Northwest Indiana's Magnificent-7, Week-4 High School 'Renegade' 2015 Poll 4-24-2015
	A USA-365.com Special Report by Mark Smith

Crown Point shortstop Mackenzie Dunlap (6) bats cleanup for the Lady Bulldogs, who won 12 of their first 13 games this season.  (Photo by Mark Smith)

CROWN POINT (4-25-2015) We have settled into a weather pattern where it's truthfully too cold to play softball, but too warm to cancel the game. The result is a lot of first pitch swinging, decisive outcome, low-scoring match-ups played by girls existing just this side of influenza.

An unspoken problem with spring softball is that players have to fight through illness. Talk to any girls team in late April and it's like going to a group sniffles concert. It's deceptive how good some hitters and fielders are or aren't until the weather gets warm. But until Indiana seriously considers pushing softball to the fall sports season, coaches and athletic directors have to play on when temperatures hang in the 40s, because the season is so short that games postponed more than once are likely lost forever.

Few games have been cancelled so far and, at this point, because the spring has been dry, it appears there may not be a rush of makeup games in the final two weeks of the season.

In Class 4A Crown Point (11-1) lost to Portage (10-1). Portage has split with Harrison (10-2) and Harrison has lost to Avon (11-1). Penn (9-0) may move ahead of CP as the top-ranked 4A team, but there's more to come. Penn hosts CP on May 19 and Harrison hosts CP on May 23.

The Class 3A picture in this part of the state is even more cloudy.

The state 4A poll may change at the top after Portage's 1-0 win over Crown Point but this one won't. After CP didn't lose a DAC game for almost 2 seasons, Portage would have to beat them twice to pass them. The top four teams are from the Duneland Athletic Conference (DAC) and that's the way it should be.

1. (4A) Crown Point (11-1)
29-1 (2014), 25-5 (2013), 25-8 (2012), 18-9 (2011), 27-2 (2010)

CROWN POINT: Crown Point's regular season winning streak ended at 38 games with a 1-0 loss at Portage on April 20. Sophomore Alexis Holloway (5-1) struck out 14 and gave up one hit, a home run to Kaitlin Doud. It should go without saying that, after 38 regular season wins in a row, you don't lose the No. 1 ranking in a 1-0 loss on the road in a game where your pitcher strikes out 14. CP swept the annual CP Invitational with wins over Hanover Central 2-1, Andrean 5-1 and Kokomo 14-1. The Lady Bulldogs travel to Stevensville, Michigan for the eight-team Lakeshore Invitational on May 2. The Lady Bulldogs dropped out of the Twin Lakes Invitational (May 9), where they were back-to-back champs, and signed up for the Lakeshore Invitational (May 2) in Stevensville, Michigan. Lakeshore is the defending Michigan Division II state champ.

2. (4A) Portage (10-1)
2014 (23-7), 2013 (25-6), 2012 (18-8), 2011 (19-7), 2010 (12-10), 2009 (14-14)

PORTAGE: Portage leads the DAC after wins over Crown Point 1-0 and Lake Central 2-1. Senior Kiley Jones (8-1) struck out 11 in both games. Kiley has pitched no hit games against Michigan City and Merrillville. Kaitlyn Doud hit the home run to beat Crown Point and pitched the 6-0 shutout of state-rated Harrison. The Indians, who have six shutouts, should be 14-1 when they play at Lake Central (10-3) on May 6 and Crown Point (11-1) on May 7. Portage travels to Penn (9-0) on May 20, but it's all going to come down to a 4A Sectional 2 rematch with CP.

3. (4A) Lake Central (11-4-1)
20-9 (2014), 23-7 (2013), 26-3 (2012), 29-6 (2011), 21-11 (2010), 25-2 (2009)

St. JOHN: LC lost a 2-1 game to Portage after leading 1-0 in the seventh inning. Annabael Karberg (5-2, 101 strikeouts in 60 innings) gave up six runs in a 13-10, nine-inning win over Cathedral on April 18. Junior Paige Carter (.418) has 23 hits in 55 at bats. Sophomore Maddie Blythe (21 of 54, .389) has three home runs. Soph Alex Hickey (16 of 53, .302) has four homers. Freshman pitcher Madisen Tucker (6-2-1) won two and lost one on the same day at the Franklin Central Invitational. LC gets rematches with Penn (9-0) and Cathedral (9-3) at the Carmel Invitational this Saturday.

4. (4A) Chesterton (10-3)
18-14 (2014) 22-5 (2013) 21-11 (2012), 19-8 (2011)

CHESTERTON: The Trojans have lost twice to LC (11-4-1) and 6-0 to CP (11-1), but they have defeated everyone else and scored 10 or more six times. The Trojans topped Hanover 11-9 and they have two five-game winning streaks. Chesterton seems similar to Hanover in that they can score, but get involved in some high-scoring games. Bailey Slivka's three-run homer in the sixth beat Griffith 4-3. It took 15 base hit to top Hanover. Wins over Mishawaka were 10-0 and 10-6. I can't vouch for the long term success of Hanover or Chesterton this season unless they can play better defensively. Teams that win 10-6 and 11-9 usually do not have a very long post-season.

5. (4A) Munster (8-2-1)
20-11 (2014), 24-8 (2013), 18-13 (2012), 20-9 (2011)

MUNSTER: The IHSAA has decided they no longer count tie games on a teams record. Nonsense. Munster's 5-5, 10-inning tie with Lake Central is a big factor in their ranking here. The Lady Ponies were blown out 10-0 by Crown Point and 7-1 by Portage, but that's no crime. Munster has a 6-1 win over Kankakee Valley, a 6-5 win over Bishop Noll and 7-5 win over Hanover Central. Here's another team that's giving up too many runs. 5-5, 6-5, 7-5. That dog won't hunt and they know it.

6. (3A) Hanover Central (9-6)
2014 (29-5), 2013 (18-10), 2012 (13-13), 2011 (13-13), 2010 (17-7)

CEDAR LAKE: Hanover was 0-for-3 at the Crown Point Invitational, but it's still hard to judge them. The Lady Cats won a Greater South Shore Conference (GSSC) showdown with Bishop Noll 5-1 on April 20 and they topped neighbor and rival Lowell 8-3 on April 23. HC hits .336 as a team led by Melissa Balkema (26 of 51, .510), Alyssa Gill (23 of 55, .418) and Alexis Mokos (22 of 53, .415). Left-hander Marley Hanlon (7-4, 1.02 ERA) isn't a strikeout pitcher, but she wins when the Lady Cats play well defensively. HC drew Munster, Maconaquah and West Lafayette at the 16-team Twin Lakes Invitational on May 8-9.

7. (2A) Bishop Noll (9-3)
22-7 (2014), 19-6 (2013), 18-9 (2012), 21-8 (2011)

HAMMOND: Bishop Noll has lost 6-1 to Hanover, 6-5 to Munster and 4-1 to South Bend Clay. The loss to Hanover, on a very bad weather day, was a setback for the Warriors, who will have to win the rematch to share the Greater South Shore Conference (GSSC) title. Soph pitcher Ashley Gordish (6-1, 1.46 ERA) has 51 strikeouts in 48 innings. The leaders are freshman Haley Dugan (14 of 35, .400) and sophomore Brittany Anderson (21 of 41, .512). Gordish (.400, 14 of 35) has three home runs in 12 games. This is a very young team with just one senior and whether they beat Hanover Central isn't a defining issue. Noll is preparing for the 2A state tournament, even with losses to larger schools. Are they superior to 4A Lowell or 3A Andrean or 3A Kankakee Valley? I'm not sure and they probably don't care.