Northwest Indiana 2011 Week-8 High School 'Renegade' Top-10 Poll 6-03-2011
	A USA-365.com Special Report by Mark Smith

ST. JOHN (6-02-2011) The top teams in 3A and 4A most of the year were the top teams early in the post-season as Lake Central and Andrean both moved through the first two rounds of the IHSAA softball playoffs. The only true upsets came in 2A where Hanover Central knocked off 2A No. 10 Bishop Noll and in 1A where Westville and Whiting both were topped early. The Westville loss (to sub-.500 Triton) is something the IHSAA should take a look at.

Westville's best offensive player Shawna Ramer, was also a sprinter on the track team. When the softball sectional and the track regional came up on the same day, she had to make a choice. Let down her track team or let down her softball team. She chose track, hoping she could get to the softball game late. She did and Westville's softball team got beat. This is a situation that the IHSAA has caused by compressing all the spring state tournaments into a four or five week window. It's not the way it used to be and it's unnecessary. Baseball and softball formerly ran into the 4th week of June, but the IHSAA insists they be done by mid-June.

Two sport spring athletes, something that is not unusual at small schools, get conflicted and must make a choice. It isn't right and the best reason I get is that the seasons have to end by mid-June, so everybody can go on vacation. If that's true, that's pathetic.

The problem sometimes with educators is that they can all get in a room, do something stupid and all agree on it. In the last 10 years the baseball and softball playoffs have been inched up into May, even though the weather is brutal in the northern part of the state. If they don't care about spring sports, okay. But I'd hope they'd care enough not to put kids in the position Shawna Ramer was last month.

It is my understanding that the state softball finals have never been televised and will not be aired again this year. I do not know why. The Class 4A baseball title game has been aired for years.

The Northwest Indiana survivors heading for the semistate: Hebron (24-5), Andrean (23-8) and Lake Central (28-4) all have an outside shot of reaching the state finals, although LC must defeat 4A superpowers Penn (22-5) and Carmel (25-2) on the same day.

Historically, Class 2A has been the 'yellow brick road' to the state finals. So watch the Hawks, who have never won a state championship in any sport.

1. (4A) LAKE CENTRAL (28-5)
21-11 (2010), 25-2 (2009), 25-7 (2008), 21-6 (2007), 25-8 (2006), 32-1 (2005)

ST. JOHN: Lake Central dominated sectional foes and turned back neighbor and rival Crown Point 4-1 in a Tuesday night regional. Freshman Lily Del Toro (7-3) pitched three innings of shutout relief Tuesday (5-30-2011) to help LC defeat the Lady Bulldogs for the third time this season. Del Toro is obviously their best pitcher, but it's hard to start her ahead of upperclassmen. The good news is LC was 13-1 in the DAC. The bad news: they were 10-4 outside NW Indiana. The rest of the tournament features teams outside NW Indiana. Lake Central has won at least 20 games 24 years in a row so they can't be discounted. They have an attitude that the sectional and regional were nice but not what they've focused on. The semistate is everything for them. But Carmel, which has four signed Division I players, beat them decisively in April and the Indians just tipped a faster and more athletic Penn team 7-6. Penn has hit 20 home runs in 37 games. If LC reaches the state finals, they will most definitely have earned it.

2. (3A) ANDREAN (23-6)
24-5 (2010), 28-8 (2009), 18-10 (2008), 29-3 (2007), 26-4 (2006)

MERRILLVILLE: Andrean rode Nicole Steinbach to the sectional and regional title even though the scores were decidedly 'old school.' The Niners won four playoff games by scores of 1-0, 2-0, 2-1 and 1-0 with Steinbach, the junior right-hander, striking out 61 batters and allowing just nine hits in the four games. It's the 59ers' 7th regional title. While that makes for a nice story, you don't win state titles with 1-0 and 2-1 wins these days. Andrean MUST rediscover their lost offense at the Twin Lakes Regional this Saturday (6-4-2011) and Steinbach (268 strikeouts and 19 walks in 159 innings) has to stay healthy. But with defending state champ and top-ranked Bishop Dwenger losing in the regional, Andrean should beat Columbia City (14-12) and Western (21-9) or Missisinewa (19-3) to reach the state finals.

3. (4A) CHESTERTON (19-8)
19-7 (2010) 14-15 (2009), 17-10 (2008), 20-6 (2007), 30-2 (2006)

CHESTERTON: Chesterton lost 2-0 at Crown Point in the class 4A Sectional 2 playoffs, but I could not say that CP is the better team. Sophomore Megan Tymorek pitched two strong sectional victories and freshman Sydney Cooley finished with a NW Indiana-leading seven home runs. I thought this was the second best team in the DAC and I still do, even with their lack of success against Crown Point. Chesterton had five losses by two runs or less. The Trojans graduate just three seniors and they have a lot (read: Cooley and Tymorek) coming back for 2012 when they could be the best team in the DAC.

4. (4A) CROWN POINT (18-9)
27-2 (2010), 24-5 (2009), 18-11 (2008), 16-14 (2007), 13-14 (2006)

CROWN POINT: There's a big problem with how to rate Crown Point at the end of regional play. CP was 3-0 against LaPorte (20-9) and 0-3 against Lake Central (28-5). There's more. The Lady Bulldogs were 2-0 against Michigan City and 0-2 against Portage. When you lose to Penn, McCutcheon and Lewis Cass, that's no big deal and CP was 2-1 against Chesterton, which I believe is a better team. My bottom line is: There's not a bad loss there. Sophomore Siena Gyure (11-5) and freshman Rachel Centanni (6-4) were as good a 1-2 pitching rotation as could be expected. They'll be back to challenge LC and Chesterton next season.

5. (4A) LaPORTE (20-9)
22-11 (2010), 17-11 (2009), 20-14 (2008), 17-11 (2007)

LaPORTE: When I see LaPorte and Crown Point, I think LaPorte is the better team. But the Slicers were 0-3 against CP and 0-6 against Andrean, CP and Lake Central. Senior Jessica Craft (.424) was named co-MVP of the Duneland Conference but LaPorte didn't have many seniors. They return both pitchers Meghan Bunch (11-3) and Hannah Fuller (9-4) next season plus little Alexis Botsford, who was batting almost .500 most of the year. The DAC was tough in 2011 and it will be tougher in 2012 as almost all of the starting pitching returns. Being back next year better than ever might not be good enough.

6. (4A) Munster (18-8)
2010 (20-10), 2009 (17-14), 2008 (27-7), 2007 (24-7), 2006 (22-7)

MUNSTER: The Mustangs lost twice to LC and once to Carmel, Chesterton and CP. The Mustangs had a strong run in the middle of the year, including a five-game sweep of the Twin Lakes Invitational. But in the end, they were much better than expected after graduating their starting pitching. Carly Murphy (14-6) is just what the Mustangs need when you consider that the top two pitchers in the Northwest Crossroads Conference (KV's Ashley Dobson and Andrean's Nicole Steinbach) are back next year. This was a very good year for Munster, although it may bug them to see rivals LC and Andrean still playing in June and they may not be able to say it for awhile.

7. (4A) Portage (19-8)
12-10 (2010), 14-14 (2009), 19-9 (2008), 2007 (23-7), 2006 (18-12)

PORTAGE: Portage's season was a lot like Crown Point's, only more confusing. The results contradict. Portage swept Crown Point and was the only DAC team to defeat Andrean and Lake Central, all three sectional champions. But the Indians were 0-2 against a .500 Michigan City team and 0-3 against Chesterton. One thing that's hard to determine about the DAC is that no team seems to have a dominant pitcher. Is that because of the strength of offense in the league or is it just mediocre (or very young) pitching? Natalie Kopack and Kylie Someson were a solid duo for the Indians, but they are seniors and the future is cloudy.

8. (3A) Kankakee Valley (17-2)
14-15 (2010)

WHEATFIELD:  KV lost 2-0 to Andean to finish the season and lost 2-of-3 to Andrean (23-8) during the season. Here is an example of how much regular season conference championships mean. KV won the Northwest Crossroads Conference but didn't survive sectional play. It's a hard lesson. Again, if you REALLY want to go to the finals, its better to play a lot of tough games and lose some than roll through an easier schedule. Just ask the Chicago Bulls. Coaches, players and parents don't believe that KV, with the hard-throwing Dobson shutting down opposing batters for one more year, has to get serious about winning in the post-season by scheduling every tough team they can find during the regular season.

9. Hebron (24-5)
0-10 (2010), 20-14 (2009), 19-10 (2008), 9-19 (2007)

HEBRON: Here's another team where you wonder how they'd do against the top schools. The Hawks went 12-0 against PCC foes in 2011, but it wasn't a good year in the PCC. Hebron barely survived 2-1 against a .500 Hanover Central team at the regional. I want to rank them above KV, but the Kougars beat them 11-4 and it's unrealistic to think they'd defeat Class 4A Munster, which played a vastly superior schedule. It's somewhat of a stretch to even have them here above Noll, a team that shut the Hawks out when they met. The Hawks' 8-4 win over Andrean is deceptive because all-stater Nicole Steinbach did not pitch for Andrean on that day. Next year, when most of this former AAU state championship team is back, Hebron, like KV, has got to schedule tougher non-conference teams. Class 1A and 2A have long been the easiest path to the state finals. Alternating pitchers Mollie Lindeman (14-4) and Carrie Combs (10-1) has worked for them and the duo format gives the Hawks a chance to survive the LaVille Semistate. But if the Hawks defeat two Top-10 teams - No. 5 Jimtown (23-4) and No. 1 Woodlan (24-2) Saturday, it will be a surprise, probably even to them.