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Harden happy to come home, scrimmage alma mater
As the Linton bus pulled off the roadway and into the parking lot at Northview High School Monday evening, all kinds of emotions began to rush through the school’s head baseball coach Jacob Harden.
Harden played his high school career as a Knight and then returned as an assistant coach under head coach Craig Trout after playing collegiately.
On Monday, he got his first year as a head coach, a lifelong dream of his, off the ground as the Miners and Knights squared off for a four-inning scrimmage in the cold.
“I had to hold back tears,” Harden admitted. “It was such a nostalgic moment for me. It didn’t seem like too long ago I was a skinny, young freshman donning the black and white for my first scrimmage. I remember the feeling and I know how important this is for these boys. The fact that we got to open up where I started as a young high schooler, you can’t dream it any better than that.”
There was a good chance that Monday night’s scrimmage that brought Harden home in front of several family, friends and familiar faces wasn’t going to happen in 2022.
Northview was originally scheduled to play Crawfordsville in a scrimmage on Friday, but due to inclement weather, it was cancelled. Linton also was in search of getting a scrimmage under its belts, and so it was the perfect match for both sides, which was agreed to and then later announced over the weekend.
“It was a dream come true [to play Northview],” said Harden. “I knew from the start that I wanted to play Northview, whether it be a scrimmage or an actual game. I love my hometown, I love my former coaches and I love my former team. I knew this would an awesome chance for our Linton Miner program to get better.”
Trout and Harden decided to play a four-inning scrimmage – with varsity playing the first three innings and junior varsity playing the final inning – that allowed a 10-batter lineup to hit around in each frame with the bases being cleared once three outs had been recorded.
Linton scored one run in the first offensive inning and two runs in the second offensive inning while holding Northview to one run in the Miners’ first defensive inning and zero runs in the second defensive inning.
Harden said his group improved greatly from competing against a reigning Class 3A sectional champion. He was glad his guys had the chance to see a team of that caliber – with top tier players on the mound and at the plate – with Linton opening up the regular season Saturday against Castle.
“I really believe tonight was the best thing for us,” he said. “We will be going up against a stacked Castle team on Saturday, so this was great to see what we need to improve on, which lineups worked best and also confirmed we will be a great ball team.
“Our guys were able to face very similar guys to what we will face against Castle as well as the rest of the year,” Harden continued. “[Landon] Carr was firing bullets, so it was great to see someone like that to help set the tempo for what to expect Saturday. It was also nice to get guys reps at different positions, and Craig knew we needed to work on certain things – two-out hitting – so we were able to have flexible structure that best helped both teams.”
While Monday’s scrimmage benefited the Miners on the field as they prepare to get things rolling this weekend, which Harden said has him feeling like a kid on Christmas Eve full of excitement and anticipation, the first-year head coach, who is in the midst of building the program’s foundation, pointed out the most important thing was for his group to see where they want to eventually get to when looking across the field and inside the Northview dugout.
“Our guys were also able to see what a successful, reputable baseball program and community is like with Northview,” said Harden. “That is what we are shooting for – and beyond. When you see guys in the other dugout and know they have the blue rings, you know they are doing something right.”