2008 - Week-2, Top-10

High School Baseball Teams in

Northwest Indiana

A USA-365.com Special Report by Mark Smith

4-12-2008

LaPORTE (4-12-2008) - Hard core weather problems sailed in again and wiped out another early season weekend April 10-12. Of the top teams, only Boone Grove didn't have any games April 10-12 on the original schedule. The big loser is probably Crown Point, which lost two Saturday games in South Bend against Washington and Clay. It will be difficult to find a date to replay either one of those. I do not believe you can play three baseball games in one day under IHSAA rules, so once you have five or six postponed games, a few of them are lost for good. What teams can do is turn single nonconference games into double-headers to add an extra game without travel.

In the future, I can easily see leagues ending their home-and-home scenarios and playing the two league games as a double-header on the same date. For example, if Kankakee Valley had two games scheduled with Griffith in the Northwest Crossroads Conference, they would play them as a Friday or Saturday afternoon double-header instead of on separate dates. Obviously field lights would be an aid, but even for schools that have no lights, with daylight savings time pushed up into March, you can start a Friday double-header at 3:30 and finish it by 7:30 p.m. If darkness shuts the second game down, you could play it early Saturday before you left for nonconference play.

There's also the concept of the conference tournament that needs to be revisited. Why play 12 or 14 single games when you can play six or seven and a weekend league championship at a field with lights for night play? The recent Northwest Indiana Classic showed it can be done. Play the quarterfinals Thursday, the semifinals Friday and the title game Saturday. A rainout would only push such a tournament to double-up on Saturday, playing a 10:00 a.m. game and a 3:00 p.m. contest at a field with lights.

One other note: Teams that lose in the quarterfinals of the Porter County Conference tournament have a four or five day gap in the schedule they might want to fill. The goal is to play the games and since you ARE allowed to play two a day, you should play two games every time you can the way they do in college baseball. Remember, in this poll, strength of schedule is an equal factor to wins and losses. It's okay to play soft teams to get off to a good start, but we are going to be a little slow to recognize that here. Of course, some of you get rained out so often it's hard to recognize you at all.

LaPORTE: I believe that LaPorte's strength of schedule trumps the undefeated records of CP and LC so far. The Slicers shut down powerful McCutcheon 8-5 and defeated former 4A No. 1 Noblesville (5-3) in the Joe Heath Tournament in Lafayette. Something kicked in after losses to Penn (5-0) and New Prairie (4-1) and the Slicers won five out of six, including a 7-3 win in the Duneland Conference opener over Michigan City. Ian Neilsen hit his second home run of the year and his 15th career homer in the win over MC (3-2). Neilsen, who has stuck out 27 in 20 innings, hit a three-run homer in the win over McCutcheon. The Slicers have moved Dustin DeMuth to shortstop and Tyler Overmeyer is the new catcher. LaPorte's game with defending DAC champ and new 4A sectional rival Crown Point (5-0) was postponed twice last week and is in some limbo.

2. (4A) CROWN POINT (5-0)
29-3 (2007), 22-9 (2006), 21-12 (2005), 17-11 (2004), 23-10-1 (2003)

CROWN POINT: The rebuilt Bulldogs' batting order was surprisingly dominant through five games, so much so that they almost jumped into the number one slot in this poll. The Dogs, who finished last season ranked No. 1, but graduated six starters, outscored the first five foes 42-8 including shutout wins 4-0 over Hanover Central and 9-0 over Merrillville. I think even CP is a little suspicious of how easy these early wins have come. To beat Griffith 10-4 and Munster 9-2 in the same day with varsity rookies seemed like 'Fantasy Island' stuff. Senior lefty Blake Mascarello (1-0) and righty Mike Kozlowski (1-0) both pitched victories and seniors Jim Donley (1-0) and Mike Hernandez (1-0) recorded their first pitching victories. On top of that, promising soph Josh Negele (1-0) no-hit Hanover in his first varsity appearance. Kozlowski hit two long homers to back Negele. CP has five starting pitchers and they may need them as the rain piles up the postponements. I don't think the Bulldogs are quite as good as these five smack downs indicates. The future includes Penn (5-0), Plymouth, Elkhart Memorial and (Lansing, Illinois) Illiana Christian, not to mention the four games against LaPorte and Lake Central. But this is a team that needed confidence and they've got it now.

3. (3A) ANDREAN (2-1)
25-10 (2007), 25-8 (2006), 33-2 (2005), 26-8 (2004), 27-7 (2003)

MERRILLVILLE: The Niners have only gotten on the field for three games, and like LaPorte, Andrean has lost to Penn. But a 14-1 rout of Lowell showed that the 59ers have what it takes to put some hurt on most everybody. All-area star Adam Norton hit his first home run and Ken Mahala stuck out five in four innings. The Niners haven't been able to get all their pitchers in so far, as they have only had 16 defensive innings so far. This is still a relatively young team and they need to get on the field. They don't have a field house like the bigger schools, so they are hurt more when the weather is bad. But they can't make it stop raining, so games with Griffith and Chesterton this week go into the ' 'reschedule' bin. The Niners have got to be looking forward to the Brebeuf tourney April 25-26 in Indianapolis. Brebeuf is ranked No. 1 state wide in Class 3A. Maybe the rain will stop by then. Right now, they've got to be looking forward to any game.

4. (4A) LAKE CENTRAL (4-0)
16-12 (2007), 19-10 (2006), 28-3 (2005), 24-7 (2004), 23-6-1 (2003)

ST. JOHN: I'm not sure this is as big a surprise as Crown Point, because LC returned all eight position players from 2007. The Indians outscored four foes 29-4, including a 7-1 win over Munster and a 10-3 win over Griffith. LC wins the first Northwest Indiana Challenge, even though LC and CP both beat Munster, Highland, Griffith of the Northwest Crossroads Conference. LC allowed just four runs while CP gave up seven. Junior Eric Summers (2-0) pitched his second consecutive victory, allowing just five hits in a 10-3 win over Griffith. Summers, Danny Manick (1-0) and Kyle Scheffel (1-0) showed that Lake Central isn't going to be hurting for pitching and that was the pre-season question. The LC staff gave up just 11 hits in the first four games, and while they may not have a fourth starter, you can have a very good season without a fourth starter. There isn't any serious doubt this team will hit because they all started at the end of last season. Like CP, there is a ton of depth here below the starting lineup. It'll be the DAC 'primary' on April 22 when Crown Point (5-0) goes to Lake Central for the first of three potential meetings with more swinging than Barrack vs. Hillary.

5. (2A) BOONE GROVE (2-2)
25-6-1 (2007), 26-4 (2006), 24-7 (2005), 17-12 (2004), 21-7 (2003)

PORTER TOWNSHIP: I think the weather has been hardest on Boone. The Wolves have lost 8-7 in nine innings at Merrillville and 5-2 to Portage. They are a 2A school facing 4A squads, but those are 4As they should beat. Here is an example of how many games Boone has had postponed. Ace starter Kyle Ferber has been the starting pitcher in all three Boone games so far. Imagine how much time you had off between games if you can do that. Lefty Wayland Roach (1-0) got his first start of the year as Boone raked away Knox 12-2 as catcher Josh Cobb had a triple and a home run. The Wolves had a 6-0 lead against Merrillville and it got away, but they trailed all the way against Portage (3-2). What should you think of the first two weeks for Boone? Absolutely, positively nothing. Until you can play two days in a row, the baseball season simply hasn't started. They'll face a rival April 21 when they see equally weather-slowed Hanover Central (2-1). Boone hopes to play their Saturday night game April 19 at the US Steelyard in Gary against Hobart (5-2).

6. (4A) Munster (5-3)
22-7 (2007), 23-11 (2006), 19-14 (2005), 23-6 (2004), 20-10 (2003)

MUNSTER: The Mustangs are off to a good start if only because they've played eight games and nobody else has. Munster lost to LC (4-0) and CP (5-0) in the NW Indiana Classic and they also lost 8-3 to Bishop Noll. The pitching has been surprisingly shaky and the wild horses made four errors against Noll in, frankly, the only surprise verdict so far for them..
Catcher-turned third baseman, turned catcher (again) Brett Keeler hit a ninth inning grand slam homer to beat Portage 9-6 but the Mustangs have given up 48 runs in eight games and you cant make that average work for you. I think Munster ran into a couple of hot teams and when the rain goes away, they'll start winning again. The Mustangs will always eventually pass the Hammond schools in the polls due to the schedule they play.

7. (3A) Clark (3-1)
20-10 (2007), 25-6 (2006), 22-7 (2005), 24-5 (2004), 21-8 (2003)

HAMMOND: The Pioneers have won three in a row since the opening 8-7 loss to Munster. Senior Jon Carpen has a double in all four games so far. Steve Schmittel has pitched two complete-game wins, 13-3 over East Chicago and 8-3 over Bishop Noll. Here's where Clark's home field hurts them. It's not playable if the weather's bad at all. I know they lost a game against Hanover to the weather and there are certainly one or two others. You have to always judge the Hammond schools against the schedule they play. But they so take on LaPorte at the end of the year. The Pioneers play a couple of tough squads outside of north Lake County, but the overall schedule is why they are always down here in the poll. Let's be honest, Clark needs to be in that Northwest Indiana Challenge where they play CP and LC. This is a senior team, so the delays should not bother them as much as other teams.

8. (4A) Morton (5-1)
21-7 (2007), 17-14 (2006), 16-16 (2005), 20-10 (2004), 8-16 (2003)

HAMMOND: The Governors have won four in a row since a loss to undefeated Lake Central. A double-header win over Merrillville (2-4) by scores of 9-5 and 12-7 would matter more if the Pirates were a stronger team. The Governors won despite five errors. Wins over Gary Roosevelt and Lake Station aren't front page news, but this is supposed to be a good team and they've beaten every team they should have beaten so far. Here's another school that is limited by the relative weakness of their neighbors. It's hard to schedule nearby teams that are equals. Mike Flores had three hits in the 15-2 win over Lake Station and Aaron Graciano had seven hits in the double-header win over the Pirates. Morton was playing well and didn't need four or five days off.

9. (3A) Griffith (5-2)
23-10 (2007), 23-8 (2006), 19-15 (2005), 19-14 (2004), 17-12 (2003)

GRIFFITH: The Panthers have lost only to Lake Central (4-0) and Crown Point (5-0), so they can't be too unhappy with a 5-2 start. Tim Cooper (2-0) pitched a complete-game shutout over Kankakee Valley in KV's small ballpark. Kyle Lidster struck out eight in four innings of an 8-3 win over Calumet (4-7-2008). The pitching has been pretty solid. In the 10-4 loss to CP, it was 3-3 in the sixth inning and they were pretty solid defensively. Griffith has really good athletes like footballers Derek Hit and Kyle Najar and they seem faster than past Panther teams, especially defensively. That's not going to help them if they can't score more runs than they did in the first seven games. But again, if you looked at their first seven games, 5-2 was the best they could have hoped for. Postponements and cancellations will hurt this group especially because the Panthers have a rebuilt starting lineup from last year and they were looking pretty good. I still think Griffith will be good in May, but then again, I think it'll be sunny, warm and dry in May, too.

CHESTERTON: The Trojans got off to a good start at the Joe Heath Tourney in Lafayette, beating Harrison 11-6 and Noblesville 5-1 before losing 10-0 to Jefferson. Kevin Gates has two pitching wins, including a complete-game victory 5-2 over Valparaiso in the DAC opener. Frank Raudry, a transfer from Morton who has moved in at catcher, had two homers in a 6-0 win over Noll and he was 2-for-3 in the win over Harrison. Jeremy Ross had a homer and a double against Valpo. This may not be a good defensive team, though, based on the early results. They made six errors against Harrison and five more against Jefferson. Trojan pitching depth is very questionable, as well, considering the schedule they play. I didn't think they had the depth on the program to survive replacing 11 seniors after last season, but the early record here has been promising against some hard core competition. They'll be hard-pressed to win the DAC, but they have a little better shot at the sectional.

(2A) HANOVER CENTRAL (2-1)
14-13 (2007), 13-15 (06), 15-11 (05), 18-10 (04), 17-11 (03), 9-19-1 (2002)

CEDAR LAKE: Hanover is not a top-10 team without Brian Jager, the senior catcher, who will be eligible again in four more games, but they are not suffering. So far, they have survived with a 4-1 win over Calumet and a 4-3 win over Lowell. Even the 5-0 loss to undefeated Crown Point (5-0) was not a mismatch. The pitching seems solid with Dale Sjoerdsma (1-1), who has pitched well twice, Jesse Hernandez and submarine-style relief pitcher Erik Leibengood. But when you see them, they don't look like they can score a lot of runs. The weather hasn't allowed HC to play two days in a row yet, and they have postponed games with Clark and Noll (May 3 at Riverside Park) to make up. Hanover hasn't played a home game yet and they may not until April 21 against Boone Grove. The Wild Cats are mild cats right now, but they'll be ready to play in May.