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2016
Renegade HS Baseball 'Magnificent-7'
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A USA-365.com Special Report by Mark Smith 5-15-2016 |
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2016
Renegade HS Baseball 'Magnificent-7'
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A USA-365.com Special Report by Mark Smith 5-15-2016 |
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| No runs went
up on the visitor's portion of the scoreboard for almost 63 innings
and nine consecutive games this season (actually some of the games
were on the road) as Lake Central set a national high school pitching record. LC was ranked No.2 in Class 4A (and in this poll) last week. (Photo by Mark Smith) |
MERRILLVILLE (5-15-2016)
The weather continues to make it tough on local teams and Saturday’s seem to
have been especially rough. Some games on May 14 had to be axed because of
45-degree weather and wet grounds.
The highlight of the season so far has been Lake Central’s pitching which set a
state and national high school record with 62 2/3 consecutive scoreless innings
including nine consecutive shutouts before the streak ended with an 11-2 win
over LaPorte on May 10.
Now LC was helped by their artificial turf field, which limited rainouts and the
lack of spring days with 20 mile-an-hour southwest winds. But nine consecutive
baseball shutouts is almost impossible at any level beyond Little League.
Credit goes to the pitching, but also the LC defense, which could have cracked
the streak with a key error. The near three-week streak was accomplished against
state class competition as well. LC’s nine shutouts included two wins over
powerhouse Penn (17-6) and two over Munster (14-8).
In an era when baseball people seem to want to fall all over each other to
create new statistics, nine shutouts is nine shutouts. It's not "shutouts above
replacement" or "fielding independent shutouts.” It's nine shutouts over nine
big school teams. Very black and white. No middle ground.
It's not unusual for a top softball team to have a lot of shutouts. Crown
Point’s DAC champion girls team has 11 shutouts by their pitchers. But softball
teams usually use no more than two starting pitchers, while baseball needs at
least three. Plus, it's much easier to score a single run in a baseball game
than it is in softball. Class 2A No.1 Lafayette Catholic (24-1) has just five
shutouts. Andrean (21-3) has just four.
There are more plays in the field and it's easy to make an error. LC didn’t
allow ANY runs, earned or unearned for nine games in a row. We are
unlikely to see anything like LC’s 62 2/3 inning scoreless streak again in the
time we’re watching this sport.
Warm weather is reportedly on the way, but there isn’t much regular season left.
Class 2A No. 10 Boone Grove
(14-1-1) plays at Whiting at 7 p.m. on May 19. Crown Point plays three games in
the McCutcheon tournament May 21-22 the same weekend Hanover (14-6-1) plays
three times at Twin Lakes.
Munster hits the road to Bellmont to play Concordia (11-9) and Bellmont (12-9)
in the Bellmont Invitational on May 21.
Crown Point has added two 6 p.m. games May 23-24 against Morgan Township and
Hanover Central. Morton plays at Merrillville at 7 p.m. on Monday night, May 23.
The state tourney begins on Wednesday, May 25th so you can't go any later than
Tuesday.
Many of us remember that, for years, the Indiana high school baseball playoffs
began on the Memorial Day holiday (May 30 this year) and that worked very well
because all who wished to, could attend the first games.
The state championship games are set for June 18, leaving almost two full warm
weather weeks of June open and idle.
1. (3A) Andrean (21-3)
30-6 (2015), 31-4 (2014), 27-3-1 (2013), 28-5 (2012)
MERRILLVILLE: Can't move the 59ers from the No. 1 spot after Andrean topped 2A No.1 Lafayette Catholic 5-4 and turned back big neighbor Crown Point 9-4 on the May 6-7 weekend. The 59ers got 11 base hits and eight walks in an 18-11 victory over Andrean’s Illinois cousin Marian Catholic. Evan Hylek collected three more hits. Hylek had three hits in the 4-0 win over Munster on May 11 and two doubles in the 5-2 win over Munster on May 9. But the big win was over Lafayette Catholic at St. Joseph’s College. The 59ers scored four runs in the bottom of the seventh with Justin Ruthrauff’s two-run single winning the game. Andrean’s seven game win streak ended with an 8-2 loss to Hamilton Southeastern last Saturday, but the 59ers then topped North Central 6-5. Is 4A No, 3 Andrean better than 4A No. 2 Lake Central? We don’t have any idea yet. They don't meet in the regular season.
2. (4A) LAKE CENTRAL (20-4)
25-5-1 (2015), 23-10 (2014), 23-9 (2013), 32-1 (2012), 26-5 (2011)
ST. JOHN: Lake Central pitching recorded its 15th shutout of the season in a 2-0 win over LaPorte. 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. Kyle Freel pitched five shutout 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. Is LC better than Andrean? We don’t know. They haven’t played in the regular season in many years. There’s a gap between Andrean, LC and everyone else.
3. (4A) Hobart (18-5)
19-9 (2015), 26-6 (2014), 20-11 (2013), 22-8 (2012)
HOBART: The Brickies topped Morton 6-2 and Class 1A No. 1 Morgan Township 4-1 last week before the rain started again. Senior Braden Nicksich (6-1, 0.68 ERA) has 59 strikeouts in 41 innings and just 17 base hits and 15 walks allowed all season. Alex Batistatos (6-0, 1.08 ERA) has allowed 31 hits in 39 innings, but just eight walks. Senior Jared Zanolla (4-0, 1.80 ERA) has only started four times, but he's been good when he’s been able. The Brickies bat .311 as a team and have 70 stolen bases in 83 attempts. LC has lost only to Portage, Crown Point, Marian Catholic and Jasper (21-3). That’s the good news. Hobart gets the news about their sectional draw this week and it could be Andrean, the new player in 4A Sectional 2.
4.(4A) LaPorte (16-6)
25-6 (2015), 17-13 (2014), 7-17 (2013), 12-19 (2012), 20-10-1 (2011)
LaPORTE: The Slicers lost twice to Lake Central (21-4) but that’s not going to smear their reputation. The only other losses are to Portage, Logansport, Valpo and Crown Point. The Slicers were able to hand 2A No. 5 Boone Grove (15-1-1) their first loss of the season on May 9. Tim Watterson struck out five in a 5-inning, 6-0 shutout, a weather-shortened game. Nick Willoughby pitched a seven-inning 5-0 shutout over South Bend Adams on Thursday, May 13. LaPorte doesn’t play Andrean (21-4) and their annual early season matchup with Penn was not played this season. They may add a game or two in the final days after losing a double-header with Lowell to the weather. Am I sure they’re better than Portage (13-7), Valparaiso (10-9) or Crown Point (11-9), all teams they split two games with? No, not really.
5. (4A) Portage
(13-7)
20-10 (2015), 20-11 (2014), 25-6 (2013)
PORTAGE: Portage was 2-5 at one point this season, but they have made a late run here with six victories in a row and it’s the teams they’ve beaten that moved them up here. The Indians topped Munster 8-2 and edged 1A No.1 Morgan Township 3-2. Portage did collect two wins over Merrillville 7-0 and 5-1 and two shutouts over Michigan City 6-0 and 2-0. Portage has lost two to LaPorte (16-6) and the did lose 14-10 to Boone Grove (15-1-1). But add on earlier wins over LC (21-4) and Hobart (18-5) and it's been a good year. Ben Brock (4-1, 0.57 ERA) has allowed only three earned runs and and Michael Rutherford (4-0, 1.01 ERA) has allowed only four. Nick Elwood (3-2, 3.58 ERA) has 48 strikeouts in 38 innings. Control has been an issue with 77 walks and 18 hit batters in 20 games. Those numbers are a little uncomfortable. But the Indians were hitting .313 after 20 games against a good schedule. The sectional draw this week is big here with Andrean in the same sectional.
6. (4A) Crown Point (11-9)
20-10 (2015), 20-11 (2014), 25-6 (2013), 27-5 (2012)
CROWN POINT:
Don't call any Crown Point baseball players this week. They’re busy.
The Bulldogs take next Sunday off, but they still have seven games to play in
the final seven days of the season.
CP has lost to LC (21-4), Andrean (21-4), Hobart (18-5), Penn (17-6), LaPorte
(16-6), Munster (14-8), Portage (12-7), Valparaiso (12-10) and Chicago’s Mount
Carmel (17-6). An impressive list, but that’s probably more losing than they’d
planned on. Mike Mazure allowed four hits and struck out nine in last week’s 4-2
win over Valparaiso, but these guys have a lot of ball playing left to do this
week. CP has the overnight 3-game tournament against Plymouth (14-6), Columbus
North (14-5) and McCutcheon (10-10) at the McCutcheon Invitational May 20-21.
The Bulldogs host 1A No.1 Morgan Township (14-7) on Monday, May 23 and close the
season with a makeup game with Hanover Central (15-5-1) on May 24, both 6 p.m.
games.
7. (4A) Munster (14-8)
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 have lost eight, but five are to 4A No. 2 LC (21-4), 4A No. 5 Terre Haute South (20-3), Hobart (18-5), and 4A No. 3 Andrean (21-4) twice. Hardly anybody plays that schedule. Conner Manous did strike out 10 in a 4-1 loss to Andrean last week. Munster did drop four in a row last week, but the loss streak (was Crown Point, Portage and Andrran twice) came against teams they won't see in sectional play. I believe that Munster and LC are the only teams with winning records in the seven-team Class 4A Sectional 1, which Munster hosts.
8. (2A) BOONE GROVE (14-1-1)
21-8-1 (2015), 18-10 (2014), 19-6 (2013)
BOONE GROVE: Let me include the Wolves here just because they have the best record in Northwest Indiana. Boone has a heavy schedule in the final days with the Porter County Conference tourney and a possible meeting with Class 1A No. 1 Morgan Township (14-7). Ty Bothwell (6-0, 0.00 ERA) has 65 strikeouts in 34 innings and he’s allowed just 12 hits and 11 walks. That earned run average is real. No earned runs allowed in six games. Jeff Birchfield (3-1, 0.68 ERA) has 44 strikeouts in 31 innings). Boone pitching has allowed just 16 earned runs all season. I can't tell you I believe they’re better than Munster (14-8) or Crown Point (11-9) but they didn’t play either team, so I can’t say they aren't. Boone hasn’t played as strong a schedule as the other teams here. The 14-10 win over Portage and the 7-3 win over Morgan Township are the highlights. The 6-0 loss to LaPorte is no big deal and the 3-3 tie with North Newton (17-5-1) is probably a positive. But I wish they’d have played Valparaiso, Crown Point, LC or Andrean.
