Five storylines to watch entering 2025 IHSAA baseball state tournament
The road to Victory Field for the IHSAA baseball state championship begins Wednesday.
Here are five storylines to watch for once postseason play begins.
You could make an argument that every team in Sectional 8 (Hamilton Southeastern, Fishers, Zionsville, Noblesville, Westfield and Carmel) has a legitimate shot at playing for a Class 4A title. Unfortunately, two title contenders won't make it out of the first day of the tournament.
I'm not from Indiana. Maybe baseball fans prefer the current tournament format. My first job covering high school sports was in Massachusetts. Massachusetts uses power rankings that weighs average margin of victory, opponent ratings, team's overall rating (avg. margin + opponent rating) and the team's rating are adjusted for forfeits. The results are entered into a formula, and a power ranking is produced, allowing each team in a division to be seeded. I think it would be great for the regular season to have added meaning. Yes, baseball can be very random. A hot pitcher or a hot team can string together wins and get all the way to the state championship game. But I think rewarding teams with tough schedules, and teams with great regular seasons would be great too.
Lake Central won a thrilling Class 4A state title over Mooresville in the longest championship game ever last season. Lake Central entered the season as the team to beat, and the Indians once again appear poised for a deep title run.
Kentucky commit Joshua Flores is one of the top pitchers in the state. The righty is 7-0 with a 1.69 ERA and 57 strikeouts over 29 innings. Sophomore shortstop Parker Robinson is a top-120 prospect nationally per Prep Baseball Report. The 6-foot-4, 200-pound righty is batting .338 with 15 RBI, 10 doubles and seven stolen bases. Senior Drew Kosteba leads Lake Central with a .407 batting average, 36 RBIs, eight doubles, three triples and three home runs.
Five of Lake Central's top seven batters are seniors. LC has three senior pitchers with ERAs under 2.20. The reigning champs are as deep as ever and the road to the 4A championship will likely go through the Indians.
Cathedral won its first baseball state championship in 2001 playing in Class 3A. The Fighting Irish won state titles in 2007 and 2017 in Class 4A. Now the Irish are back in Class 3A and have a great chance at making a deep tournament run.
Cathedral enters the tournament 17-9, but its daunting schedule should have the squad ready for the postseason. Cathedral has quality wins over Franklin, Mooresville and Carmel. The Irish lost by one to 4A title contender Center Grove and led reigning 4A champion Lake Central 2-0.
Shortstop Army commit Eli Sinsabaugh is an elite table setter at the top of the lineup. IU commit Eli Bennett is a smooth-swinging lefty slugger. Senior Bo Cooper is a plus defender behind the plate, and Landon Hughes and Ethan Dorsey combine for a strong 1-2 punch on the mound.
A dominant pitcher can carry a team through the postseason. These pitchers may be on teams without great records, but when they take the mound, their teams can hang with anyone in the state.
The junior is 1-3 with 4.08 ERA and 63 strikeouts over 46⅓ innings. Carnes notched double-digits strikeouts twice, striking out 10 against Connersville and 11 against Warren Central.
The DePauw commit has a 1-2 record with a 2.62 ERA and 48 strikeouts over 21⅓ innings.
The South Florida commit has a 4-2 record with a 2.57 ERA and 53 strikeouts over 30 innings.
The Dayton commit is 1-1 with a 3.43 ERA and 48 strikeouts over 32⅔ innings.
The Mississippi State commit has a 3-2 record with a 1.56 ERA and 63 strikeouts over 31⅓ innings.
The Kentucky commit has a 5-1 record with 51 strikeouts over 37⅔ innings.
There may not be a hotter hitter in the state than Mooresville junior Tyler Denny. Over his last 10 games, Denny is 17-for-32 (.531) with 15 runs scored, 13 RBIs, seven doubles, one triple, three home runs and three stolen bases. He has six multi-hit games, a two-home run game against Plainfield, two five-RBI games and two games with three hits over that span.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
NBC Sports
4 hours ago
- NBC Sports
British and Irish Lions dominate Force in the opening game of their Australian tour
PERTH, Australia — Dan Sheehan made the perfect start on debut for the British and Irish Lions. The Ireland hooker led the Lions for the first game of their Australian tour, scored in the second minute and steered the team to a commanding 54-7 win over the Perth-based Western Force in front of a crowd of 46,656 on Saturday. 'It's all sinking in now. All week I've been focused on the game and making sure I don't lose the plot in my head,' said Sheehan, who was captain while Maro Itoje was rested. 'I've grown up wanting to play in this jersey, never mind captaining. There's a lot of lads who've worn the jersey for the first time — we need to enjoy this.' After an arm-wrestle of a first half where the Lions led 21-7 despite having only 40% of possession and spending most of the time in their own half, the bigger, more polished British and Irish lineup opened up and put five unanswered tries on a tiring defense in the second. Scrumhalf Tomos Williams scored a pair of tries before limping off with a left hamstring problem, fullback Elliot Daly scored two tries and No. 10 Finn Russell created two tries with his spur-of-the-moment judgement. He also kicked five goals. Henry Pollock, the 20-year-old England No. 8, played an integral hand in two tries and also spent 10 minutes in the sin-bin in his eventful starting debut for the Lions. 'We have a few things to fix, mainly our discipline,' Lions head coach Andy Farrell said. 'Once we gained a little bit of composure, I thought the second half was a little bit better. 'I was happy how we stayed in the fight,' he added, 'it was a tough old start to the game.' Early exchanges The Lions made changes after a 28-24 loss to Argentina in a warmup last week in Dublin, putting more emphasis on short, sharp passing. The Lions had the ball for 11 phases until Russell kicked wide to the right touchline where Sheehan took the ball high and tapped infield for winger James Lowe, who flicked an inside pass back to him to score. The Force equalized quickly with veteran Wallabies scrumhalf Nic White sniping over from the base of a ruck in the fifth. The Force opted against taking penalty goals in order to keep up attacking intensity but the Lions held firm and relieved pressure with some crucial turnovers. Flyhalf Russell set up the first try with his pinpoint kick wide and the third with a quick penalty tap and go in the 35th, scooting up to the five-yard line before popping up a ball off the ground for fullback Daly to score. In between, Pollock was instrumental in the Lions' second try, bursting onto a sharp inside ball from openside flanker Josh van der Flier, stepping inside and out and going to ground before popping a ball up to scrumhalf Williams to score. The tourists went into halftime with a man down after Pollock was yellow carded for a ruck infringement deep inside his own quarter. The Force crossed the line from the resulting penalty but were held up. A key moment Williams finished off an 80-meter counter-attacking try seven minutes into the second half. He limped off after scoring, and was replaced by Alex Mitchell. Garry Ringrose scored soon after and Pollock, the youngest member of the Lions squad, was back in the attack quickly, chipping over the defense, regathering and almost scoring himself before the Lions shifted it quickly for lock and player-of-the-match Joe McCarthy to cross out wide in the 55th. Daly scored in the 71st and Mitchell extended the final margin to 47 points when he scored after the siren, taking the last pass from Australian-born Ireland winger Mack Hansen. 'The score didn't reflect that game at all,' Force scrumhalf White said. 'Certainly, that first 50 minutes, we go stuck right into them. One turnover — they go the length and the game kind of blew out from there.' The Lions are playing nine games in their first tour to Australia since 2013, including tests in Brisbane on July 19, in Melbourne on July 26 and in Sydney on Aug. 2. Their next match is against Queensland next Wednesday in Brisbane.
USA Today
11 hours ago
- USA Today
Devin Fitzgerald, a Notre Dame ‘26 target, named as a top performer during OT7's first day
Notre Dame football has more than a few wide receiver targets they are going after in the 2026 class, one of them being Devin Fitzgerald, son of legend Larry. The younger Fitzgerald is getting close to announcing his decision, as a July 5th date has been scheduled. The 6-foot, 2-inch and 195-pound prospect isn't taking the summer lightly, as he's currently participating in the OT7 Championships. His performance on day-one stood out, as he's currently was named as the No. 10 performer by On3 from the initial day of the tournament. It's great to see his name among the best, as he's criminally underrated by being the No. 488 overall prospect in the nation according to the 247Sports Composite. Fitzgerald will pick one of Notre Dame, Stanford, Clemson or UCLA when he makes his decision in about a week, and it looks like the Irish have a leg up and will land the talented wide receiver.
USA Today
16 hours ago
- USA Today
Notre Dame has a higher ranked offense than defense in EA Sports College Football 2026
As the college football season is getting closer, we are learning much more about how Notre Dame will be featured in EA Sports College Football 2026. We already know that head coach Marcus Freeman and star running back Jeremiyah Love are going to be on the cover, but what we found out on Friday was much more interesting. The team's overall rankings were announced, and surprisingly, the Irish offense was ranked higher than the defense. EA Sports has the Notre Dame as the No. 8 offense, coming in with an 89-overall rating, while the defense has a better rating at 90-overall, it's the No. 11 unit in the game. Yes, technically Chris Ash's unit is rated higher, but others are viewed as better, while the offense is viewed as a top-10 group. Notre Dame overall is the No. 5 team in the game, trailing just Alabama, Texas, Ohio State and Penn State, while being ahead of teams Iike Georgia, Clemson, Texas A&M, Oregon and LSU. There is no doubt that many of the people playing the game will choose to use the Irish, as they are one of the most well-rounded teams in the latest version of the franchise.
