2021-22 Baseball
1 Nolan Tucker IF
2 Jake Kapers C
3 Cooper Avery RHP
4 Spencer Warfield OF
5 Jeremy Drudge OF
6 Alex Thurston IF
7 Grant Ross IF/RHP
8 Zach Fricke RHP
9 Matt Olive OF/C
10 Christian Hack LHP
11 Connor Lockwood RHP
12 Jacob Rosenkranz RHP
14 Angel DiFederico C
15 Kaleb Hannahs IF
16 Josh Cottrill RHP
17 Alex Ryan OF
18 Jonathan Hyman RHP
19 Kade Reinertson C
20 Brady Nowicki IF
21 Adam Brauch IF
22 Ryan Maka OF
25 Colin Fields RHP
27 Kyle Schmack OF/1B
28 Patrick Ilitch C
29 Jake Miller LHP
30 Brady Renfro LHP/1B
32 Bobby Nowak RHP
33 Keegan Bates LHP
34 Grant Jablonski RHP
35 Nolan Lebamoff RHP
36 Trent Turzenski RHP
38 Griffin McCluskey RHP
39 Ryan Mintz RHP
42 Nathan Chasey RHP
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Alex Thurston

#6 Alex Thurston

Pos. IF
B/T R/R
Ht. 5-10
Wt. 170
Yr. So.
Hometown Fowler, Ind.
High School (Prev. School) Benton Central
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2023 CSC Academic All-District

2023: Played in 46 games – all starts – while posting a .238 batting average… Drove in 17 runs and scored 19… Had 11 extra-base hits including a triple and a pair of home runs… Earned College Sports Communicators Academic All-District honors… Received Valparaiso University Presidential Academic Honors… Hit home runs on March 5 at Little Rock and May 24 vs. Belmont in the MVC Tournament… Collected four hits on May 7 vs. Southern Illinois.

2022: Finished second on the team in batting average by hitting .301 in 47 games, all starts... After hitting .158 in 2021, made a significant jump during his sophomore season... Posted a career-high five hits on April 29 at Southern Illinois, the team that eventually finished atop the MVC regular-season standings... Became the first Valpo player with a five-hit effort since Scott Kapers on May 8, 2018 vs. Western Michigan... Accrued 11 doubles, three triples and one home run while driving in 16 runs and scoring 20... Finished with a .357 on-base percentage and .409 slugging percentage.

2021: Appeared in 40 games and made 39 starts… Lashed 19 hits including five doubles and two triples… Posted nine RBIs, 21 walks and 12 runs scored… Had two hits and drove in two in the April 27 game at No. 8 Notre Dame… Posted a season-high three hits including a triple on May 15 in the second game of a doubleheader vs. Evansville… Member of MVC Academic Honor Roll.

Prep (Athletic): Three-year all-conference honoree and one-year academic all-state recipient… Four-year letter winner on the diamond… Also earned four letters in tennis and one in basketball… Played nine years of travel baseball for Northern Stars Baseball, from 9U to 17U.

Prep (Academic): Member of National Honor Society, Spanish Honor Society and Council for Academic Excellence… Won the 2019 Nanoline Automation national championship with three classmates. The winning project created by the Benton Central team was an automated paint brush cleaner… Finished as the Valedictorian of his senior class.  

Personal: Son of Patrick and Michelle Thurston… Is an only child… Majoring in kinesiology with a minor in business administration… Hobbies include hunting and hiking… Favorite food is smoked meat, movie is Moneyball, pro baseball team is the New York Yankees, MLB player is Derek Jeter, musical group is Garth Brooks and TV show is The Mentalist.