The ascent of Morgan Township’s Grant Cowger has paralleled the baseball team’s climb over the course of his career.
With the senior outfielder/pitcher at the peak of his game, the Cherokees won their first regional title in their third straight appearance, defeating Porter County Conference rival Tri-Township in Class 1A at LaPorte last week.
“It’s awesome,” Cowger said. “It was pretty fun the other day. First time in school history. It’s an honor to be a part of the team. It’s an honor to be a major contributor.”
Indeed, Cowger has been among the players at the forefront as Morgan Township (13-13) prepares to play Fremont (13-13) in the semifinals of the LaPorte Semistate at 10:30 a.m. Saturday. He’s hitting a team-high .400 with a homer, 14 RBIs and 16 stolen bases. Cowger said an in-season adjustment kick-started his production.
“I found my swing midway through the year, and I’ve been pretty hot recently,” he said. “I’m just seeing the ball well out of the pitcher’s hand, just capitalizing on their mistakes.
“Early on, I was dropping my hands, and that led to popups, weak contact. I focused on that, keeping them up and just barreling the ball and making hard contact.”
With Valparaiso recruit Jack Wheeler leading the pitching staff, the left-handed Cowger also has excelled on the mound. He has a 2.62 ERA with 39 strikeouts and 10 walks in 29 1/3 innings.
Cowger’s performance stands out in senior Logan Atchison’s mind.
“He’s been the best hitter on the team, and he’s a great pitcher too,” Atchison said. “He’s a very good outfielder. He’s just all around a great player.”
Morgan Township coach John Smith also praised Cowger’s well-rounded game.
“Grant’s been a key guy for us the last couple years, a core guy,” Smith said. “He’s a big part of our team. I knew coming in this year he was going to be even more important to us as a senior. He does it on both ends.
“He’s a great pitcher for us, has battled all year in some big games. … Offensively, he took a leap for us this year. We liked his bat. We liked his confidence at the plate early on in the season. So we decided to move him into the leadoff spot because he was swinging our best bat and was confident and aggressive. We wanted to get our games going early, get him on base early. He has good speed, knows the game really well, can read the ball really well. That’s part of what got him going this year — about a third of the way through the year, we put him in the leadoff spot, and he just flourished.”
That move also had other ramifications for Cowger, according to Smith.
“He really came into his own as a leader,” Smith said. “He got the guys’ energy up early, and that’s what we need. Our guys feed off that. Any time Grant gets on base, we’re in really good shape.”
Cowger didn’t necessarily enter the season in the best of shape. He suffered a back injury in soccer late in the regular season last fall, before Morgan Township reached a regional in that sport too.
“After every game, I could barely walk, even the next day,” he said.
Cowger went to physical therapy and said he wasn’t fully recovered until the end of January. Over the winter, he couldn’t work out with the intensity he wanted, but he still managed to add around 12 pounds to hit 150 on his slender 6-foot frame.
“It’s not much, but it makes a difference,” he said.
Last season, Cowger hit .407 with a homer and 11 RBIs and posted a 4.60 ERA with 26 strikeouts and eight walks in 24 1/3 innings. He said he played only during “garbage time” as a freshman. He then earned a starting position in the outfield at the beginning of his sophomore season but said he “fell into a cold spell” to lose his spot, which he described as “a humbling experience.”
“There were a lot of learning opportunities,” Cowger said. “I learned to make it through the hardships to get to our success the last three seasons. I worked on stuff throughout all those years and got to where I am now and where the team is now.”
When Cowger was a freshman, Morgan Township lost in a sectional final to eventual state champion Washington Township. The Cherokees lost to Fremont in a regional semifinal in 2022 before winning their third consecutive sectional title last season.
Smith pointed to that experience as a factor in the Cherokees’ breakthrough this season.
“That helps, especially in big moments, crucial moments,” he said. “They’ve been there. They know how to manage their emotions and calm things down and execute when maybe others haven’t been in those situations. These guys have been there, been around the block, and we’re starting to see the dividends the last couple years.
“This group has worked really hard, not only this year, but really all four years of their high school careers if you’re talking about the seniors. We have seven of them. Their freshman year, losing in the sectional championship to Washington Township, we decided, then and there, ‘Hey, this is what we want, to raise some trophies and feel some of that success.’ And they’ve worked hard ever since. It’s just an awesome experience for these guys to have that 2024 regional champions attached to their legacy. It’s a fun group, and I’m very proud of them for what they’ve accomplished so far.”
Cowger is planning to attend Purdue Northwest to study civil engineering. For the past two years, he participated in a vocational program in computer-aided design, spending half of his school days at the Porter County Career Center.
“It’s 3D modeling on the computer, making parts, making buildings, animation,” Cowger said. “I found an interest in that from a young age. Being a civil engineer goes along with that pretty well.”
Cowger has already been taking a summer class in American history at Ivy Tech, and Morgan Township’s graduation is scheduled for Thursday.
But he’s ready for Saturday.
“We’re confident,” Cowger said. “We’re just going to go in with the same mindset as the other day, get the job done, win two games and go to state. We know our strengths, what we do. Just play that way, and we’ll win.”
