39th Indiana State H.S.

Baseball Playoffs Preview

5-31-2004

A USA-365.com Special Report By Mark Smith

The IHSAA has struck again and because of a very cosmetic desire to see No. 1 pitchers in the state title game, the state governing body has crammed the state tournament and will resurrect the semistate level of the tournament and install a mid-week regional championship game. No one I've spoken to is for this.

The major problems have to do with pitching. If you pitch your No. 1 starter on in the sectional quarterfinal and your No. 2 starter in the semifinals the next day, you either go to a third starter or bring your No. 1 guy back on three days rest in the title game. Let's say you win the sectional. You will then need your No. 1 guy on three days rest again in the regional. Use the No.2 pitcher in the regional championship? Really? Good luck with that.

Let's say you win the Tuesday regional. You then must bring back your No. 1 pitcher in the four-team semistate semifinals. You don't have a choice there because you have to win two games in one day. What about using your No. 3 starter in the semistate? Again, good luck with that strategy.

So, your number one starter has pitched four times in 13 days. When you get to the finals, do you start him again? Of course, it's the state title game. Guess what? In 20 days, your number one pitcher has started five times and you have worn him out. And the scenario I've painted assumes that no games are rained out. Is that the real world?

All I can say is, if you are the No. 1 starter on your high school team, don't plan on doing much of anything else with your pitching arm until the Fourth of July. And if you're the No. 3 starter on your high school team, just be ready, son.

4A Merrillville Sectional

May 31 (M) Hobart (19-10) vs. Portage (10-17)
May 31 (M) Crown Point (17-10) vs. Chesterton
May 31 (M) Merrillville (16-10) vs. Valparaiso (16-12)

June 1 (Tu) Hobart or Portage vs. CP or Chesterton - 4:30 p.m.

June 4 (Fri) Championship game - 4:30 p.m.

MERRILLVILLE: The excitement here revolves around Merrillville, which has defeated state-rated powers Andrean (21-7) and Munster (23-5) in the last 10 days and is playing on their home field. The thing you have to remember about baseball is that momentum is only as good as your first inning. You can win 20 games in a row, but if you give up runs in the first inning of a playoff game, you're usually about two hours away from the off-season.

Merrillville laid some smack down on Valparaiso 10-7 on May 13 and 5-4 on April 23 but those were not decisive wins. The trick will be to contain DAC home run leader Darrel Evans (27-67, .403, 9 HRs, 9 doubles, 4 triples, 35 RBIs, 13 steals), who has had an MVP season. The Pirates' pitching is very shaky and good pitching can shut them down as Andy Loomis of Noll did in a 6-0 win on May 26.

But the Pirates only need two wins here. Of course, Valpo only needs two wins as well and there was little in Merrillville's two wins over Valpo that indicate the Pirates are the better team.

Valparaiso is another team with slim pitching and heavy bats. Senior first baseman Brian McMillan (33-78, .423, 8 HRs, 41 RBIs) is a Grade A power threat with three grand slam homers already this season. catcher Doug Lang (30-79, .380, 23 RBIs) was 4-for-4 in a 10-2 rout of Mishawaka on May 22. Valpo has split with Crown Point , Lake Central and Lafayette Central Catholic (20-7). Few recall this but Valpo is also one of the few teams to beat 4A No. 1 Elkhart Memorial (26-3) this season. Jon Charlson shut them out 4-0 on April 3. Infielder Tim Kucharski (30-81, .370, 11 steals) has speed and Kyle Bartholemew (26-74, .351, 5 HRs, 7 doubles, 20 RBIs) adds power. The VHS crew added highly regarded freshmen Nate Windsor and Chooch Sizemore late in the year. Both can be big time hitters. The Vikings won their last seven regular season games.

Obviously, Merrillville and Valpo, with the byes, are the favorites. The only team suited with pitching enough to win three times in five days is Crown Point (17-10). Senior Mike Schultz (5-3) entered the state tourney off a 7-1 complete game win over Lowell. Left-hander Matt Jansen (4-5) had the misfortune to pitch the day Clark's Steve Polak no-hit CP 2-0. Soph right-hander Tommy Wise shut out LaPorte 1-0 and 6-8 junior Adam Quinn (3-0) ended the year with a win over Washington Township. 6-3 righty Jimmy Wilson brings a big curve ball in relief. CP's problem is, that despite 216 runs scored (8.0 per game) they are not a good hitting team. The Bulldogs have been shut out three times and held to one run two other times. If 1-2 batters Jake Pierce (25-74, .338, 3 HRs, 21 RBIs, 11 steals) and Matt Long (30-79, .380, 2 HRs, 16 RBIs, 14 steals) don't get on base, CP struggles to score.

Chesterton started the year very well and Casey Martin (40-81, .494, 5 HRs, 23 RBIs) plus Matt Lambert (28-60, 467) give them big time offense but after Tom Albano (7-2), they dont have any pitching either. Hobart has nuklt a fine record but they didn't build it in the DAC, so the intimidating numbers of Marc Drobac (46-95, .484, 12 doubles, 35 RBIs) and Jeff Fuller (45-93, .484, 6 HRs, 34 RBIs) are a little inflated. Portage needs 3-4 hitters Milton Rivera (35-88, .398) and Jon Rush (33-83, 398) to help outscore three foes because they don't have much pitching either.

The Bulldogs are the defending champions here and they are 40-20 over the last two seasons, but it appears they have too many teams to beat here in too short a time. Merrillville has no state tourney experience and is a very young team. Any of six teams could win here.

But I'm picking Valparaiso with Jon Charlson (6-4) and Clint Krysa (5-3) to get their hands on the big sectional trophy late Friday, probably beating CP 7-4 in the title game.

4A Highland Sectional
May 31 (M) Lake Central (20-6) vs. Lowell (11-17)
May 31 (M) Munster (22-5) vs. East Chicago
May 31 (M) Gary West Side vs. Highland (15-14)

June 1 (Tu) LC or LOWELL vs. Munster - 4 p.m.

June 4 (Fri) Championship game - 4 p.m.

4A Regional
June 8 (Tues) Merrillville Regional champ at Highland Regional champ (TBA)

HIGHLAND - This lopsided sectional doesn't have a clear cut favorite because the home team got, by far, the best draw. Highland (15-14) did not have a good year, but they got a quarterfinal bye and a semifinal game against Gary West Side, a team that truthfully, cannot beat them.

Right-handed pitcher Billy Metzen (6-5) pitched Saturday (May 29) and he struck out nine in a 7-2 win over Michigan City. Highland also beat Portage 9-3 in the final days of the season. The Trojans are a combined 1-6 against Munster , Noll and Andrean and none of those teams and Munster has to by LC for Highland to face them a fourth time. If the Trojans use lefty Kevin Kulchar against West Side and line up Metzen for the championship game, no one here will overlook them. There is a slim chance that Lowell upset Lake Central but with LC using either Brett Summers (8-2) or Jon Babinski (9-1), that chance was slim indeed. The only way Munster lost to East Chicago was if they missed the bus.

In an LC-Munster matchup, the Mustangs will ride into battle with lefty Brian Bokowy (7-0, 1.36 ERA), who had 80 strikeouts in 47 innings. Bokowy last pitched on the 24th of May, a 4-2 win over Andrean. He has the velocity (upper 80s) to throw the ball right by most prep hitters. The senior can get wild and that's what LC has to work for. The Indians win this game if they can extend it because Munster does not have much pitching besides Bokowy.

LC will probably use 6-5 right-hander Brett Summers (7-2), who pitched in the state semifinals last year. Summers lost twice in the middle of the year, but he allowed just three hits in an 11-0 shutout of DeKalb on May 23.

Munster, which averages over eight runs per game, wants to take Summers deep into the count and challenge him to throw the ball by them in the relatively small Highland ballpark. The Mustangs, led by Scott Starewicz (35-74, .473) and Pat Winterhaler (6 HRs, 28 RBIs), have not been shut out all year.

Since Lake Central scored five runs in the seventh inning to beat Crown Point 5-4, they have not lost, winning the last five games of the regular season. Munster ended the season losing twice at Merrillville but they used back-up pitchers. Munster lost a double-header at Merrillville in the final week of the season two years ago and went on to win the state title.

LC has a better team overall than Munster. maybe six college players and three certain Division I players. They will take a high-scoring game from Munster 7-4.

In the title game, Highland might take advantage of Munster's No. 2 pitcher but LC's No. 2 is Babinski (9-1), another dominator. Lake Central has scored 10 or more runs in 11 games. There's not much Highland can do to stop them.

Lake Central will advance and host Valparaiso in the regional championship game on Tuesday afternoon, June 8.

BASE NOTES: This is the first year for this format so there's no telling whether the regional game will be a 4:30 p.m. or 7 p.m. game. Munster and East Chicago have lights. LC, Lowell, Gary West Side and Highland do not. If the sectional championship is played Friday, all pitchers will be available for the Tuesday regional. The rule is, you get 10 innings in a three day span, defined this way: You count innings pitched in the previous two days and add them to what you are pitching in this game. For example, if you pitch 10 innings on Tuesday, June 1, you could pitch 10 more on Friday, June 4. But if you pitch seven innings on June 2, you could pitch just three innings on June 5. Understand? Good, because I'm not sure.