2017 Renegade HS Baseball 'Magnificent-7'
Week-2 Poll for Northwest Indiana

A USA-365.com Special Report by Mark Smith

4-14-2017

Lake Central is rated Number one here but Andrean is the only undefeated team in this poll after two weeks. (Photo by Mark Smith)

MERRILLVILLE (4-13-2017) The game changes in 2017 as the Indiana High School Athletic Association (IHSAA) has instituted ‘pitch count’ rules for all baseball teams. The game is never going to be the same.

Here’s the new pitch count rules. If you throw less than 35 pitches, you can pitch every day. If you throw from 36-60 pitches, you must wait a day before you pitch again.

If you throw 61-80 pitches, you must take two days off before you can pitch again. If you throw 81-100 pitches, you must not pitch (you can play other positions) the next three days. If you throw from 101-120 pitches, you must rest four days before pitching again. High school pitchers are no longer allowed to throw more than 120 pitches.

As in Little League baseball, if you pass a threshold, you can complete pitching to the batter who is at the plate. For example, if your 120th pitch is ‘ball one’ to a batter. You may complete pitching to only that batter.

This is a major change and it obviously favors the larger schools who have more players to choose from. What coaches will do, almost certainly, is what they do in the Little League. Pitch the boys one or two innings at a time.

These rules are well-intentioned and meant to save the arms of high school boys. But ‘pitch count’ rules are one of the reasons a lot of towns stopped playing Little League baseball and switched to Cal Ripken baseball. Little League has pitch count rules. Cal Ripken and Babe Ruth baseball have innings limits.

There is no question this change will distort the game.

For example: If you are playing the same team two days in a row (which happens in both the DAC and the Northwest Crossroads Conference) players will certainly (if they are smart) take more pitches early against a top pitcher to ensure they don’t see him the next day in relief. Head coaches may counter by using their best pitcher only in relief all season and never crossing the 60-pitch barrier.

Also, if a game is into extra innings and the runners are on base. The very effective starter for ‘Team A’ has thrown 117 pitches and there is just one out. A smart manager for ‘Team B’ would tell his batter to go up to the plate and take three pitches. Balls or strikes. It doesn’t matter. The starting pitcher must leave and ‘Team B’ gets to bat against the relief pitcher.

Far fetched? Not at all. I have seen that happen in the Little League more than once.

Do I hate these new rules. No. I go back to a time when high school or American Legion pitchers threw 150 pitches in a game because the team didn’t have anybody else. Small schools may only have three real pitchers. I like the inning limits better than pitch limits because it doesn’t affect the game as much.

Small schools are going to have to use boys who are not pitchers as pitchers. If the game is 8-1 in the third inning, you can't put a real pitcher out there for the last four innings if you play the next three days. You would almost be smarter to use a non-pitcher and let the score get to 11-1 so the game ends on the 10-run rule. Very small schools will have to drop their JV teams because the freshman pitchers are needed on the varsity. Schools will hesitate to schedule double-headers on Saturday if they have league games on Monday.

Sectionals are going to have to be rearranged so all finals (some already are) are on Monday. If you play Friday-Saturday, you can't bring back a Friday starter in relief on Saturday. If you play Friday-Monday, you can.

The RailCats Challenge is back with high school teams playing in the Class A ballpark off 5th street just east of Broadway in downtown Gary. Friday night (4-14-2017), after Michigan City takes on South Central at 4:30 p.m., Lowell plays Tinley Park at 7:30 p.m.

On April 17, Kouts plays Morgan Township at 4:30 p.m. before Covenant Christian plays Hammond Academy at 7:30 p.m.
On April 22, Kankakee Valley takes on Hanover Central at 12 noon. River Forest plays Lake Station at 6 p.m.
Lafayette Catholic battles Rensselaer on Monday afternoon, April 24 at 4:30 p.m.
On Saturday April 29, Illinois power Napierville Central plays Andrean at 11 a.m.
Tickets are $5 at the door.

1. (4A) Lake Central (4-2)
27-5 (2016), 25-5-1 (2015), 23-10 (2014), 23-9 (2013), 32-1 (2012)

ST. JOHN: It was a quick end of the state tournament for 4A No. 2 Lake Central, losing to arch rival Munster edged out LC 5-4 in sectional play. It's safe to say they wont play as well in 2017 but will go further in the state tournament. Lake Central has no chance to equal the records they set in 2016. Baseball just doesn’t work that way. The pitching staff had 16 shutouts and a 62-2/3 inning scoreless streak. LC gave up just 58 runs and committed only 33 errors in 32 games. The Indians pitching staff walked just 61 batters in 212 innings. The team earned run average was 1.48. Lefty Joe Graziano pitched 42-2/3 scoreless innings in a row. Top starters Graziano (8-0, 0.54 ERA) Matt Litwicki (7-3, 1.80 ERA) and Kyle Freel (6-0, 1.02 ERA) are all back for a team that should be at the top of the Duneland Athletic Conference. LC’s artificial turf field gives them an advantage over other area schools. They can play games during soggy spring weeks when other teams have to postpone theirs. LC took an early 5-1 loss to Andrean in the first meeting between the two teams in 19 years. Nick Bandura had three RBIs in a 13-3 win over Whiting last Saturday. LC has also lost 2-1 to Chesterton on a cold March day. The depth of pitching makes LC the better regular season team especially with the new pitch count rules. The Indians travel to Lawrence this Saturday.

MERRILLVILLE: The 59ers started fast with wins over Penn 14-11 and Lake Central 6-1. Clay Thompson was 3-for-4 against Penn. Nick Fushi was 3-for-4 against Lake Central and Mike Doolin struck out seven in six innings. Three pitchers combined for a 1-hitter against Hebron. The Niners swept Griffith 14-4 and 12-0 to stand in first place in the Northwest Crossroads Conference. The 59ers play at St. Rita (29-9 last season) on April 15, at home against Illiana Christian on April 22, against Scecina at Notre Dame on Monday, April 24 and against Naperville Central (6-1) in the RailCat Classic on April 29. Andrean never has to wonder if they have a good team. The truth comes out pretty quickly. I may not be able to rank them below LC much longer.

CHESTERTON: Chesterton split two games with Lake Central in the early going before losing 3-2 to Jefferson and topping Harrison 12-2. Austin Peterson, (8-0, 0.51 ERA 56 strikeouts, 11 walks in 54 2/3 innings in 2016) pitched the victory at LC. Hard-throwing Grant Brunt had a tough first start, but 6-foot-4 Chris Torres stuck out nine in five scoreless innings in his first start of the year. The Trojans don't face LaPorte until May 16-17, but they have the pitching for back-to-back games. In fact, here's a team that could use its top three pitchers for two or three innings in every playoff game to duck the new pitch count rules. No batter would see Peterson, Torres or Brunt more than once. Think about it. The Trojan goal, a 3rd consecutive sectional championship, is very, very reachable. Good example of the new pitch count rule. On Tuesday, Peterson struck out eight in six innings (107 pitches) and led Crown Point 3-1 going to the seventh inning. The Trojans took him out (I don't know if it was the 120-pitch, 4-day limit or not), but CP rallied to tie the game and won 5-3 in 11 innings.

LaPORTE: What got into Jon Williams? I don't know, but he was batting .458 (11 of 24) in eight games with 11 RBIs after hitting .299 last season. Williams, a senior, had struck out 28 batters in 12 innings. Can that be true??? Top pitcher Andy Samuelson (3-0) struck out 31 in his first 19 innings. He won four games last season. After 1/4 of the schedule, the Slicers were batting .322 as a team. Pitchers struck out 83 and walked 22. Only eight earned runs allowed in eight games. And this is LaPorte. They don't pad the stats there. After eight games, the Slicers have one 4-3 loss on the back end of a double-header against Logansport. True, they rolled over Michigan City 4-0 and 15-0 in DAC play. Tougher league teams loom ahead for them. But I didn't expect a 7-1 start.

CROWN POINT: The Bulldogs lost two of three at the Joe Heath Invitational in Lafayette last weekend, but they rallied to top Portage 7-5 and Chesterton 5-3 to start Duneland Athletic Conference (DAC) play. The Bulldogs lost to Jefferson 4-2 and McCutcheon 5-4, but they have won the other four games. Lead off man Jake DeFries was 4-for-6 against Chesterton and 2-for-4 against Harrison.
Senior right hander Brandon Haczynski has been good in his first three starts. Here's where the new rule comes in. In the 5-3 nine inning win over Chesterton on Tuesday, April 12, Haczynski threw 97 pitches. By rule, he wasn't allowed to pitch again until Saturday. Relief pitcher Ryan Bolda threw 65 pitches. He could not pitch again until Thursday. CP had games scheduled Wednesday and Thursday. Considering that they were unlikely to bring back Haczynski Wednesday or Thursday, the pitch limit rules were not THAT limiting. Bulldogs host Penn at 10 a.m. Saturday (4-15-2017) and they play Bishop Noll at 2 p.m. CP plays rival Lake Central in back-to-back DAC games April 18 and 19.

HEBRON: The Hawks lost 11-9 to Andrean to start the year but they've started to win as expected. This is a very experienced team, led by a senior all-area 2B-SS combination of Hunter Ryan (.446, 9 HRs, 34 RBIs) and Chad Patrick (.402, 4 HRs, 23 RBIs). Patrick (7-2, 3.66 ERA, 84 strikeouts in 57 innings) will lead the pitching staff. Logan Ryan (45 of 108, .417) and Travis Patrick (51 of 105, .486). the hitters, also return along with Travis Patrick (7-0, 1.42 ERA) and Logan Ryan (4-3, 3.19 ERA), the pitchers. The Patricks are cousins and the Ryans are brothers. For one more season, they're all Hawks. Here's a team that will probably split games between the two top pitchers until playoff time. There's just no need for complete games anymore. To be honest, the regular season doesn't matter much here. Hebron is geared for a playoff run that they hope will get the boys to the Hebron's first baseball state title game.

7. (3A) HANOVER CENTRAL (4-2)
19-11 (2016), 25-5 (2015), 23-6 (2014), 20-5 (2013)

CEDAR LAKE: Hanover is off to a slower start than I expected, taking losses 11-3 to Crown Point and 12-3 to Highland. I didn't expect them to win both of those games, but those big-number losses are not encouraging. HC returns the majority of their pitching staff, including Eric Lakomek (4-2, 3.27 ERA), Bobby Nowak (3-0, 2.50 RA) and Mike Biegel (2-1, 2.72 ERA), Brandon Geringer (1-1, 2.70 ERA in 34 innings). Offensively, Nowak (39 of 103, .379), Lakomek (27 of 88, .307), Jose Sanchez (21 of 88, .330), Clay Cameron (25 of 75, .373) and Nick Lucido (21 of 65, .323) certainly appear to form a potent offense, as they did in 2016. The Cats have a new coach in Ryan Bridges, the former Griffith high and Purdue star. I won't put too much stock in cold weather early April games. Andrean, which has eliminated Hanover three times since HC moved up to Class 3A, remains in Class 4A for at least one more season. Seven-time state champ Lafayette Catholic stays in 2A for one more year. For Hanover (and Griffith and a couple of others) the future is now.

2017 Renegade HS Baseball 'Magnificent-7' Week-2 Poll for Northwest Indiana

2017 Renegade HS Baseball 'Magnificent-7'
Week-2 Poll for Northwest Indiana