Northwest Indiana Top-10

Week-4, 2008 High School 'Renegade' Poll

4-24-2008

A USA-365.com Special Report by Mark Smith

ST. JOHN (4-24-2008) Some teams like Munster (14 games) and Lake Central (18 games) played a lot in the first month, while teams like Boone Grove (6 games) and Andrean (8 games) simply did not. I talk a lot about Andrean's weekend tournament schedule, which sees them traveling far and wide. The big Niner bus has been in the garage this year as they've had tourneys at Center Grove, Dowagiac, Michigan and Crown Point all rained out. That's nine games lost and the CP games are the only ones they can reschedule.

Munster's record jumped three games last weekend so they must've left Lake County and played three of four games in the Carmel Tournament. I don't know exactly why results don't get to the newspaper. Sometimes they lost and they don't want to embarrass their players, but often even victories don't get in. Sometimes teams are playing out of town and coaches forget they need to report road games outside of the area. Reporting games is a pain, which gets back to why coaches don't have team managers do it.

I don't understand why coaches don't make up (or assign a team manager to make up) a box score from each game for their own records, but they do not, as a whole. If you've ever seen a team's official home scorebook (often the ONLY record of games played), it's understandable why they don't report game statistics. Most scorebooks have nothing but misspelled last names, the info is scribbled and unreadable and they only truly pay attention to their own team. Plus, many coaches simply make up scoring rules to praise or punish players, calling obvious hits errors because they think the play 'should have been made.' Everybody who scores has an agenda.

Sometimes the box scores are reported and the newspaper doesn't have space to run the results or the time to get them in. I don't think newspapers put a high priority on getting box scores in the paper. In NW Indiana, the Times box scores, while detailed, are almost impossible to read because of the size. They are better accessed on-line where you can actually read them. The Post-Tribune's box scores are not on-line for reasons I do not know. I give the daily newspapers a lot of credit. Sometimes on week nights, there are as many as 40 box scores in the local newspapers and I would not want the job of taking all those details.

I've said this many times, but the best box scores are in the Lafayette Journal and Courier. But, again, you have to buy the paper. The box scores are NOT on-line out of Lafayette. The 'big' tourney season kicked off with the eight-team Carmel Invitational. McCutcheon (15-2) lost to Carmel in first round play Friday and then won three in a row. Carmel (10-3) beat McCutcheon and Munster, but lost 3-1 to Penn. Penn lost 5-2 to McCutcheon after beating Carroll and Carmel. Who won? They all did. Most everybody in NW Indiana was rained out Saturday.

1. (4A) LAKE CENTRAL (13-5)
(2007) 21-6, (2006) 25-8, (2005) 32-1, (2004) 29-3, (2003) 32-3-1

ST. JOHN: Few who have seen LC would rank anyone above them. The Indians have played consistently and have stayed strong, losing to Portage, McCutcheon, Penn, Pendleton Heights and Franklin Central. Rachel Weaver (7-3) has been consistently good, but it's the level of competition, like last week's 2-0 win over (West Lafayette) Harrison that is the strength of this team. Plus, I think this is the only team with no rainouts to make up. LC is average or above average at every position and they have a core of three-year starters. It will be tough to beat them in the post-season. LC has been shut out three times, but those three winners are Franklin Central, Pendleton and McCutcheon, all top programs.

2. (4A) LOWELL (9-4)
2007 (30-7), 2006 (23-7), $2005) 21-10, (2004) 20-9

LOWELL: Back-to-back losses to Griffith and Hanover Central were just a speed bump for the Devils, who swept a double-header from Kankakee Valley 8-3 and 7-1 Monday (4-21-2008. Megan Bolanowski hit a homer to back sister Kaitlyn Bolanowski in the 8-3 win, while Reed struck out 13 and Nina Iaokamidis had three hits in the 7-1 win. The Devils only lose because their offense struggles and they have a lot of games remaining to warm up the bats. The Devils trailed 3-0 after one inning and were rejected 6-1 at Andrean Monday in the second meeting of the season between the two teams. These two could meet again at the Twin Lakes Invitational May 2-3. Lowell travels to West Lafayette and Pioneer this week after a home game Friday with Highland. They have five games in five days with Bishop Noll Monday (April 28) and Munster Tuesday (April 29). The Devils have plenty of pitching and are good defensively, but they are not creating runs against good teams.

3. (2A) HANOVER CENTRAL (9-2)
2007 (20-10), 2006 (16-14), 2005 (26-5-3), 2004 (25-7)

CEDAR LAKE: Hanover has only lost to Munster (13-4) and Beecher, Illinois (17-4), but they did edge Wheeler 2-1 in eight innings Tuesday as Jessica Toth pitched a complete game and singled in Kara Gilbert with the winning run. After a makeup game Friday at 7:00 p.m. at Crown Point, the Lady Cats are in a down period in the schedule where they play South Newton, Kouts and Rensselaer back-to-back, teams that cannot compete with them. Boone Grove (6-0) plays at Hanover on May 1 the day before the Twin Lakes Invitational, for which pairings have not yet been announced. Hanover will almost certainly play Andrean sometime in the next two weeks after the Crown Point Invitational was rained out.
This is a very strong team but they haven't won anything yet and they have been in an offensive slump.

4. (4A) Munster (11-4)
2007 (24-7), 2006 (22-7), 2005 (25-3-1), 2004 (25-3-1), 2003 (22-7), 2002 (15-12)

MUNSTER: Munster moves upin the poll this week after they improved to 11-4 with a 4-2 win over Andrean Monday as Elanor Kennedy (9-0) stayed undefeated. I believe they were 3-1 at the Carmel Invitational defeating Riley 10-0, Cathedral 5-0 and West Lafayette 8-1 along with a 7-4 loss to Carmel, the host team. Riley and West Lafayette are weak teams but the Lady Ponies competed with Carmel (11-2) and the biggest outcome may have been simply playing four games when some other NW Indiana teams were rained out. Munster swept Andrean this season and they are almost certain of a sixth consecutive 20-win season. The Mustangs saddle up and ride down to Route 2 to play Lowell (9-3) Tuesday.

5. (3A) ANDREAN (6-3)
2007 (29-3), 2006 (26-4), 2005 (32-3), 2004 (29-5), 2003 (27-2)

MERRILLVILLE: Andrean had played only nine games as of April 24 when they lost 4-2 to Munster. The 59ers were rained out of the Crown Point Invitational and they are down nine games to the weather. Andrean recorded a nice 6-1 win over Lowell Wednesday, but the Niners haven't really begun the season yet because they have played so few times. Andrean will join New Prairie, South Bend Washington and LaPorte in the LaPorte Invitational this weekend (April 26) and finally, the weather should cooperate. Hopefully, the Niners' 'World Tour' final can get underway because Andrean girls have had a lot of Saturdays playing cards and talking on the phone so far. I believe that the Niners will reschedule games with Crown Point (7-6) and Hanover (11-2) and they may try to play a double-header with Hanover, which also lost a potential three games in the CP tourney. Andrean still has the Bishop's Cup tourney in Mishawaka and the Twin Lakes Invitational in Monticello left on the schedule in May, but they need to find a foe. Maybe a game with Boone Grove is a possibility. The Niner losses are to Munster (twice) and Lowell, so they clearly are a quality team, but they've played so seldom who really knows?

6. (4A) Portage (9-4)
2007 (23-7), 2006 (18-12), 2005 (20-9), 2004 (27-4-3), 2003 (19-9)

PORTAGE: The Indians shut out outmanned Merrillville 8-0 Tuesday to run their win streak to four. The Indians also stopped 3,800-teen giant Lincoln-Way East (8-3) of New Lenox, Illinois 3-0 Saturday as Olivia Leggett struck out seven. Leggett and Kristin Helmich combined to three-hit LaPorte 3-2 last Friday (4-18-2008). The Indians have been getting strong pitching even if the run scoring has been a little inconsistent. Leggett has been pitching the majority of the games and has been effective against good competition. After beating LC 6-5 in a turning point game early in the season, the rematch comes up next week.

7. (4A) Chesterton (10-5)
2007 (20-6), 2006 (30-2), 2005 (27-3-1), 2004 (20-7), 2003 (22-5)

CHESTERTON: The Trojans mounted a six-game winning streak with a 6-1 win over Merrillville, a 5-1 triumph over Portage and a 2-0 win over Crown Point before a weekend sweep 2-1 over Elkhart Memorial and 10-0 over South Bend Washington. The Trojans had 19 hits Tuesday in a 14-2 win at Michigan City. Catie Armstrong pitched a five-hitter in the nine-inning game against Elkhart Memorial and she was 2-for-4, including both RBIs in the first and ninth inning. The Trojans' 12-2 loss to Hanover and the 8-0 loss to Lake Central make it difficult to rank them higher than this, but those losses were early in the year and now Chesterton appears set to challenge the 20-win level for the seventh year in a row.

8. (4A) CROWN POINT (7-6)
2007 (16-14), 2006 (13-14), 2005 (12-14), 2004 (8-19), 2003 (16-16)

CROWN POINT: CP lost 7-3 to Lake Central, their second loss to the Indians this season. It was disappointing they were not more competitive. The Bulldogs also lost 2-0 at Chesterton. Soph right-hander Taylor Perry allowed just six hits against the Trojans. CP hosts Griffith and Hanover in a three-way double-header Friday night beginning at 5:30 p.m. When you are ranking teams, especially at the bottom of the Top-10, you have to decide if Whiting or Wheeler would be better than 7-6 against Crown Point's schedule, which includes Munster (11-4) and New Prairie (9-4). That is the question. I suspect the answer is 'no'. But there are no 'big' wins here except the 7-2 triumph over LaPorte.

9. (4A) LaPorte (9-4)
2007 (17-11), 2006 (16-11-1), 2005 (13-16), 2004 (3-21)

LaPORTE: I'm not sure what's happened here except that the DAC schedule appears to have caught up with LaPorte. The Slicers lost three league games and then fell 13-8 to South Bend Riley on Wednesday. Losing 5-0 in softball is not the same as losing 13-8. Losing 5-0 indicates you were a good team that had a bad day. A 13-8 score in softball indicates two bad teams. Teams go entire seasons without giving up eight runs in a game. I don't think LaPorte is a bad team. They were 17-11 last season. Sam Kasminger pitched a complete-game 1-0 shutout over Valpo Wednesday. The moment of truth is upon LaPorte for the regular season. The Slicers host the annual LaPorte tournament with Washington, neighbor New Prairie and defending 3A state champion Andrean. The Slicers need a good showing.

10. (3A) Griffith (8-4)
2007 (16-14), 2006 (12-19), 2005 (19-15), 2004 (16-15), 2003 (18-14)

GRIFFITH: Griffith beat Bellmont 4-1 at the Blackford Classic and then lost the title game to host Blackford (9-2). The Panthers stopped Hobart 4-2 as Katie Rone (2-0) pitched a five-hitter. Senior Brittany Bridges struck out 11 in a 3-0 win over Kankakee Valley. The schedule has been good here. The losses: Highland, Andrean, Munster and Blackford, showed quality (well, maybe the 8-1 loss to Andrean didn't show brilliance) not weakness. I like the fact that, even though they have two games each with Lowell, Andrean and Munster, they still sign up for that outrageous trip to Blackford (Blackford County is north of Muncie) every year. Griffith travels to Crown Point Friday night at 5:30 p.m. in a late starting game.

On the outside looking in...

(1A) Whiting (11-0)
2007 (26-4), 2006 (33-0), 2005 (11-16), 2004 (28-6) 2003 (21-10)

WHITING: Whiting rolls along as Mel Dumezich strikes out everybody. Dumezich is averaging two strikeouts an inning. She struck out the first nine in a 2--0 win over Wheeler Tuesday.
Dumezich struck out 20 in a 6-0 win over out manned Calumet. At the small school Pioneer shootout on April 19, the Oilers beat Caston 10-0, Rossville 6-0 and Pioneer 12-1 as Dumezich struck out 44 in 20 innings. the junior right-hander has 10 shutouts. This is a poll of teams, though and when the ball is never hit into the field, there's no way to know how good the 'team' is. No NW Indiana team is more controversial than Whiting. The goal appears to be for Dumezich to set strikeouts and win records that can never be broken. The schedule is designed for that to happen. The only quality team left on the Whiting schedule is Hanover Central which plays at Whiting on May 16. They play no one in the Duneland Conference or the Northwest Crossroads Conference. Obviously there is quality here but since they avoid competition, its hard to rank them.

(2A) Wheeler (10-4)
2007 (25-4), 2006 (14-16), 2005 (10-18), 2004 (7-21), 2003 (7-18)

UNION TOWNSHIP: The Bearcats lost 2-1 to Hanover Central and 2-0 to Whiting. With earlier losses to Boone Grove, the Bearcats drop out of the Top-10 for awhile. Wheeler, like Whiting, rolls up a lot of easy wins in the weak Greater South Shore Conference (GSSC) and their record is very deceptive. Lanay Parks (10-4) struck out eight in the loss to Hanover and 13 more in the loss to Whiting, Wheeler's second loss to Whiting this season, although I believe the Bearcats are the better team. Anybody who wants to rank Whiting and Wheeler ahead of teams that play the larger 4A schools, doesn't really want to think too much about their poll. The Bearcats struck out 18 times against Whiting's Mel Dumezich and that's an indication of offensive problems. No one can strikeout out 18 from a quality team.

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