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2016
Renegade HS Baseball 'Magnificent-7'
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A USA-365.com Special Report by Mark Smith 6-05-2016 |
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2016
Renegade HS Baseball 'Magnificent-7'
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A USA-365.com Special Report by Mark Smith 6-05-2016 |
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| Munster was
the center of the universe in the first week of June as their
baseball and softball teams both pulled off major upsets to advance
in state tournament play. Munster baseball topped arch-rival and 4A
No. 2 Lake Central 5-4. (Photo by Mark Smith) |
MERRILLVILLE (6-03-2016)
A sudden heat wave welcomed state tournament week in Northwest Indiana bringing
in 80-degree temperatures to replace the 45-degree ‘comfort’ of the majority of
the season. I wonder if that had an effect on some of the favored teams losing?
Conditioning may have been a factor but anybody can beat anybody in one game.
Several teams squeezed in late scheduled nonconference games Monday and Tuesday
before the Wednesday opening night of the state tournament.
I don’t think teams really WANT to play the night before the state tournament,
but the hurry-up format of the state tournament and its ridiculous mid-week
start forces ‘uncomfortable’ scheduling if you want to get anywhere near your
limit of games played.
Thank goodness for Munster or every one of the teams in this poll would have been
wiped out in sectional play. You folks who have read these pages for years know
exactly what local upsets at the sectional level usually mean.
It means we get nobody to the state finals or anywhere near them.
Let’s see. Griffith, Chesterton, Hebron and Washington Township were not ranked
here, but advanced to the regional with a decent chance for more.
Locally Griffith (15-13) is the only NWI team to be host of a regional. Weather
concerns might push the title game there and at LaPorte to Monday night.
I would have bet that Andrean or Lake Central would still be playing at the
regional but, hey, I still thought Jeb Bush would be running for President on
June 1st as well.
What do I know?
1. (3A) Andrean (26-6)
30-6 (2015), 31-4 (2014), 27-3-1 (2013), 28-5 (2012)
MERRILLVILLE: The 59ers first effort at winning a title in Class 4A was stopped by Chesterton 6-3. The 59ers stopped Crown Point 4-1 in the semifinals, but ace pitcher Luke Jaksich pitched a complete game and wasn't able to start against the Trojans. Andrean topped Montini, Illinois 6-0 and (Chicago) St. Rita 4-0 to end the regular season. The 59ers split two games with Hobart to clinch the Northwest Crossroads Conference (NCC) championship. The 59ers topped Hanover 8-3 Monday night to end the regular season after a 3-1 Saturday loss to Chicago Catholic power Brother Rice. You can't define a team by one game and this was another top year for the 59ers. Are they better than LC? We’ll never know. But the Niners graduate only three seniors so they’ll be back and better than ever in 2017.
2. (4A) LAKE CENTRAL (27-5)
25-5-1 (2015), 23-10 (2014), 23-9 (2013), 32-1 (2012), 26-5 (2011)
ST. JOHN: It was a quick end of the state tournament for 4A No 2 Lake Central. After 16 shutouts from the pitching staff and a season where they were 20 games over .500, arch rival Munster edged out LC 5-4 in sectional play. Matt Litwicki allowed just five hits and three walks in seven innings. Football quarterback Ethan Darter pitched a seven inning no-hitter with 11 strikeouts May 6th in a 4-0 win over Clark and pitched a 5-inning no-hitter against Gary West Side in the sectional. Kyle Freel pitched five shutouts innings in a 10-0 win over Northridge. Litwicki and Joe Graziano pitched back-to-back shutouts over Valparaiso May 3-5. Freel pitched a seven-inning complete game 6-1 win over (Evansville) Harrison in last week’s tournament in Jasper before the good times came to a temporary halt as 3A No. 1 Jasper bombed LC 10-1, breaking a 12-game win streak. But in the sectional final, ace pitchers Graziano and Litwicki held Munster to just six hits but they did walk five and LC did make two errors. There’s still a gap between Andrean, LC and everyone else, but LC and Andrean are not playing.
3. (4A) Munster (20-10)
19-8 (2015), 29-4 (2014), 20-9 (2013), 15-14 (2012)
MUNSTER: The Mustangs are another team that’s hard to rate. The ponies had lost 10 when the season ended, but five were to 4A No. 2 LC (27-5), 4A No. 5 Terre Haute South (21-4), Hobart (20-9), Crown Point (17-12) and 4A No. 3 Andrean (26-6) twice. Hardly anybody plays that schedule. And then the big one. The Mustangs rolled out top pitcher Connor Manous and he struck out 15 in the sectional championship game against LC, a 5-4 Munster win. And the tournament favors anybody with an ace pitcher like Manous. Entering the LaPorte regional Saturday against Chesterton, Manous, a Division I prospect, can start the regional semifinal and close the regional title game. He could then start the semistate game and the state title game. That’s the format. It diminishes pitching depth, while rewarded a team with one ace hurler. Watch out for the Mustangs.
4. (4A) Hobart (21-9)
19-9 (2015), 26-6 (2014), 20-11 (2013), 22-8 (2012)
HOBART: The Brickies lost 5-1 in the opener of the 4A Sectional 2 playoffs to Valparaiso (12-14) in what was probably the second biggest upset in that sectional. The Brickies batted .305 as a team, stole 81 bases and were very strong most of the year, but they proved a quick exit can happen to anyone. Senior Braden Nicksich (6-3, 1.33 ERA) was strong most of the season. Alex Batistatos (7-0, 1.08 ERA) has allowed 34 hits and 10 walks in 46 innings. Senior Jared Zanolla (5-0, 2.01 ERA) also finished undefeated. The Brickies graduate nine seniors so things will be different in 2017.
5.(4A) LaPorte (17-8)
25-6 (2015), 17-13 (2014), 7-17 (2013), 12-19 (2012), 20-10-1 (2011)
LaPORTE: The Slicers lost 10-9 to surprise sectional champ Mishawaka to end the season in the 4A Sectional 3 semifinals. Top pitcher Nick Willoughby (7-2) gave up four runs in three innings and relief pitching couldn’t stop the slide as Mishawaka Freshman Nick Bodle hit a grand slam home run. LaPorte was down 10-3 before a series of rallies fell short. The Slicers scored four times in the seventh and had the bases loaded at the end. The better team appeared to lose here. LaPorte lost twice to Lake Central (27-6) and split the season series with Chesterton and Crown Point. The only other losses are to Portage, Logansport, and Valpo. I’m sure the Slicers feel they should have reached the regional. Anything short of 20 wins and a sectional title is always disappointing at LaPorte. It’ll be significantly different in 2017 after seven seniors graduate this month.
6. (4A)
Chesterton (16-9)
16-16 (2015), 15-12 (2014) 20-6 (2013)
PORTAGE: The biggest upset of the season was the 6-3 win over Andrean. Senior catcher Pat Arndt was 3-for-3 and junior Owen Halas had a homerun. The surprise was that sophomore pitchers Grant Blunt and Austin Peterson held the two-time 3A state champs to just six hits. Obviously, this was a young team with barely a .500-plus record during the regular season. I know. I know. Chesterton got a bye in the sectional and only needed to win two games. But you can't write off wins over rival Valparaiso 13-2 and heavily favored Andrean. The Trojans won 4A Sectional 2 last season with 6-foot-8 right-hander Matt Kubacki before losing to Penn in the regional title game so they’re making a habit of see-sawing through the regular season and then gong to the bank in the sectional. The bank may be closed this Saturday when the Trojans have to find enough runs against Munster (20-10) and, hopefully, Penn (26-4).
7. (2A) BOONE GROVE
(21-2-1)
(2015) 21-8-1, (2014) 18-10, (2013) 19-6
BOONE GROVE: Even a bigger upset than Chesterton over Andrean may have been Hebron upsetting arch-rival Boone Grove in the 2A sectional title game, ending Boone’s best season. Undefeated Ty Bothwell (9-1) gave up eight runs (just four earned) in five innings against the Hawks and Boone could not rally. Boone hit .321 as a team and won every Porter County Conference (PCC) game over every PCC foe. Just the 6-0 loss to LaPorte and a 10-6 defeat to Hebron on the negative side. But, like Andrean, Hobart and Lake Central, with no sectional title, the thrill of a big-winning season is gone.
