2012 Northwest Indiana Top-10 Week-2, High School 'Renegade' Poll 4-05-2012
	A USA-365.com Special Report by Mark Smith

ST. JOHN (4-05-2012) With good weather, the season is off to a fast start with the five Duneland Athletic Conference (DAC) teams running to the front. Lake Central did lose to Munster and Chesterton lost a double-header at Mishawaka 4-3 and 4-2 but the top five of LC, CP, Chesterton, LaPorte and Portage all started well in the first two weeks.

Early season results can be deceptive. Look at Munster (2-2), who was 2-0 when Carly Murphy (2-0) starts and 0-2 when she doesn't. Lowell (3-2) was 3-0 with Brandi Faverty starting and 0-2 when she doesn't.

Reasons: You alternate pitchers in the early going. Murphy didn't pitch in Munster's loss to Andrean. Faverty didn't pitch against defending PCC champ Hebron and defending DAC champ Lake Central. Also, Lowell faces Lake Central in the sectional so maybe they didn't pitch Faverty because they don't want LC to see her until the sectional. Maybe you accept that, (at the big school level especially) you need two pitchers so late March and early April is the time to develop them. One other factor is that several schools like Whiting and Wheeler and Michigan City didn't schedule any games until March 31 when they were allowed to play games as far back as March 22.

I'm wondering if schools could initiate a type of flowing schedule in late March where games were scheduled on two different days. Let's say Wheeler schedules Hebron on March 23 and on April 23. They schedule Michigan City on March 26 and May 16. If the weather is good, they play twice on the March date and the later date becomes a single or double date, depending on how many games they are allowed to play. Teams could schedule games every day in the last week in March with built-in backup dates in May. If the weather is good, you play eight times in March. If not, you have built-in make up dates. The goal here is that teams don't sit on playable days in March or sit without games in late May before the tournament. Schedule the same game twice and if the sun shines, play it twice.

And I'd like to outlaw the Saturday single game. There's no school. All Saturday dates should be two games. And unlike baseball, there are no rules limiting the number of games you can play in one day. So, if you are a big school and have depth, why not schedule a Saturday triple-header? If you play three times every Saturday you can find more practice time on weekdays after school.

1. (4A) LAKE CENTRAL (4-1)
29-6 (2011), 21-11 (2010), 25-2 (2009), 25-7 (2008), 21-6 (2007)

ST. JOHN: Don't put too much into the 8-7 extra inning loss at Munster on opening day. That game probably says more about Munster than it does about LC. The Indians came back to top Penn 5-1, run over Highland 15-1, stomp on Lowell 7-1 and blank Chesterton 5-0. Soph Lily Del Toro struck out nine in the complete game win over Highland. Bridget Boyle pitched the shutout against Chesterton. I'm sensing that LC seems to enjoy being the favorite in every game. They don't want to 'sneak under the radar' and that's a good thing.

2. (3A) Andrean (2-0)
25-7 (2011), 24-5 (2010), 28-8 (2009), 18-10 (2008), 29-3 (2007)

MERRILLVILLE: The Niners topped Portage 4-2 with a three-run opening day rally in the sixth inning. Nicole Steinbach allowed six hits in her first complete game victory of the season. Then Steinbach retired the first 18 batters in a 7-0 win over Munster Monday (4-3-2012). Again this year, the 59ers play twice as many road games as home games. This is another program that isn't trying to prove anybody wrong. They're just trying to annually prove themselves right. Andrean's first big tournament will see them face Hanover, Wheeler and Crown Point at the Crown Point Invitational on April 21, but the word is there will be no LC-Andrean match up this season.

3. (4A) CROWN POINT (3-0)
18-9 (2011), 27-2 (2010), 24-5 (2009), 18-11 (2008), 16-14 (2007)

CROWN POINT: CP has looked very good early. The Lady Bulldogs coasted past Michigan City 12-1 Tuesday behind sophomore right-hander Brittany Ard. They put a lot of runs on the board topping Hobart 10-3 and Penn 9-2 in the first week. The Lady Bulldogs led 7-1 in the third inning against Hobart and 7-0 in the second inning against Penn. They also got injured sophomore pitcher Rachel Centanni back in action, pitching two innings against Penn. Andrean probably cares about tournaments more than they do their league. CP cares about the league more than they do the in-season tournaments. Big week coming up for Crown Point as they play DAC front-runners Chesterton on May 12 and Lake Central on May 14.
 

4. (4A) CHESTERTON (2-3)
19-8 (2011), 19-7 (2010), 14-15 (2009), 17-10 (2008), 20-6 (2007)

CHESTERTON:  It's not a surprise Chesterton lost to Mishawaka and Lake Central, but they do have a three-game losing streak. Chesterton was shut out 5-0 by Lake Central, getting just five hits off right-hander Bridget Boyle. The Trojans, who began the season ranked 9th in the state, let everybody know what it's going to be like when you play them. Chesterton junior Megan Tymorek and sophomore Sydney Cooley hit home runs in the season-opening 6-3 win over Griffith. Tymorek, who pitched two complete games the first week, hit a two-run homer in the sixth as the Trojans took down Hanover Central 2-0 last Friday. Chesterton lost a double-header at Mishawaka 4-3 and 4-2 last Saturday. It's been a surprise so far that they only scored 13 runs in five games.

5. (4A) LaPORTE (3-0)
20-9 (2011), 22-11 (2010), 17-11 (2009) 20-14 (2008), 17-11 (2007)

LaPORTE: The Slicers topped Hobart 4-2 as Sammy Becker drove in two runs in Saturday's season opener. Pitcher Hannah Fuller allowed just six hits. The Slicers topped Bishop Noll 3-1 Monday and Merrillville 11-1 Tuesday. This speaks to the strength of the DAC this season. Can you be fifth in the area and 4th in the DAC? The 14-game Duneland Conference schedule started Tuesday and the road gets rougher for LaPorte this week when they face Lake Central (4-1) Thursday in St. John.

6. (4A) Munster (2-2)
2011 (20-9), 2010 (20-10), 2009 (17-14), 2008 (27-7), 2007 (24-7)

MUNSTER: When Munster's season is over, they still may be asking how they lost 10-1 to Homewood-Flossmoor on March 27. Munster topped Lake Central 8-7 in eight innings last week and stopped Hanover Central 5-1. The really good teams stack lefty leadoff batters like Brianna Zunica, who had three hits against HC and Sadie Conner, who drove in the winning run against LC, at the top of the order. Munster was blanked 7-0 by Andrean Monday, producing just one base hit. It's a surprise they've been shut out twice already. Carly Murphy also throws the ball a little harder than she did last season and its no coincidence the Mustangs have won the two games she's started.
 

7. (2A) Hebron (2-1)
25-6 (2011), 20-10 (2010), 20-14 (2009), 20-14,(2008)

HEBRON: The Hawks bombed Lowell 10-2 in the season opener, but got beat by Portage 4-3. Hawks senior right-hander Mollie Lindeman struck out 12 and Kylie Doelling had two doubles. The defending Porter County Conference champs lost to Portage after taking a 3-1 lead, but competing well against 4A schools signals the start of a good year. That start should continue against Gavit and Merrillville this week. The Porter County Conference lead will be on the line when Hebron gets to Hanover Central on April 14.

8. (4A) Portage (2-0)
19-7 (2011), 12-10 (2010), 14-14 (2009), 19-9 (2008), 2007 (23-7)

PORTAGE: Haley Hodges had four hits in a 10-0 win over Valparaiso Tuesday (4-3-12) after Portage topped Hebron 4-3 last week. Last year was a freshmen and sophomore dominated season in the Duneland Conference and most of those players are back this year. That's why there's five DAC teams in the top eight here. Portage probably should have been in the Top-10 last week and you could make the argument they'll be better than Hebron once we start playing regularly.

9. (2A) Bishop Noll (2-1)
21-8 (2011), 20-10 (2010), 20-14 (2009), 19-10 (2008)

HAMMOND: Noll started quietly Saturday with a 10-0 win over Merrillville. Senior right-hander Vanessa Hartzell struck out 14 in a five-inning shutout. The Warriors lost 4-1 to LaPorte Monday but coasted past River Forest 16-1 Tuesday. Noll almost certainly will have trouble scoring runs but, as the first three games show, with Hartzell, they won't need many. Noll travels to Wheeler (1-0) on Tuesday, April 9.

10. (3A) Kankakee Valley (1-1)
24-4 (2011), 14-15 (2010)

WHEATFIELD: Here's another team that didn't schedule any games the first week and it may have cost them in a 3-2 loss at Lowell Tuesday. Not sure what happened here as senior pitcher Ashley Dobson (15-5, 0.96 ERA in 2011) left during Lowell's three-run fourth inning and Taurie Piatt finished the game. MariBeth Strong had KV's two RBIs. KV coasted past South Central 6-0 Monday (4-2-2012) with a six-run seventh inning. Lets put this loss off to it just being the Kougars' first couple of games.
 

(Return to Top)

Copyright © 2012 USA-365.com and Meyer Multimedia Services, a division of Meyer Broadcasting Corp.  All rights reserved.
Revised: April 13, 2012.