LAFAYETTE, Ind. (WLFI) — The McCutcheon baseball program was slated to face rival Harrison Tuesday evening.
Instead that game and the entire spring sport season has been canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
As a result, 11 McCutcheon senior players saw their careers end.
The Mavericks' senior class included Russell Kingma. Kingma pitched and played infield for McCutcheon, and plans on attending Purdue in the fall.
Mason Douglas pitched and played outfield for the Mavs, and will continue his academic and baseball careers at Purdue Fort Wayne next year for former McCutcheon head coach Doug Schreiber.
Three sport athlete Garrett Maish, who shined on the football field in the fall, will join Douglas at Purdue Fort Wayne in the classroom and on the baseball field. Maish's favorite memory is hitting a grand slam against Jeff at Loeb Stadium.
Lane Clevenger caught and pitched for McCutcheon, and will attend Eastern Michigan University in the fall.
Jon Shambaugh made it to the state finals with Gavin Dardeen in doubles tennis in the fall, while also playing a key role on the mound for the Maverick baseball program. Shambaugh plans on studying finance in college.
Tyler Lathrop played third base for McCutcheon. He drove in 12 runs during his junior campaign.
Marshall Crum's favorite memory is winning the NCC title in 2019. Crum will attend Purdue in the fall.
Jayden Shuman also played a key role in McCutcheon success, and shares the same memory as Crum. The second baseman wants to study criminal justice.
Jackson Williams is set to major in sports marketing at Indiana Tech. He will play baseball for the Warriors in addition to his academic studies.
Tucker Loft will attend Indiana State in the fall, and will study computer science.
Brady Kas suffered a career-ending concussion while playing junior varsity back in 2018. Kas continued to help the program succeed behind the scenes. Kas will attend IUPUI for sports management.
All 11 student athletes were scheduled to play for McCutcheon graduate Tristan McIntyre. The first-year head coach of the Mavericks knows the future of his program is in good hands because of the class of 2020.
"They made this program better, without even having a season this year," said McIntyre.
"Just what they put in, kind of returning that work ethic in this program that you know what, we're invested in September, December, July whatever it is, that you know what, that's going to go a long way. As much as it hurts right now you'll look back at it, five, 10 years from now and feel good about what you did for this program."
McIntyre said the group did so much for him in terms of starting his high school head coaching career.
"I will be forever grateful for this group for kind of getting that going for me as a first year coach."
