Location: at Loeb Stadium – West Lafayette, Indiana

Radio / TV Coverage:  WJOB (1230) AM, WWCA (1270) AM.

No NW Indiana TV but the games are being tape-delayed for broadcast next week (June 20-23) in the Indianapolis area.

GAME TIME: This game is scheduled for a 2 p.m. start, but that depends on the length of the Class 2A championship between North Posey (26-8) and Blackhawk Christian (20-9), which begins at 10:30 a.m. There will be 45 minutes between games.

WEATHER: Near perfect. Forecasts have temperatures in the low-70s and partly cloudy skies. Only a 20% chance of precitation in Lafayette all weekend.

Loeb Stadium:  The 3,500-seat home of Lafayette Jefferson baseball, American Legion Post 11 and the annual Colt League (ages 15-16) World Series is the temporary host of the 2005 state baseball finals.

This is a marvelous throwback neighborhood ballpark built 65 years ago in what is now a residential neighborhood. It was meant to be a minor league baseball park but the last true minor league team left in the 1950s.

This classic old field, with the traditional minor league advertising signs on the outfield fence, was the home of the independent Lafayette Leopards in the 1990s. The large old-style inning-by-inning electronic scoreboard was installed in 1997, as part of an 11-year renovation project which built the present grandstand and concession stand.

This is a stadium, not a field, with an underground walking area out of the sun and rain.

Loeb Stadium is in Columbian Park, a much larger community campus which has a water park, a conventional slides and sandbox park and a baby animal zoo on the east side of the baseball field.

(People always think I'm kidding about the zoo. But as you walk into the park, you see the animals. You can't miss them.)

The city of Lafayette, which owns the entire park, has spent almost a quarter of a million dollars (according to the Lafayette Journal and Courier) to upgrade the park for this week's state finals and the summer season to come.

I have never seen a sellout crowd at this ballpark which is part of the problem for Saturday because, unless it rains, Loeb Stadium should be full late in the Andrean-Memorial game as the fans of Evansville North and Brownsburg enter the park. I've heard that extra seating will be added but the Evansville people alone may fill up half the park and Brownsburg going for an undefeated season may draw people who aren't connected to any of the schools.

Baseball fans will love this park but casual fans are advised to do two things. One: Get there early. This is a residential neighborhood and they don't have much parking. Even the best case scenario says that there's only about 1,300 parking spaces within a quarter mile of the park and many of those are on residential streets in front of somebody's house or business. If you have to walk eight blocks in 80-degree heat, believe me, the thrill is gone. Do not attempt to just sashay up to the park at game time because you're going to get stuck in traffic.

Two: Bring an umbrella or a hat even if no rain is forecast. If the sun's out strong you'll fry faster than hot wings in the Colonel's kitchen. There is no roof on Loeb Stadium and there's no place to hide from the sun or the rain.

THE MATCHUP:  Memorial won state titles in 1978, 1989 and 1993 under longtime coach Quinten Merkel (809-249, 36 years). This is a big day for boys baseball in Evansville which has North in the 4A final game against Brownsburg. From their point of view, Evansville teams are taking on the two top-ranked teams in Class 3A and 4A. Andrean has reached the last three state finals, losing 9-3 to Norwell in the state semifinals (the format was different) in 2003 and losing 3-2 to New Palestine in 2004.

LAFAYETTE – The 59ers are in the state finals for the third consecutive season and in the final game for the second year in a row, but they don't have the history Evansville Memorial has.

Memorial , a three-time state champ in the old one class system, plays a top southern Indiana schedule and will show up expecting to beat Andrean. This Memorial team split with Evansville North (24-6), which is in the 4A finals and split with Jasper, another school with multiple state titles.

What worries you about Andrean is that, other than West Lafayette, the team the 59ers beat 11-0 in semistate play last week, Andrean hasn't played anyone who's had a really good year. The other two top teams in NW Indiana in 2005 were Lake Central and LaPorte and Andrean did not meet either one. Truthfully, neither has Memorial. It is worth noting that this is largely the same Memorial team that was 24-6 in 2004.

But the Chargers' pitching staff has rolled up four state tournament shutouts, which means that a shaky defense may have been sabotaging the pitching earlier in the year.

Starters Sam Shen (6-4, 2.14 ERA) and Mark Obenchain (7-4, 2.67) are both seniors and Andrean can expect to see both of them.

Shen, who is 3-0 in the post-season, pitched a shutout in the sectional title game and saved an 11-8 win over Jasper in the 3A Evansville Regional. Obenchain, a 6-4 right-handed fastballer, shut out Batesville 3-0 for the Semistate title Monday (6-13-2005) night.

There seems no good way to predict Memorial, which made eight errors in the win over Jasper, but has four playoff shutouts. It depends on which day you see them. But the coaching staff won't be surprised. Quentin Merkel has coached over 1000 high school baseball games so he has seen it all.

The Chargers have no power (4 HRs all year) but the speed is there in senior outfielders Zach Gibbs (34-100, .340) and Sean Woolen (35-106, .330).

Senior catcher Tom Freeman (35-90, .389, 20 RBIs) is obviously a key player along with third baseman Nick Kerner (32-95, .337), another senior.

The double-play combination of junior SS Ben Griggs (30-95, .316) and sophomore 2B Logan Bitler (24-68, .353) has to get on base and keep the errors to a minimum.

Andrean has the best 2-3-4 combo in these parts in junior Joe Mack (43-96, . 439, 6 HRs, 38 RBIs), senior Tommy Finn (53-107, .495, 31 RBIs) and senior catcher Greg Yersich (43-105, .410, 8 HRs, 47 RBIs). Nobody in NW Indiana has a top-of-the-order like that and Memorial certainly doesn't appear to have anybody like them.

Admittedly, Andrean played in a league without any really top flight pitchers but those numbers are overwhelming and all three players have Division I if not pro futures. The 59ers pitching is good but not great. Senior Brad King (7-1, 1.84 ERA) can be a strikeout king (58 this year) but he has allowed a lot of base runners with 33 hits and 26 walks in 53 innings. Steve Augsburger (7-1, 2.13 ERA) is another who has won consistently but 47 hits and 24 walks in 49 innings is worrisome.

Left-hander Nick Murphy (9-0, 2.75 ERA) would probably be used only one time through the order as he has been somewhat hittable despite his record.

The truth is, 59er pitchers have almost always had the lead this year because of their 10-runs-per-game offense. Everything changes if Andrean falls behind. It becomes very difficult to hit the ball in a winner-take-all playoff game if you fall behind.

The saving grace for Andrean. The one thing they have that no one else has is submarine ball right-handed relief pitcher Anthony Cera (4-0, 7 saves, 0.97 ERA) who is almost unhittable for right-handed batters who have not seen him before.

Andrean's 600-win coach Dave Pishkur won't hesitate to pull any of his pitchers for Cera in the late going. Memorial must have lefty pinch hitters to confront him.

Andrean has a power edge in the relatively small Loeb Field, a pro-sized park which is not deep in left or down the right field line, although it is over 400 feet to the wall in right-center.

Memorial lost the final three games of the regular season but has, obviously, won six consecutive playoff games. You must be wary of a senior-dominated team that has pitched four shutouts in six playoff games. Yersich is the key player. If the 59ers catcher, a pro draft choice, hits a homer and throws out two Memorial base runners and handles two or three different Andrean pitchers smoothly, the 59ers win. If the strong-armed transfer from Chicago's St. Rita high throws the ball away on steals (Memorial will certainly run on him until he throws somebody out) and goes 0-for-4, the Chargers probably take home their fourth state crown.

Andrean will have a lot of fans at this game. All 59er teams traditionally draw better on the road than they do at home, especially in the state tourney. But Evansville will also have a big crowd in Lafayette Saturday. Remember that Memorial's large 4A neighbor Evansville North will play Brownsburg (34-0) in the 4A final game at 5:30 p.m. and those fans will be coming into the ball park during the Andrean-Memorial game.

There could be 1,500 people from Evansville at this game. This is a pretty good ticket. For $9, you get to see Andrean and Memorial, 4A power North and once-in-a-generation Brownsburg, rated fifth in the nation.

Pay some attention to rankings but always understand that the vast majority of the people who vote in state polls live hundreds of miles away and NEVER SEE THE TEAMS they are voting on.

This is no mismatch. Memorial has played a tougher schedule than Andrean has. Evansville North is 24-6 (and a state finalist), Castle is 23-5. Jasper (19-5), a four-time state champ, is 19-8 Memorial played all three school twice.

The top two teams in Northwest Indiana were LaPorte (30-5) and Lake Central (28-3) and Andrean did not play either one. Memorial played private school neighbor Mater Dei three times, the equivalent of the 59ers meeting Bishop Noll. But Memorial has also played North Posey (26-8) and South Spencer (21-3) twice.

I think an impartial observer would say that No. 10 Jasper, one of the great franchises in all of Indiana baseball, historically plays a much tougher schedule than No. 5 Clark, a team Andrean beat three times. I would suspect that Evansville in stronger than NW Indiana this year, if only because the city has two teams in the state finals. Six of Memorial's losses are to Evansville schools.

Memorial has 21 Evansville city titles, 20 sectional titles, 13 regionals and 10 semistate titles under 35-year coach 800-win coach Quentin Merkel. This is a high expectation program and they are unlikely to be intimidated by Andrean as many in NW Indiana are.

If Memorial falls apart in the field it's probably because they aren't consistently very good defensively. But something (lineup change or position switches) has happened because you can't stumble around on defense through four shutouts.

Still, neither side is used to close games. Andrean (3-0) has played only three one-run games all year and Memorial (0-2) has been involved in only two.

Memorial certainly does not agree, but this day is largely about Dave Pishkur and everyone connected with Andrean knows it. Pishkur, a 1971 Andrean graduate, with an entire immediate family of past or future Andrean graduates, has had 22 20-win seasons and 26 consecutive winning seasons.

But he is the Susan Lucci of Indiana baseball coaches. Head of a program that rarely loses, he has never won the state championship. Many of his players have, as members of the 59ers' 2004 football squad. I'm not sure of his exact duties, but I believe that Pishkur is the director of marketing and alumni for Andrean, which means he sells the school to potential students and their parents while keeping graduates up to date on the school's needs and accomplishments.

Outside of Father Quanz, I don't think anybody is more synonymous with Andrean than Dave Pishkur and he is certainly the public face of the school. I've said that this 2005 team is not as good as the 2002 and 2003 teams, but this is a good matchup. The 59ers are a dominant power offensive team and they'll be playing in a hitters park on a warm day against a singles hitting team.

Nobody deserves to win a championship. You play and coach for the sake of playing and coaching. Wins and titles are gifts, not something you have any right to.

But it's time. Evansville Memorial is the Andrean of Evansville. They have seniors itching. Memorial could win, but Andrean should win.

A high-scoring game, 8-5, and Andrean becomes the first NW Indiana team to win baseball and football state titles in the same school year.

Copyright © 2005 USA-365.com and Meyer Multimedia Services, a division of Meyer Broadcasting Corp.  All rights reserved.
Revised: June 17, 2005.