Northwest Indiana Top-10

Week 3 High School Rankings

A USA-365.com Special Report By Mark Smith

Before the season began we predicted Lake County could send three teams to the state finals. Here are our picks for the USA-365.com Week #3 High School Girls Softball Top-10 teams for Northwest Indiana:

1. Lake Central (6-1)

It's very hard to choose between Lake Central and Andrean. The Indians have three pitchers behind ace Brooke Baker (4-1). LC pitching has four shutouts and their defense (despite 11 errors in 7 games) makes outstanding plays. The loss to top-ranked Castle may have been a fluke. LC led 3-0 after 6 innings. The Indians are going to have to make a little better contact at the plate but that's nit-picking when you're 89-12 in the last four years.

2. ANDREAN (8-0)

The 59ers just bombed the competition at the eight-team Dowagiac Invitational Saturday including a 19-0 rout of Division III No. 10 Dowagiac in the title game. Kelly Jeziorski had five base hits in the championship game. Right-hander Katie Sheaks (6-0) pitched three complete games and didn't allow a run in the last 14 innings.

Andrean beat Michigan big school state champ Portage Northern 9-0. I'm not sure how good their outfield is but, again, when you're 38-3 in the last two seasons and you're pitcher averages more than a strikeout an inning, that's a small point.

3. Portage (2-1)

Portage started the season with two 10-0 wins and a 7-6 loss where they trailed 5-0 after a half inning. After two complete game wins, Cristin Zaragzoa had 21 strikeouts and one walk. The competition wasn't great but the Indians had 26 runs after three games.

4. Valparaiso (2-3)

Valpo had only scored 16 runs in five games but they'd played much tougher competition than Portage. There's very little difference between the top three teams in the DAC.

5. Chesterton (4-1)

After three errorless games, Chesterton inexplicably made 10 errors in two games. The Trojans did beat Hanover Central for the first time in 5 years, when they held on for a 2-1 victory last Thursday.

6. Griffith (5-1)

The Panthers took a surprising loss at Whiting last Friday but they swept a double-header at South Bend Riley. Griffith has won three games by a 2-1 score. Senior Cristin Nash has three complete game victories.

7. Highland (3-1)

All of Highland's first five games have been decided by one or two runs. They've won two games 1-0. Stephanie Zimny had allowed just 10 hits in her first four complete games.

8. Munster (4-1)

A respectable 2-0 loss to Andrean put Munster on the board and they rallied from a 4-0 deficit against Wheeler. The Mustangs have just five errors in five games and they got 15 base hits in an 11-0 win over Lowell. There's still a question about pitchers Stephanie and Lori Andjelich against good teams.

9. Hanover Central (2-2)

Amanda Wendlinger retired 30 batters in a row in games against Chesterton and Bishop Noll last week, but the Lady Cats made seven errors in a 7-2 loss to Noll. All the questions about Hanover's offense are still valid after a one-hit loss to Chesterton.

10. Crown Point (2-3)

A one-run loss to Michigan's Division III No. 10 Dowagiac (4-1), a one-run loss to Class 3A No. 3 Lake Central. A 5-1 loss to Michigan's Division III No. 4 Kalamazoo Christian. The Bulldogs are playing well, they just haven't had much luck so far.

Others with a chance:

*** Whiting (2-0)

The 6-5 win over Griffith gives a hint they might not be overrated but the Oilers played Lake Station so the schedule is questionable so far.

*** Hobart (2-2)

Sarah Bodhaine pitched a four-hit, 2-0 shutout against Lowell to get the Brickies to .500 but the Brickies aren't hitting much yet.

*** Wheeler (3-1)

The BearCats lost 5-4 to Munster or they'd be undefeated. Good hitting (34 runs) so far against a soft schedule.

SOFT NOTES: In the Michigan-Indiana challenge at the Chieftain Invitational in Dowagiac Michigan on April 12, Michigan won. Dowagiac, Portage Northern and Kalamazoo Christian went 2-1 and Walled Lake Western went 1-2.

On the Indiana side, Andrean went 3-0, but Elkhart Memorial and Crown Point were 1-2. Mishawaka Marian was 0-3.

At the Penn Invitational, Michigan power Brandywine, Penn and Lafayette Jefferson all went 2-1. Penn beat Jefferson 9-7. Merrillville was 0-3 in that tournament.

In the Lafayette area, Harrison (4-0) beat Chesterton 8-4 and McCutcheon (7-1) smoked Twin Lakes 5-1. Lake Central travels to face Harrison and Turkey Run this weekend.

Hebron freshman Maggie Riggs pitched back-to-back complete game shutouts winning 3-0 over River Forest and 4-0 over Kankakee Valley. South Central was crushed 10-1 by New Prairie Monday.