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Ray Reisinger tossed a two-hit shutout to lead Providence to a 4-0 victory over Eastside in the Class 2A championship game.

Reisinger dominated from the start, retiring the first 11 Blazers hitters and finished it off by scattering just two singles and compiling 11 strikeouts without walking a batter.

Reisinger also helped himself with his bat, as he doubled and scored in the second inning as the Pioneers (23-7) had six (of their seven) hits for extra-bases.

Shortstop Casey Kaelin proved to be the hitting star for the winners as he rapped an RBI-double in the first inning, then drove in Reisinger with a two-out double in the third. Coach Scott Hutchins’s squad added two insurance runs in the sixth inning.

The title in the second in program history as Providence also won in 2016. It was also the second state title of the 2020-21 school year for PHS, as the boys soccer team achieved that feat the previous fall.

Coach Aaron Willard’s Blazers (26-7) were making their first appearance in the state finals. Eastside got hits from Dylan Hertig and Jack Buchanan.

Eastside’s Franz named Mental Attitude recipient
Following the game, members of the IHSAA Executive Committee announced Liam Franz of Eastside High School as the recipient of this year’s L.V. Phillips Mental Attitude Award in Class 2A Baseball.

Franz recently graduated as valedictorian in his senior class of 97 students. He is a member of the National Honor Society and served as Student Council President. Liam is the founder of the Make a Child Smile Foundation, a nonprofit organization that donates care packages to children in hospitals, conducts food drives, donates school supplies, and donates clothes to children in need. Liam was the Lilly Endowment Scholarship Winner of DeKalb County.

Liam is the son of Bobby and Jacee Franz of Hamilton, Indiana. Liam plans to attend the University of Notre Dame to major in Business Marketing.

He is the third Eastside student-athlete to receive an IHSAA mental attitude award and the first since 1996 when Derrick Miller won in wrestling.

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.

Indiana Farm Bureau Insurance, the IHSAA's corporate partner, presented $1,000 to the general scholarship fund at Eastside High School in the name of Liam Franz.