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BCR Baseball Player of the Year: Logan Philhower’s last pitch is a good one for BV · Illinois Valley - Shaw Local

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  Speaker 1: BCR Baseball Player of the Year. Logan Philhower's last pitch
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  is a good one for BV Written by Kevin Hieronymous.
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  This article is being read by an automated voice brought
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  to you by Everlett. Just when you didn't think Logan
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  Philhauer couldn't lower the bar any farther, he did. Last year,
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  Phil Hower set the school record for ERA at one
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  dot two zero comma, becoming Bureau Valley's first player to
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  receive first team All State honors for an encore, the
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  Storm Ace lowered his school ERA record to zero point
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  eighty four this season, going four to two with eighty
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  nine strikeouts. He has set virtually every school, single season
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  and career pitching record. A dual threat, phil Hower also
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  led the Storm at the plate with a point three
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  six one average, thirty three runs, seven doubles, and nineteen RBIs.
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  He set the Storm's career runs record eighty three and
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  tied John King's career hits record with ninety nine. He
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  was named first team Lincoln Trail East All Conference this season,
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  earning ILHBCA Class One All State Honorable mention For his accomplishments,
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  phil Hower has been named as the twenty twenty six
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  BCR Player of the Year. He is the first Storm
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  named Player of the Year since two thousand and eight
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  and eighth in school history. Logan had a fantastic year
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  last year and was deserving of the All state recognition
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  As a junior Storm skipper, Ryan Schissler said, knowing how
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  Logan goes about preparing himself in his arm in the offseason,
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  that's something he's pretty dedicated to. So yeah, we felt
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  like he had just scratched the surface in terms of
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  his ability there. He went out and delivered on the
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  mound and it was really neat to see him continue
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  to evolve. I'll look forward to seeing him continue to grow.
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  At Swick, phil Hower even surprised himself how far he
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  dropped his era. It is kind of crazy. I didn't
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  think I'd get that low, he said. I could definitely
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  tell my staff got better. My sophomore year, I wasn't
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  no one guy. I struggled a little bit, and then
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  junior year I started filling in the shoes being the guy.
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  I got a little more comfortable pitching against better competition
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  and continued to develop, and then my senior year that's
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  how some of my numbers got even lower just growing
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  into that role. Being the guy pretty hard to follow
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  up last season. I just wanted to pretty much leave
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  it all out for my last season. I'm pretty proud
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  how my season went. Schizzler moved Phil Hower to the
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  leadoff role this year to give him more at bats
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  and jumpstart the Storm offence. Honestly, I loved it. It
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  was great being a spark for the team, he said. Really,
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  just trying to set the tone early and get everybody
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  hyped up first at bat of the game. I loved it.
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  Trying to get me and Drake Taylor at one two,
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  trying to get the most at bats, getting on base early,
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  trying to steal some bags and get into scoring positions
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  for Blake Foster and Raid Maynard to hit us in.
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  So does he get consider himself a good pitcher first
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  who also hits well, or a good hitter who also pitches.
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  I've always been a pitcher first, he said. I have
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  enjoyed hitting as well. I think hitting is very rewarding,
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  but I've always been a pitcher first since I was
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  very young. I definitely love hitting, for sure. Phil Hower
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  will make his pitch as a full time pitcher for
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  Southwest Illinois College, a highly regarded junior college program in
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  Bellville coached by former Putnam County High School coach Dave Garcia.
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  I've been hearing great things about their program, and that's
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  the place to develop their pitchers. Hoping to be an
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  important piece of their team as a freshman and continue
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  to get better. Phil Hower said they had twelve fourteen
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  guys go d one from Swick and the majority of
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  these guys are pitchers. I hope to be one of
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  them in the future. Phil Hower has been giving a
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  lot more thought lately about the Storm's five to one
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  regional semi final loss to Putnam County. He came about
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  five feet from hitting a game tying grand slam in
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  the fourth inning with the Storm trailing four zero. Oh yeah,
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  I've been thinking about that for a while. I still
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  think we could have beat them if a couple things
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  go different. We played them pretty much to their closest
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  game they've had before State, he said. The last Storm
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  named as Player of the Year was John King in
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  two thousand and eight. Kevin Thomas was named in two
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  thousand and six, with the Storm's Brett Monson two thousand
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  and seven, Nick Davis two thousand and four. Jeff Egan
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  nineteen ninety nine, Axel Done nineteen ninety eight, and John
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  Watson nineteen ninety seven each named as co Players of
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  the Year.