March 28, 2024

PCM’s Brown makes it official with Buena Vista

Austin Brown made an impact on the Prairie City-Monroe baseball team a little sooner than head coach Shaun Hudnut had envisioned.

But once he got a chance to show what he could do, Brown, now a senior, never gave up his position. Three years later, Brown has taken his opportunity and turned it into a chance to pitch at the next level.

Brown, who has improved in every year of his career, committed to play college baseball at Buena Vista University on Twitter on Feb. 4.

He made it official with the Beavers last week during a signing ceremony with his parents Deanna and Noel Brown, Hudnut and PCM Athletic Director Greg Bonnett in attendance at the high school.

“We saw potential in Austin as an eighth-grade pitcher,” Hudnut said. “He’s not overpowering, but he knows how to pitch. He locates well. He’s always working out and always throwing.”

The schools that were interested in Brown did not start and end with Buena Vista, which is located in Storm Lake. Brown chose the Beavers over Luther College, and he also had interest from Cornell and Wartburg and attended camps at South Dakota and Sioux Falls.

The Mustang ace said his decision to choose BV over Luther involved the coaching staffs.

“The biggest factor for me was that the coaching staff at BV has been there a long time. They have had a lot of success,” Brown said. “Luther just got a new coach.”

Brown’s numbers since his freshman season at PCM have gotten better each year.

He batted .219 as a freshman and went 3-3 with a 2.69 earned run average on the mound.

That season included one save, 39 strikeouts and 23 walks.

As a sophomore, the batting average bumped up to .257. The ERA dropped to 1.98, and he fanned 67 batters while going 6-4.

His junior season was his best yet. He was one of the team’s best hitters with an average of .325 with six doubles, nine walks and seven hit by pitches.

As a starting pitcher, he went 4-3 but his ERA was 1.11.

Two of those three losses came after he yielded a total of one earned run.

Brown is unsure if he will be a starter or a reliever at BVU, and he doesn’t care at this point.

“I just want to go in there my freshman year and try to get better every day,” said Brown, who has attended three camps at BV and made three official visits to campus. “We’ll see where that takes me.”

Brown will once again be the ace of PCM’s staff in 2016. The Mustangs went 9-17 last year.

They played a regular season game against Gilbert at Principal Park last season. Brown wants his next trip to Principal Park to be made at the end of the summer at the state baseball tournament.

For now, he’s just happy the recruiting process is over so he can focus on his final year at PCM.

“I feel like a weight has been lifted off my shoulders,” Brown said. “It’s a tiring process. You make long drives by yourself. And you have to get to campus really early, too.”