Another packed week for HS baseball, softball teams
Only two weeks remain in the regular season for high school baseball and softball. Look for sectional previews for both sports next week. Here is a quick synopsis of the current landscape moving ahead this week.
Baseball
After a five-game week, Plymouth “only” has four on the slate this week, starting with yesterday’s Northern Lakes Conference tilt with arch-rival Warsaw. Going in, only a half game separated the two (Warsaw 3rd place, Plymouth 4th), but to show how packed the NLC is among the middle teams, the winner could find themself in second place and the loser could be in sixth. The Pilgrims have two other NLC games on the docket this week as well, with a home game against Goshen (tied with Plymouth before Mon.) Wednesday and the long trip to Wawasee Friday. Sandwiched in on Thursday is a home date against Class 3A No. 6 New Prairie.
Glenn (15-3) checks in at No. 15 in Class 3A this week and was scheduled to play New Prairie yesterday. Those two were tied for fourth in the rugged Northern Indiana Conference before Monday and just so happen to be in the same sectional this year. The Falcons have another big game on Wednesday when they host South Bend Saint Joseph. A third NIC contest awaits on Thursday (SB Riley), before wrapping up the week at home against Morgan Township. Glenn boasts two of the top-3 hitters in the area (see below) in Chase Miller (.536) and Brycen Hannah (.523).
Culver Academy has three of the top-five hitters (Luke Grundberg .561,
Connor Schmiedlin .475, Evan Gerber .474) and has been riding its high-octane offense to wins in eight of its last nine games. If it gets in Monday’s games against Argos (completion of one suspended earlier that CMA led 10-0, then the scheduled game), then its likel 10 out of 11 wins, including six straight. By the way, guess which sectional the Eagles are in? The same one as Glenn and New Prairie.
Softball
They don’t give out awards to the Most Improved Team or Team With The Most Exciting Games, but if they did, the Plymouth HS softball team would be a top candidate in both categories. Yes, there have been some one-sided outcomes (both wins and losses), but Friday’s 9-7 Northern Lakes Conference victory over Concord was the sixth game, or one-third of all games, PHS has played that has been decided by two runs or less. The Lady Pilgrims also find themselves among five teams packed tightly in the NLC standings with key games against two of the others coming up this week (@ Goshen Wed, home vs. Wawasee Fri). Today it’s a
home contest against Argos, and next week includes games with Bremen, Northwood and CGA. The best thing is that all of these are winnable. Now they will end up with anywhere from 0-6 wins out of those games, but the point is Plymouth will be in all of them. In recent years, that would not have been the case. Keep up the good work young ladies.
Both Glenn and Bremen will have tourneys on Saturday. Glenn is hosting the Queen of Diamonds, after Laville dropped out of it. Currently, North Judson and Rensselaer are in the field as well, but they are trying furiously to find a fourth team. At Bremen, the Lady Lions will take on Lakeland at Pfeiffer Field while CGA faces Westview on the JV field, both at 10 a.m. The consolation/championship contests will begin 30 minutes following the conclusion of both Round 1 games using the same two fields (championship on Pfeiffer Field).