By Macy Rice-
Everyday of summer Calvin Kraigenbrink dedicates himself to baseball. When he’s not playing
baseball for the Mount Vernon Mustangs, he is practicing his fielding, batting and
pitching during the off-season. He also plays on a club team named Perfect Game Steel in
Cedar Rapids.

Calvin is only a junior and has been playing on the varsity squad for two years.
His freshman year he was a starting pitcher for the Mustangs. That’s how he got his
nickname “The King” because teammate Marshall Kray stated, “he’s so big on the
mound and always thought of him as the king on the hill.” Calvin was second in the
pitching rotation. “Whenever he took the mound he did everything that he could so we
had a shot at winning the game,” Marshall said.

Calvin said that his best pitch is the splitter. This is when the ball has no rotation
and it falls before the batter can swing. Connor Welch, the catcher for the team, said
that “when Calvin is on with his four seam fast ball, he’s unhittable!”

Calvin doesn’t just pitch he also plays first base. He started playing this position his
sophomore year when he wasn’t pitching. “I would rather pitch than play first base, I
just like being involved in the game,” said Calvin. His idol is Steven Strasburg, number
37. For the Washington National. “I took number 37 because of Steven; he’s also a right
handed pitcher.”

In the game Mount Vernon versus Independence, Calvin had a great night. His first
time up to bat he hit a home run over left field. “It was my fist homerun ever,” Calvin
said.

When he hit the home run, “His little cousin went crazy and called him Calvy,”
said Marshall Kray. That wasn’t good enough for Calvin, he had his family and cousin
supporting him at the game and he was in the zone. “I threw the whole game with only
one hit,” said Calvin. It was a good game for his family to watch because they ended
up winning. The Mustang’s record at the end of the season was 19-14. With any losses
people tend to hang their head, but not Calvin.” He doesn’t show defeat like some people
would, he keeps his head up high when in tough times and works through it,” said
Conner.

“Calvin has worked hard for where he is at in baseball but he still has two more
years to become even better for the Mount Vernon team,” said Marshall.

The future is bright for Calvin. “I would like to play baseball in college where ever I can get a
scholarship,” he said.

Calvin has been a great asset to the Mount Vernon Baseball team and “if we
didn’t have Calvin we wouldn’t have won as many games this year,” said Marshall.