2010 - Week-12, Top-10  High School Baseball Teams in Northwest Indiana
	A USA-365.com Special Report by Mark Smith 6-16-2010

LaPORTE (06-16-2010)  Once the playoffs begin, the poll gets tricky because top teams get eliminated by design in the format.  Obviously, the top three teams all year were the top three teams in the Duneland conference (Crown Point, Lake Central and LaPorte), all state ranked.  But LaPorte and CP could not BOTH survive sectional play and only one of the three could survive regional competition.

As it turned out, none of them did.  Munster and left-hander Ryan Wilkinson, shut out both Lake Central and LaPorte before being shut out by Carroll inn the semistate.  This is the nature of baseball.  Anyone can beat anyone on a given day.  But unless you continue to have those 'given days' talent comes through in the end.  Carroll was superior to Munster and NW Indiana didn't send its best representative to the semistate, as it seemed they might.

In 1A, 2A and 3A, the best NW Indiana team was the last team standing.

One note and its nothing new. Left-handed pitching rules in the state playoffs.  Wilkinson fueled Munster's run.  Delphi (26-7) is in the 2A finals largely because of lefty Alex Hawn (9-2, 1.80 ERA).  Lafayette Catholic (28-4) is a big favorite for the 1A title, with left-hander Taylor Gaze (9-2, 1.02 ERA) pitching.

Andrean (28-4) can't beat Jasper (30-5) unless they hit junior lefty Spencer Sapp (12-2, 1.07 ERA) in the 3A title game and Cathedral, which has defeated both Andrean and Jasper, will be a heavy favorite for the 4A title with undefeated junior lefty Dillon Peters (11-0, 0.62 ERA).  Most pitchers are right-handed.  Maybe 75%.  Most people are right-handed.  So, to have four lefties start in the four state finals games is a large number.  But when you look at successful baseball teams, a hugely disproportionate number of them have top starting left-handed pitching.

Too bad you cant take right-handed kids, twist them around and make them left-handed while they're young and dumb and don't know any better.

I should have said this before, but most of the baseball state finals will be on TV for the first time.  In past years, only the 4A game was aired.  According to the IHSAA web site, the 2A, 3A and 4A games will all be on TV this Saturday (June 19) on the soon-to-be defunct Indiana Cable Network (ICN).

Most of the state puts state championship games on free TV but Northwest Indiana has always been backward.  The only outlet for the baseball finals is Comcast Cable Channel 114, a low rent digital cable channel that only has infomercials and dead air.  Starting in the fall, the games hopefully will return to WYIN (Channel 56) TV, Comcast basic cable Channel 17.  A new production company takes over the ICN and there is a suggestion that many more state finals events will be on.  But this weekend state baseball gets the respect that football and basketball get.  All state championship football and basketball games have been on TV throughout the class sports era (since 1997), but baseball (and softball) have been snubbed.  You can drive to Indy and sit in a very comfortable, world class pro-caliber ball park or, if you have no allegiance to Andrean, you can watch on TV at home.  You have that option.  The state title games being on TV builds the sport.

A sport you can talk about with me all summer on Lakeshore Sports Tonight week nights on Lakeshore Public radio (which is on line) WLPR (89.1) FM from 6-7 p.m. at 769-9577.

1. (4A) LaPORTE (27-4)
21-10 (2009), 21-9 (2008), 22-9 (2007), 25-6 (2006), 30-5 (2005), 25-7 (2004)

LaPORTE:  The Slicers took a very disappointing home court 4-0 loss to Munster in the regional semifinals at the end of a top caliber year.  LaPorte topped Crown Point 9-5 and beat Portage to win the sectional but they could not hit one week later. But against Munster's Ryan Wilkinson (9-2), LaPorte got three singles and only four base runners.  The Slicers won 20 games for the 44th year in a row, the greatest record in all of Indiana high school sports.  With Connor Podkul (7-1) returning to lead the pitching staff, LaPorte will have a strong team again in 2011 even without the nine seniors who graduated this June.  But it's hard to get out of the sectional and the Slicers are going to kick themselves over this regional loss against a team they surely think they should have beaten.

2. (4A) CROWN POINT (27-5)
30-3 (2009), 29-6-2 (2008), 29-3 (2007), 22-9 (2006), 21-12 (2005)

CROWN POINT:  Crown Point lost a 4-0- lead and fell 9-5 to LaPorte on CP's home field.  Like LaPorte, they'll have some regrets after another top-caliber season.  CP graduated their three core hitters Scott Donley (40-79, .412, 44 runs scored), Josh Negele (45-102, .441, 6 HRs, 29 RBIs) and Jeff Limbaugh (41-95, .432, 12 HRs, 51 RBIs) to help the team average nine runs a game in 2010.  But they return Jose Andrade (51-108, .472, 3 HRs, 37 RBIs) and Jordan Lindeman (32-85, .376) plus top pitchers Mike Manion (7-2, 1.77 ERA) and Brian Holloway (6-0, 3.07 ERA), so the future is bright.  But CP won't host the sectional next season.  So they'll be traveling.  The Bulldogs run the risk of being called the Indianapolis Colts after so many great regular seasons without reaching the state finals.  But you could be called a lot worse things.

3. (3A) ANDREAN (28-6)
33-2 (2009), 30-2 (2008), 25-10 (2007), 25-8 (2006), 33-2 (2005), 26-8 (2004)

MERRILLVILLE:  Can't think about moving Andrean above CP or LaPorte unless they upset 3A No. 2 Jasper (30-5) in the state title game.  But Ken Mahala (9-0, 1.53 ERA) is hoping they can get that done.  The Niners sophomore double play team of shortstop Mark Brousseau (35-88, .330) and second baseman Mark Pishkur (28-79, .354) has been surprisingly solid.  Jordan Falls (22-51, .431) is becoming a top catcher.  The Niners have dominated six foes in the state tournament by a combined score of 55-8.  But they face a very difficult pitcher in Spencer Sapp (12-2, 1.07 ERA, 116 Ks, 85 innings) of Jasper (30-5).  To be honest, Andrean, which saw some great regular season teams including Illinois champ Naperville Central (38-4) hasn't faced a lot of top level pitching in the playoffs.  They will Saturday.

4. (4A) LAKE CENTRAL (20-6)
27-5 (2009), 22-9-2 (2008), 16-12 (2007), 19-10 (2006), 28-3 (2005), 24-7 (2004)

ST. JOHN:  LC got smoked on the final day of the season, losing 4-1 to Penn and 11-1 to DeKalb and they were then kicked out of the playoffs 5-0 by Munster.  Obviously, they had a good year, but the end had to be very disappointing.  LC beat CP twice, but they were a little lucky both times.  One game was 13-12 and the other was played in a rainstorm.  I don't know how good Lake Central was this year.  The good news: The Lake Central-Crown Point battles go on all June and July in American Legion play.  CP's varsity is American Legion Post 20 while LC is Hammond Post 168, the defending legion state champ.  Play on.

5. (4A) VALPARAISO (20-9)
14-13 (2009), 13-15 (2008), 14-13 (2007)

6. (4A) MUNSTER (23-10)
11-16 (2009) 15-10 (2008), 22-7 (2007), 23-11 (2006)

MUNSTER:  Munster rode left-handed Ryan Wilkinson (9-2) to sectional and regional titles as the senior lefty topped Highland (20-11) and LaPorte (27-4).  It's hard to place Munster higher than this because they lost to Crown Point and Munster, split with Andrean and LC and never met LaPorte.  Wilkinson won the sectional opener, saved the sectional, championship game and won the regional semifinal against LaPorte.  Munster lost to Carroll and star pitcher Curtis Wise (10-1) but Carroll has a great program, even if folks in NW Indiana know nothing about it.  The Mustangs certainly would want to be in the state title game Saturday night, but they were 11-16 last season.  Some of their games ware about as exciting as World Cup Soccer, but nobody overachieved more than they did this year.

7. (4A) HIGHLAND (20-11)
16-10 (2009), 18-11 (2008), 15-16 (2007), 14-14 (2006)

ST. JOHN:  Highland lost to arch-rival Munster in the sectional championship game, ending a promising season.  There has to be the thought that the Trojans could have done what Munster did and win the regional.  The Trojans have hard-throwing Jordan Minch (4-4), who struck out 13 in the sectional semifinals against Lowell, retuning for two more seasons and he clearly can be a dominant player.  Highland's going to have to dig up a little more offense for next season but some of that may come naturally as players get bigger and stronger. Many of the Trojans went straight to Highland Post 180 for summer play.  Remember that state tournament formula.  If you don't have a top left-hander, you aren't going very far.  Highland has the top left-hander.  For two more seasons.