Two Fairfield baseball players were honored by the Indiana Baseball Coaches Association (IBCA) as All-State for Class 3-A.
Graduated senior Alec Hershberger was named First Team All-State as one of two pitchers for 3-A, joining Mitchell Dean of Western. It's the second time Hershberger was named IBCA All-State, earning honors last season as a junior for Class 2-A. And for the first time, sophomore Michael Slabaugh was named as an Honorable Mention All-State pick. Of note, Dean was also named All-State at first base for the Panthers.
Hershberger, who was also selected as PBR All-State and a North-South All-Star, was 7-3 in 11 appearances this past season, tossing four complete games, two shutouts and a no-hitter. He struck out 106 batters to move him to over 300 for his career, which is now the Fairfield program standard, and held batters to a .170 batting average for the season.
Slabaugh was chosen Honorable Mention by the IBCA after posting a monster 2023 season. The young catcher appeared in all 31 Fairfield games, batting .470 with 47 hits and 20 RBI, among the workload were 12 doubles, a triple and three homers. He also struck out just seven times in over 110 plate appearances and had a .543 on-base percentage. Behind the plate, Slabaugh committed just five errors in 277 chances, good for a .982 fielding percentage.The IBCA, which picks one player per position and two pitchers for its First Team, had nine of the top ten picks come from northern Indiana.