Published: June 02, 2008 11:16 pm            

Wabash Valley's Final Four goes to work tonight

TERRE HAUTE — Two games are rematches of one kind or another, one involves a mystery team and one involves an opponent in the too-much-information category.

That’s the state of high school baseball regionals involving Wabash Valley teams today, in which Terre Haute South, West Vigo and Shakamak play home games and Rockville goes on the road.

The Braves have a 6 p.m. game Class 4A game against Bloomington North, West Vigo hosts a 7 p.m. Class 3A regional game against North Harrison and Shakamak has a 7 p.m. Class A regional game at home against Vincennes Rivet. Rockville travels to Chalmers — just north of Lafayette on Indiana 43 — for a 6 p.m. Class A game against Frontier.

South-Bloomington North is a rematch of a regional game a year ago at Bloomington, in which the Cougars jumped out to a quick lead and held on for a 7-4 win in a thrilling game that ended with South having the lead run at the plate. Neither the 14-17 Braves or the 20-9 Cougars are have been quite as formidable this year, but coach Kyle Kraemer of the Braves is hoping his team’s sectional triumph gives it some kind of momentum.

“To try and give the kids some kind of spark to their regular season [which ended with seven losses in eight games], we said we’d win the sectional,” Kraemer said Monday, “and our seniors did a great job maintaining the focus that was necessary to do that.

“But as young a team as we are, we don’t really know what to expect from game to game.”

Bloomington North, Kraemer noted, has five returning position players and its starting pitcher from last year’s regional champions. The Cougars also have five left-handed batters, however, who will have to contend with South lefty A.J. Reed.

West Vigo isn’t quite as familiar with North Harrison, a team that will be making a trip almost from Louisville for the game.

“I hear they’ve got a heck of a left-handed pitcher, and that might slow us down a little bit [by holding runners on first base]; we’ve been helping ourselves with steals and hit-and-runs, but fortunately we also faced two left-handers in the sectional,” coach Steve DeGroote said Monday. “I also hear [the Cougars] have pretty good batters throughout their lineup.”

A solid lineup has also been a West Vigo staple, of course.

“[Having hitters] one through nine has been a plus for us,” DeGroote agreed. “We’ve actually been pretty good at everything [with outfield defense sparkling in sectional play].”

DeGroote and the 21-5 Vikings are just happy to be in a regional game, having beaten Edgewood for the first time in four sectional meetings to get there. And the way the Vikings won the sectional championship game was encouraging for their coach.

The Vikings got home from their semifinal win at about 2 a.m., with school the following day. Then they fell behind their sectional nemesis early in the championship game.

“A negative person’s head would have dropped [because of that sequence of events],” DeGroote said, “but these kids made [a victory] happen. It’s great experience for them knowing we can be that tough.”

Shakamak’s game tonight is the other rematch, and a more recent one. The 22-8 Lakers beat Vincennes Rivet 10-4 back on April 17 and expect to face the same pitcher.

“Both teams have improved since then,” coach Matt Fougerousse said, “and we know [the Patriots] will come in hungry.”

Fougerousse would probably be a little more confident if he knew his team was going to perform tonight like Shakamak teams have traditionally done in the past. The Lakers had a pair of real squeakers in sectional play against Clay City and North Central, and had to overcome their own mistakes with a seventh-inning rally to win the latter game.

“We have to come out and execute in the field,” he said. “Our pitching has to limit free passes, and we need to get timely hitting. Like just about every game.”

Bob Kyle indicated Monday he knows more than he’d like to about Frontier.

“I know they’re ranked No. 1 [in Class A], I know they’re 30-1, I know they have three or four guys batting over .500 and I know they have four players on the all-state ballot,” the Rockville coach said. “And they beat Lafayette Central Catholic twice, so I’m sure they’re just loaded.”

The Falcons play in one of the state’s smaller ballparks, but Kyle noted Monday that the 25-4 Rox should be used to that situation.

“No way could [Frontier’s park] be any shorter than the field we used to play on [before Gideon Field opened this year],” Kyle said. “But they have a pitcher who’s 10-0 with a 1.13 earned run average; if he has those stats pitching in that small park, he must be really good.

“Our strength all year has been pitching and hitting, so if we hit the baseball [we have a chance],” Kyle said. “But we’re preparing to play the best team in the state.”



TONIGHT

Class 4A

Bloomington North at Terre Haute South, 6 p.m.; winner plays Saturday at Evansville Semistate

Class 3A

North Harrison at West Vigo, 7 p.m.; winner plays Saturday at Jasper Semistate

Class A

Vincennes Rivet at Shakamak, 7 p.m.; winner plays Saturday at Perry Meridian Semistate

Rockville at Frontier, 6 p.m.; winner plays Saturday at Kokomo Semistate

        

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