Published: May 03, 2008 12:05 am            

Big 4 weekend a cornucopia of action for fans

TERRE HAUTE — It would probably be possible for someone with a good set of binoculars to watch all of the Big Four events today at Northview High School.

That person would have to arrive in time for the start of the 10 a.m. boys and girls high school track and field meet involving Terre Haute North, Terre Haute South, West Vigo and the host Knights and sit on the top row of football bleachers on the home side near the pressbox; adjust his or her binoculars so they could be trained on the two Northview softball fields beyond the opposite grandstands, where two pairs of games will be played simultaneously starting at 11; and glance over his or her shoulder starting at noon, when the baseball tournament resumes.

Big Four baseball and softball competition is already under way. The Western Indiana Conference baseball and softball games between Northview and West Vigo on Tuesday and the North-South softball game that counted in the Metropolitan Interscholastic Conference standings that night were all opening-round Big Four games too.

Friday night’s rained-out baseball game between North and South was also to be a Big Four game. It’s scheduled to be made up at 6 p.m. Monday, becoming a possible Big Four championship in addition to the second game of the MIC series.

Conference rivals, therefore, won’t meet today on the diamonds, although all four schools will be involved in the track meet — which, with each school limited to two competitors per event so additional heats aren’t needed, should move along quickly.

North is probably the favorite in the track competition, even if the two-per-school rule cuts into Patriot depth.

On the diamonds, the conference outcomes probably helped determine the favorites, with softball perhaps coming down to the 11 a.m. opener between North and Northview. West Vigo has the early edge in baseball after its win at Northview on Tuesday.

Coach Bethany Jones is hoping her Northview softball team uses the concentrated competition this week to smooth out some of its wrinkles.

“We’ve been kind of up and down,” she said earlier in the week, looking back at a 1-2 trip to the Jasper Invitational and not the Knights’ 15-0 win Tuesday over West Vigo. “We’ll be doing good, and then all of a sudden we crash and lose focus.

“We’re trying to find that team that can play consistently.”

The baseball competition is the most unpredictable, because of the amount of pitching needed, although Friday rainouts involving all four teams have mitigated that situation somewhat.

“West Vigo would probably have to be considered the favorite [in baseball],” coach Kyle Kraemer of South said this week, even before the Vikings defeated the Knights in WIC play.

The Braves have only been at full strength for a couple of weeks, but this is one weekend when that could work in his team’s favor, Kraemer added.

“We’ll dive into the JV kids [for pitching depth],” he said. “It would be good if we got four complete games, but we all know that never happens.

“But early on we got to use a couple guys [as varsity pitchers] that we probably wouldn’t have used otherwise, so we do have varsity experience [on the mound].”

Running out of pitching is not one of Gary Witham’s main worries for his Northview team either, he said this week.

“We just need to win some games. We’ve really struggled,” he said. “It would be a big boost for us if we can win this week.

“We’ve got enough pitching,” Witham continued. “Depth hasn’t been our problem. But defensively we haven’t been very good, and some days we haven’t hit very well either.”



Track and field

10 a.m. — Boys and girls four-way meet

Baseball

Noon — Terre Haute North vs. Northview

2:30 p.m. — Terre Haute North vs. West Vigo

5 p.m. — Terre Haute South vs. West Vigo

7:30 p.m. — Terre Haute South vs. Northview

Softball

11 a.m. — Terre Haute North vs. Northview and Terre Haute South vs. West Vigo

1 p.m. — Terre Haute South vs. Northview and Terre Haute North vs. West Vigo

        

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