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Austin Munn had an RBI triple and scored the eventual game-winning run to lead the Lafayette Central Catholic Knights to a 3-2 victory over North Central (Farmersburg) in the Class A state championship game on Friday night at Victory Field in Indianapolis. The win gave the Knights their third consecutive Class A state championship and fifth overall.

Devin Morgan got the scoring started for the Knights in the 2nd inning. Morgan tripled down the right field line, then came home on Cody Schrader’s sacrifice fly. Munn’s triple in the bottom of the 3rd scored Jake Churchill, and Munn scampered home with the final run on a Ryan DeBoy sacrifice fly.

North Central rallied in the top of the 6th when Cole Johnson and Craig Bell had back-to-back RBI groundouts, but Brett Haan struck out Collin Harding to end the threat. Thunderbirds pitcher Connor Strain pitched a complete game and had three strikeouts in a losing effort, and also went 2-for-3 at the plate. Johnson and Nate Lyday had the only other hits in the game for North Central.

Head coach Craig Grow and the Thunderbirds made the school’s first appearance in the baseball state finals, and finished the season with a 25-6 record.

Haan, who was one of just two Knights starters that also played in last year’s state title game, tossed a complete game for coach Tim Bordenet’s Knights. Central Catholic finishes the 2011 season with a 26-9 record, and has now won four of the last five Class A state championships. Their five state championships ties Jasper for second place on the list of most baseball state championships in state history and they also equal Jasper as the only schools to win three consecutive titles. Only LaPorte’s eight championships ranks higher.

CENTRAL CATHOLIC’S DEVIN MORGAN NAMED MENTAL ATTITUDE AWARD RECIPIENT
Following the game, Lafayette Central Catholic’s Devin Morgan was named the winner of the L.V. Phillips Mental Attitude Award for Class A Baseball by the IHSAA Executive Committee.

The award is annually presented to an outstanding senior participant in each state championship game who has best demonstrated excellence in mental attitude, scholarship, leadership and athletic ability in baseball. The award is named in honor of the late L.V. Phillips, who served as the second commissioner of the IHSAA from 1945-62.

With today’s victory, Morgan has been part of five state championship teams at Central Catholic (baseball, 2009, 2010, 2011; football 2009, 2010) and earned 11 varsity letters (3 in baseball, 4 in football, 4 in wrestling). He served as co-captain for this year’s baseball and wrestling teams and earned the football team’s mental attitude award. Last week, he was named to the Hoosier Heartland All-Conference Baseball Team and was awarded the conference’s Male Sportsmanship Award winner for 2011.

He will attend Purdue University beginning in the fall and study in the Krannert School of Management.

He is the son of Joe and Estella Morgan of Otterbein, Ind.

Indiana Farm Bureau Insurance, the proud corporate partner of all IHSAA state tournaments, presented a $1,000 scholarship to Central Catholic High School in the name of Morgan.