| 7/29/2010 3:00:00 PM | Email this article • Print this article |
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| Madison American Legion Post 9’s 2010 baseball team includes (from left): front row — Christian Nolan, Donnie Malcomb, Luke Jones, Trey Thurston, Brian Thomas and Travis Tackett; back row — coach Tim Whitaker, Michael Kring, Zach Osowski, Hunter Brown, Danny Schira, Evan Althoff, Brandon Mann, Corey Povaleri and Logan Kloepfer. Not pictured are manager Steve Houchen, coach Joe Jenner and Tanner Waltz. (Courier file photo) |
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| “They’re the best team I’ve ever coached and they’ve earned this trip to the state finals. But I think we can go up there and make some noise. And if our pitching holds up we can make a lot of noise.”
— Manager Steve Houchen |
| | Legion State Finals | American Legion Baseball
Indiana State Finals
Bill Nixon Field, Plymouth, Ind.
(Double Elimination)
Thursday, July 29
Game 1
Evansville Pate Post 265 (27-16) vs. Madison Post 9 (14-4), 4 p.m.
Game 2
South Bend Post 50 (30-6) vs. Plymouth Post 27 (20-13), 7:30 p.m.
Friday, July 30
Game 3
Terre Haute Wayne Newton Post 346 (36-5) vs. winner Game 2, 4 p.m.
Game 4
Loser Game 1 vs. Loser Game 2, 7:30 p.m.
Saturday, July 30
Game 5
Winner Game 1 vs. Winner Game 3, noon
Game 6
Winner Game 4 vs. Loser Game 3, 2:30 p.m.
Game No. 7
Winner Game 6 vs. Loser Game 5, 7 p.m.
Sunday, Aug. 1
Game 8
Winner Game 7 vs. Winner Game 5, 1 p.m.
Game 9
Championship
Winner Game 8 vs. Loser Game 8 (if needed)
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Niners hoping to make 'noise' in Plymouth
Mark Campbell
Sports Editor
Madison Post 9's baseball team loaded up its hot bats Wednesday to make the trip north to Plymouth for today's American Legion Baseball State Finals opener with Evansville Pate Post 265.
The hot-hitting Niners hammered out 27 runs last week while rolling 3-0 through the Muncie Regional to earn their first trip to the Legion state finals since 2007 and first regional crown since 2003.
Madison, now 14-4, is perhaps the hottest team in Legion baseball. Manager Steve Houchen's Niners are riding an 11-game win streak dating back an 0-4 run in the Terre Haute Invitational in June.
The closest of the four losses in Terre Haute came 8-7 to Pate Post 265, the team the Niners must beat today to remain in the all-important winner's bracket of the double-elimination tourney.
"Playing in that Terre Haute tournament and taking those four losses really let them know just how good you have to be to compete against the best Legion teams in the state," Houchen said of his Niners. "It was sort of a turning point in our season. These guys have really come on strong since then and we are a much improved team. We hit the ball well up and down the lineup and our pitching has really improved."
Madison and Evansville (27-16) will be joined at the state finals by South Bend Post 50 (30-6), a very good Terre Haute Wayne Newton Post 346 squad (36-5) and tourney host Plymouth Post 27 (20-13). Like Evansville, the Niners got a chance to see Wayne Newton in action at the Terre Haute Invitational but have not played South Bend or Plymouth this season.
"Terre Haute 10-run-ruled us up there. They are tough as hell," Houchen said of Post 346, a perennial power in Legion baseball. "I know for a fact that Terre Haute is the best team in the tourney and maybe the best team I've seen in my life."
Coach John Hayes' Wayne Newton's recently had a 15-game win streak snapped with an eye-opening 8-6 loss to Kokomo Post 6 in their own regional Saturday before coming back on Sunday and ripping Kokomo 15-2 in the regional championship.
Houchen said the Wayne Newton team that ripped Post 6 in the championship sounds more like the one his Niners saw in a 11-1 loss in June.
"I'm not saying they can't be beat but they are a very good team." Houchen said. "They have five starting pitchers and every one of them were a No. 1 or No. 2 for their high school. Everybody on the team hits the ball for average and power and their infield may be as good as the Reds."
Houchen will counter with a Niners squad that is equally effective on offense and a pitching staff that, while not as deep, should be able to go arm-to-arm with the competition if the Niners can stay in the all-important winner's bracket.
"We need to stay in that winner's bracket and that starts Thursday with Evansville," Houchen said. "If you can stay in the winner's bracket you can win a state championship in as little as three games, if you lose your opener then you're looking at having to play five games and win four straight. I'm not sure we can go that deep in our pitching."
The Niners will open the tourney today with 2010 Madison graduate Luke Jones on the mound against Evansville's Jacob Hamilton, a senior to be at Evansville Central who is 5-1 for the summer with a 3.12 ERA and 51 strikeouts in 49 innings.
Jones sat out his senior season at Madison and, as a likely result, got off to a slow start in Legion baseball but he's finishing strong. The 6-foot-4 right-hander fanned 10 in seven innings in the Muncie Regional championship after pitching five innings in the opener two days earlier.
"Luke definitely has improved as the season has gone on," Houchen said. "He struck out 10 batters against Muncie and their coach said he was the best pitcher they had seen all year."
Houchen said Madison will come back with South Ripley's Brian Thomas in the second game and Jennings County's Christian Nolan in game three with support, if needed, by closer Jordan Leach of Madison and the rest of the staff.
Houchen said if the Niners see a lot of big, strong fastball pitchers - and he thinks they will because every team in the state finals has power pitchers - he likes Madison's chances.
"We can hit with all these other teams. We're not going to hit eight home runs, but we're going to hit the ball and we've got decent speed and power," Houchen said. "We're hitting the ball a lot better now than we were when we saw Evansville the last time and to realistically have a shot we have to hit the ball and score some runs. We saw good pitching at the regional and we hit it. We've been hitting a lot of good pitching the last few weeks."
The Niners, just two years removed from not even fielding a team after being one of the state's perennial powers for years, didn't even make it out of sectional last season so to reach state finals this year is reward in itself.
"We could lose two in a row up there and I'd still be damned proud of them. They're the best team I've ever coached and they've earned this trip to the state finals," Houchen said. "But I think we can go up there and make some noise. And if our pitching holds up we can make a lot of noise."
Before the Niners left Madison for Plymouth, Houchen held a brief throw around practice on Tuesday and team meeting with the players and their parents. He then paid a visit to the local American Legion post to present the regional championship trophy to the leadership. He said it was a good feeling and the support showed by the post was overwhelming.
"It felt really good to hand over that trophy and the guys told us they were happy to help us," Hochen said. "We couldn't do any of this without their support. This is a great experience for the kids but without those guys at the Legion, we'd have nothing."
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