2009 - Pre-season Top-10

High School Baseball Teams in

Northwest Indiana

A USA-365.com Special Report by Mark Smith

4-01-2009

MERRILLVILLE (4-01-2009) I annually welcome the beginning of the baseball season and this one is no exception. It was a very rough winter in a lot of respects in Northwest Indiana and basketball got ugly at the end with the crying by fans of Gary Roosevelt and Bowman Academy when they lost post-season games. Thank God that's over.

The everyday flavor of success and failure on the baseball diamond is a welcome change from the almost psychotic whining about the outcome of playoff basketball where coaches, fans and media sometimes bleed in the aftermath as if the entire world was shaken. Baseball is so much more of a game. You win or you lose. You talk about it and you go home.

The biggest state-wide controversy in baseball this spring is whether girls should be allowed to play (that's a no-brainer for boys) on boys teams. Nobody protests the outcome of baseball games and no one claims that social injustices and racial handcuffs have been slapped on the team that lost in the fourth quarter. While basketball is religion in Indiana, baseball is so much more of what sports should be. It's 9-to-5. Everybody wins. Everybody loses. How you accept losing is MUCH more important than whether or not you are a winner. Work on it. Do it. Accept it. Move on. It's a game.

I've always been happy that the final high school sport of the school year is baseball, the slow and steady one that most mimics the way your life will go.

This is the year the baseball season gets a little shorter. The playoffs begin on a Thursday night in May and the sectional championship games fall on Monday, June 1.
The format is superior to the awful Tuesday night regional championship game format and the season now extends to June 20, which is an improvement.

With the IHSAA refusing to allow a vote on three classes, teams like Boone Grove and Hanover still have sectional and regional hopes. Had there been three classes this season, Boone and HC would be in the same class with Andrean and that's probably a dead end this spring.

What you do not know in the preseason is the health of pitchers. I would suggest that the first four teams I saw this spring ALL had pitchers with varying degrees of physical questions. That's why it's good to look at the offense and defense and imagine where your favorite team would be without one of its starters. Can they still catch the ball? Can they still produce 10 runs in a game?

In sports, you seem to either have mediocre teams that cry about getting no respect or you have pre-season favorites that deny they are as good as they appear to be. It's going to be difficult for 4A No. 1 Lake Central or 3A No. 1 Andrean to claim they are overrated. Both teams have loaded up their schedules so neither will be undefeated very long and the unfortunate thing is: LC and Andrean have not met in years and probably will not play in 2009 as well.

New to the scene this year is Hobart's on-campus baseball field. It's my understanding they will no longer play at City Park. Bowman Academy will have a team that will play at IU Northwest in Gary. There is also the situation in Gary where Wirt is closing and Roosevelt may be having team sports (all coaching positions in Gary reportedly have been terminated at the end of this school year, everyone must re-apply) for the final time.

1. (3A) ANDREAN (30-2)
25-10 (2007), 25-8 (2006), 33-2 (2005), 26-8 (2004), 27-7 (2003)

MERRILLVILLE: The Niners had a 30-game winning streak in 2008 and they return the majority of that squad, including Adam Norton (6-1, 0.99 ERA), Mike Pokers (7-0, 0.54 ERA) and Thomas Polus (5-0, 1.25 ERA) on the mound. Catcher Kevin Franchetti (.286, 23 RBIs) will improve all those numbers and big junior left-handed hitter Ken Mahala will make more of an impact at the plate and on the mound. If center fielder Kyle Kovach and Norton are 100% healthy, this team won't lose more than one in a row. Ryan Dineen (.370, 21 runs scored) and PJ Mason add to the experience here. Few teams in the state tournament era have ever returned more talent from the previous season. But they won't go 30-2 again. The Niners have added Illinois power Naperville Central (May 5 at Notre Dame), and Illinois teams Illiana Christian and Lemont to the schedule. Andean already plays Carmel, Brebeuf, Marian Catholic and Norwell. They do not play Crown Point, Boone Grove or Lake Central, although that may change as rain outs jumble the schedule. I'm not sure the 59ers will reach the state finals. Anybody can lose one baseball game. That's the nature of the sport. But the one thing I can promise about Andrean is that they won't talk about how they have four Division I players all season (Like Bowman Academy basketball) and then whine about the loss of one player when they get beat.

2. (4A) LAKE CENTRAL (22-9-2)
16-12 (2007), 19-10 (2006), 28-3 (2005), 24-7 (2004), 23-6-1 (2003)

ST. JOHN: LC returns all eight position players, and in any other year, they'd be No. 1. The Indians batted .366 as a team including Ryan Boss (.410), who led NW Indiana with 16 home runs and 52 RBIs. Second baseman Anthony Olund (.468) had 51 base hits and 25 walks. Frank Pluskota hit six homers in 39 at bats. Kyle Kaluza (42-104, .404) scored 40 runs and Eric Summers (40-97, .412) was one of four .400 hitting Indians that return in 2009. LC's problem was pitching, but Summers (6-2, 4.25 ERA), Neil Koricanic (3-1, 35Ks, in 33 innings) and Max Majchrzak (5-3, 4.25 ERA) all return with submarine relief pitcher Roger Sammon (1-1, 3.63, 6 saves). There's a lot of room for improvement in a staff that had a 5.22 ERA, but there's also a lot of capacity for improvement. The Indians just have to be confident that their skill and experience will carry them over any setbacks. LC needs to beat rival Crown Point to build up that confidence, but Munster is the sectional rival. This could be one of the best offensive teams in recent years in NW Indiana. LC is a warm weather team. Let the sun shine and let the wind blow out and the Indians will be unbeatable.

3. (4A) CROWN POINT (29-6-2)
29-3 (2007), 22-9 (2006), 21-12 (2005), 17-11 (2004), 23-10-1 (2003)

CROWN POINT: Crown Point is 51-12 over the last two years and the wins will keep on coming with third baseman Mike Kozlowski (49-107, .458, 14 HRs, 54 RBIs) and juniors Jeff Limbaugh (.421, 3 HRs, 22 RBIs), Scott Donley (.345, 6 HRs, 39 RBIs) and Josh Negele (.307, 3 HRs, 22 RBIs, 4-1, 2.12 ERA, 57 Ks in 40 innings). CP will have just three seniors, but one of them, catcher Matt Zurbriggen, may be the key to the team defensively. The Bulldogs may lose some early, but here's another team that's going to like warm and windy days. Donley moves to shortstop and junior Beau LaSalle takes over at second base. Rookies Mike Manion and Jake Lindeman are highly-regarded and, while there are question marks in the outfield, the 2-3-4 part of the order (Donley, Kozlowski, Limbaugh) seems to guarantee another winning season. With that said, nobody plays a more ambitious schedule. CP plays Elkhart Memorial, Clay Mishawaka, St. Joseph's, Northridge, Illiana Christian, Penn and Plymouth along with the 14 DAC games. The May 19 game at Lake Central may decide the DAC race.

4. (4A) LaPorte (21-9)
22-9 (2007), 25-6 (2006), 30-5 (2005), 25-7 (2004), 22-10 (2003)

LaPORTE: The Slicers return most position players including Evan Jurkevic (.429, 12 RBIs), Jake McMahan (.312, 15 RBIs) and Dustin DeMuth (.385, 15 stolen bases) plus seniors Kyle Rosenbaum and catcher Tyler Overmeyer. Clay Manering (3-0) and Scott Upp (4-3) did get some starts on the varsity, but they'll need to be better in the DAC, which includes No. 1 LC and two-time defending champ Crown Point. This will be a high scoring team, but the pitching lacks some depth. But they have plenty of offense, although the attack may be more based on speed this season than power as it was the last couple of years.

5. (2A) BOONE GROVE (27-4-1)
25-6-1 (2007), 26-4 (2006), 24-7 (2005), 17-12 (2004), 21-7 (2003)

PORTER TOWNSHIP: Boone returns a solid core with junior left-handed pitcher Wayland Roach (11-0, 1.58 ERA) coming back along with center fielder Nick Dimarco (.444, 47 RBIs, 21 stolen bases), outfielder Ben Vasquez (.311, 12 steals) and first baseman Sam Kidd. Boone may lose 10 games this year because of their annually adventurous schedule. The Wolves play five of the eight Class 4A DAC teams (they do not play LaPorte, LC or Chesterton) and they also confront 4A schools Munster and Hobart. We're going to need to see some new young pitchers here as well because Roach and DiMarco (who will now pitch) can't carry the entire load. But the speedy Wolves should steal a lot of runs and they'll battle Washington Township and Hanover Central for supremacy in the Porter County Conference.

CHESTERTON: Power hitter Frank Raudry and No. 1 pitcher Kevin Gates (7-3, 3.45 ERA) should backbone a winning team here. Glenn Peterson (2-1, 3.52 ERA) had seven saves in 2008 and the infield seems strong with first baseman Jack Wilson (.308), second baseman John Thanos (.311) and third baseman DeAndre Dukes (.321). The schedule Chesterton plays is excellent. They should get a lot of credit for traveling to Lafayette annually for three games at the Joe Heath Classic. It bears repeating. I do not believe that any team has ever reached the 4A baseball finals (remember LaPorte just joined and LC isn't there) out of the DAC-flavored 4A Sectional 2. It is a place where good teams go to die. But with LaPorte and Crown Point taking some heavy graduation losses, you'd have to make Chesterton at least a serious contender in Sectional 2.

7. (3A) Griffith (17-13)
23-10 (2007), 23-8 (2006), 19-15 (2005), 19-14 (2004), 17-12 (2003)

GRIFFITH: The Panthers graduated seven seniors a year after they graduated 12 players, but they seem to have a solid core to start the 2009 campaign. Ryan Galiher (.354, 14 RBIs) and Jake Evanich (.316, 18 RBIs), Travis Litke (.312, 19 RBIs) and Kevin Konopasek (.314, 25 runs scored) should cause opposing pitchers lots of trouble. Galiher and Kyle Lidster (4-2, 4.33 ERA) will lead the pitching staff and there is some depth there. Griffith plays a difficult schedule. They are one of the few teams (Lowell and Merillville may be the only two others) that plays Munster, LaPorte, Lake Central, Crown Point and Andrean. The Panthers were 0-3 against Andrean last year and that's what the season is going to come down to. But Griffith only has to beat Andrean once and they will get three more chances. The Panthers should welcome three shots at the No. 1 team.

HAMMOND: Morton over Bishop Noll? Morton over Clark?? What's going on in Hammond? Chris Jefferson (6-3, 1.67 ERA) and Jesse Tomich return to pitch, while seniors Allen Polkinghorn and Alex Ramirez (1B) give the infield experience. This team started very well last year and faded in May. It's not going to happen again. Obviously, the weather is a factor. Morton only played 25 games last year. Their home field is not the greatest (it's better than Clark) and they have to scuffle to get the schedule played. I don't see a lot of offense here, but the Governors should be close in every game and they should get their shot at Lake Central come sectional time.

9. (3A) Kankakee Valley (11-16-1)
20-10 (2007), 16-15 (2006), 22-9 (2005), 19-14 (2004), 14-17 (2003)

DeMOTTE: Okay, this is a long-shot. They were poor last year. But I like their hitters Kale Popp (.367, 25 RBIs) and Chris Cooper (.449, 24 RBIs) and Kevin Bobby (.409, 16 steals) in a hitters' ballpark. The power alleys are small at KV and the boys can 'jump the fence' and play high scoring games. Pitching and defense doesn't always win at KV. The 'big fly' does. If Popp has a better year pitching and they find one more arm, they could get back to 20 wins. Here's another team that will play No. 1 Andrean three times and they get the final chance at home at the KV Sectional. I think you want that.

HIGHLAND: There should be a comeback here. This team includes some of the 2004 Little League state champions that came within one game of the World Series. Mike Bremer (.326) and Keith Mahler (.241) were on that team and I believe John Livingston (.387, 6 HRs, 41 RBIs) was too. All are juniors. Another junior, Richard Fowler (.396, 37 runs scored) and Bremer are the double play combination. This team will face Andrean twice, but then needs to beat Lake Central in the sectional. These boys may lose some early and win some late. Beyond that, it would be good for high school sports in Northwest Indiana if Highland started to play well again. They don't have to have championship seasons. Just stop the losing seasons.