By RICHIE HALL
Tommy Sommer’s senior season at Carmel High School also happened to be Matt Buczkowski’s first year as the head coach of the Greyhounds.
But Buczkowski had been the coach at fellow Metropolitan Conference school Lawrence Central before coming to Carmel, so he was aware of just how special Sommer was – “I had known about Tommy long before I got to Carmel,” he said.
Flash forward to 2021, where baseball fans across the nation will soon get the chance to know about Sommer. The Indiana University pitcher was chosen by the Chicago White Sox in the 10th round of the Major League Baseball Draft earlier this week.
Sommer had committed to the Hoosiers by his junior year at Carmel, a season he helped the Greyhounds win a sectional championship. He earned All-State honors and was a three-time All-MIC player as well.
“It didn’t take long to realize the intangibles that he possessed to set him apart, even from a talent perspective,” said Buczkowski.
When Sommer got to Bloomington after graduating from Carmel in 2017, he settled in for a long run as a solid, consistent player for IU, a school at which his father Juergen Sommer played soccer, helping Indiana to a national championship in 1988.
During his four years for the Hoosiers, Sommer compiled a record of 13-9 and an earned-run average of 3.71. He got right into the swing of things as a freshman, where Sommer was 2-1 in 13 appearances with a 3.07 ERA.
Sommer finished this past season with a 5-4 record, tossing 69 strikeouts and holding his opponents to a .237 batting average. Highlights of Sommer’s season included three games with at least 10 strikeouts: Sommer threw 12 strikeouts against Purdue on March 19 and 11 against Minnesota on April 21. In his first game of the season, which took place March 5 at Minnesota, Sommer struck out 10 and allowed only two hits in eight innings.
In addition to his success on the mound, Sommer also earned Academic All-Big Ten honors during the 2019 and 2020 seasons.
Buczkowski felt that getting drafted was a “strong possibility” for Sommer. The coach said Sommer “clearly had the stuff and ability,” as long as he didn’t get hurt and continued to make progress for the Hoosiers.
Sommer was one of six Indiana University players that were drafted this week. The highest pick was pitcher McCade Brown; the Normal (Ill.) West graduate went in the third round to the Colorado Rockis. Two other pitchers were also selected: Jeffersonville’s Gabe Bierman is headed to the Miami Marlins and Lake Central’s Matt Litwicki was chosen by the Boston Red Sox.
Fishers’ Grant Richardson was selected by the New York Yankees, while Yorktown’s Cole Barr is headed to the Seattle Mariners.