthew and Aiden combining to win games on the pitcher's mound .

For the season, Pat led off an inning by getting on base 23 times. In high school baseball, getting a lead-off runner on base is very important. Pat did an excellent job of doing that.

As we went into the Sectional, we had to play at Sheridan as the IHSAA did not want us winning at Morristown again. I will not go through each game, but through the Sectional and Regional, Pat got to first base via a base hit and scored in the first inning of each game. Senior leadership. With those wins, Lutheran won its first Regional Championship! In the Semi-State, Pat was our first base runner by leading off the 4th inning with a base hit and scored our first run. We lost to Lanesville in the Semi-State as they went on to become State Champions. Overall, Pat had a batting average of

.471 in our tournament games.

As the senior leader of our Regional Champion team, Pat put together an outstanding season. Pat was our team MVP, Co-captain, and leader in Batting Average, Runs Scored, Doubles, and Hits.

Pat was selected to the All-Marion County team as well as being selected to the All-Indiana Crossroads Conference team.

In Pat's senior season he hit two home runs. He must have made hitting a home run a goal for the season. On April 11, 2017, Pat hit a home run against Morristown at Lutheran. Interestingly, his first three AB's were: Fly out CF, Fly out CF, Fly out RF. In his fourth At Bat, he got one to go over the fence! He hit his second homer against Southwestern on May 17, 2017, at Lutheran.

Pat's statistics with the bat were:

YEAR AVG. AB HITS RUNS 2B 3B HR RBI SAC BB K HBP SB OPA

2014 .545 11 6 7 1 - - 1 - 1 2 - 1 .583

2015 .328 61 20 18 2 - - 12 3 7 15 1 4 .389

2016 .384 73 28 27 4 1 - 12 - 15 8 - 17 .489

2017 .372 86 32 34 9 - 2 14 1 12 11 - 13 .444

TOTAL .372 231 86 86 16 1 2 39 4 35 36 1 35 .457

In my mind, it is the skills Pat showed as a fielder that separates him as a Lutheran baseball player.

His abilities to move his feet, stay with balls on non-turf fields and throw accurately, established him as one of the best infielders to play at Lutheran. Here are his fielding statistics:

YEAR ASSISTS PUT OUTS ERRORS FIELDING AVG.

2014 3 1 - 1.000

2015 33 25 5 .921

2016 46 26 10 .878

2017 79 45 11 .919

TOTAL 161 97 26 .908

In Pat's Lutheran baseball career, he cemented himself as one of our best players. His contribution to his teams is reflected in the records he is part set:

8th in Career Runs Scored

10th in Career Batting Average

3rd in Season Doubles

8th in Career Doubles

8th in Season Stolen Bases

9th in Career Stolen Bases

1st in Career Fielding Assists

1st in Season Assists

As I think back to Lutheran players and seasons, Pat will always be special for his leadership and outstanding play during the 2017 season. The combination of players we had that year was very special and their combined efforts led to a great season. Pat Kem was the catalyst for that Regional Championship team!