Photo courtesy of Augustana Website

By Jeremy Behnke

Journal Sports Editor

SPRINGFIELD — Already regarded as one of the most accomplished hitters at Augustana College, Springfield native Alex Fink will continue his baseball career, this time at the professional level.

Fink signed a contract with the Lake Erie Crushers out of Avon, Ohio of the Frontier League. He is the third Springfield High School graduate to join the professional ranks in sports, joining 2010 Springfield graduate Jordan Milbrath, who is in the Cleveland Indians’ organization, and 2011 graduate Tyler Marz, who is on the Tennessee Titans’ practice squad after signing as an undrafted free agent.

Fink went undrafted in the Major League Baseball draft this past season after finishing his career at Augustana as the school’s all-time leader in hits.  He finished his career with 285 hits, while also setting program records in career doubles (66) and RBIs (214). He tied for the fourth-most home runs in a career with 28 while finishing third in school history with 180 runs scored.

During his career Fink was named to the Academic All-NSIC team three times, two time All-NSIC member and a two-time NSIC All-Tournament team member.

Fink is currently teaching at Springfield High School and he will wait to join the Crushers until after the school year ends.

He’s had several professional tryouts since graduating from Augustana, but this offer came recently and the chance was too good to pass up.

“I thought that this would be my most realistic route [the Frontier League], I didn’t think I had a good chance to get drafted [in MLB] and it didn’t pan out,” Fink said. “I didn’t think it was going to work out this year because I took the teaching job, I kind of accepted the fact that this might be the end of my playing, but this team came around and I couldn’t pass that up, I’d still love to play and they made an accommodating offer to me.”

The season lasts about 90 games, similar to the St. Paul Saints. He’ll miss the original report date but he’s going to start working out in January to see live pitching and some lifting. He’ll be coaching the Springfield boys’ basketball team as a volunteer assistant and he’ll also help coach the baseball team with his dad Bob Fink, who coached the Tigers to the 2016 Class A state championship this past June.