Chase Henning will play in the Fox River Valley American Legion All-Star game Saturday at Fox Cities Stadium in Grand Chute.
Henning, an outfielder and designated hitter for Shawano’s American Legion baseball team, will join 27 other players on the National Conference team that will play the American Conference team.
“He was our top hitter this year,” Shawano coach Will Gillis said. “Based on that, he was the top nomination for the All-Star team this year. He hit just under .400 in league play. Had a good regional tournament as well.”
Henning was 12th in hitting in the FRV West Division, leading Shawano with a .393 batting average.
“He’s just an all around good hitter,” Gillis said. “He works on it. You can tell he works pretty much every day on his swing and it shows.”
While he shined at the plate, Henning also was a solid contributor on defense.
“He played good defense as well,” Gillis said. “We kind of had him in some positions that he wasn’t accustomed to playing. We put him in a little bit at shortstop before we figured out who was going to be our shortstop for the year. In the outfield he made some impressive throws.”
Missing part of the high school season, Henning took a while to get to full strength playing Legion ball.
“As the Legion season progressed, he got stronger. I would put him in the designated hitter spot just to get him some rest,” Gillis said. “It’s pretty remarkable what he did this year, hitting as well as he did, as he was injured for a lot of the year. That’s pretty impressive for sure.”
Gillis said playing at Fox Cities Stadium will be a great experience for all the players.
“I think it’s great. It’s a great venue to showcase some of the top players from the area,” Gillis said. “I’m sure it’s an exciting time. I don’t know when they moved it there to Fox Cities Stadium, but it’s always exciting to play at a professional park.”
Categories
