The Class 4A No. 2 LaPorte Slicers will undoubtedly be favored to win the LaPorte Regional Saturday, but three other high school baseball squads will have a say in the outcome.
"We are very proud of what this team has accomplished to this point in the season," LaPorte coach Scott Upp said about his 27-3 squad. "The Duneland Athletic Conference was as tough as it has been in a long time in 2010. Our players did a nice of battling through the conference season. Then to play the same teams in an eight-team sectional on the road with rain delay after rain delay. The team did a nice job staying focused in on the situation."The Warsaw Tigers (18-11) and Penn Kingsmen (23-6) meet at 11:30 a.m. (EDT) Saturday, followed by LaPorte and Munster (21-8). The winner moves on to the night's championship game at 8 p.m. (EDT).
Warsaw and Penn just met up in the opening game of the Tiger Tourney on May 22, which Warsaw won 1-0.
"I know they will be coming into the regional excited for a chance to play us again," Warsaw coach Mike Hepler said. "Coach Greg Dikos will have them prepared and ready to compete. I look forward to another good ball game."
In that Warsaw win, senior Josh Witt pitched all seven innings, allowing just one hit and striking out four. In typical Witt fashion, which involved getting the ball and not messing around to send it back to the plate, the game took just an hour to complete.
Against Penn's Tyler Thompson, Warsaw only got two hits, but one was a solo home run off the bat of senior Tom Daniels.
That win was part of Warsaw's current seven-game win streak, which has been another up in the Tigers' roller coaster season.
After beginning the season at 6-1, Warsaw went on to lose its next six, before rebounding with four-straight wins. The Tigers then lost another three before winning eight of its last nine.
The Tigers will look to capture its first regional title since 1988, while Penn has won seven.
Warsaw may not have as many titles as the rest of the schools, but no one in the state can compare with LaPorte, who has the top hitter in the state in Dustin DeMuth (.790) and sixth-ranked hitter Evan Jurjevic (.591).
The Slicers lead the state in sectional (35), semistate (11) and state championships (8), while also sharing the state lead with Jasper in regional titles with 21.
"Munster, Warsaw, and Penn have had very nice regular seasons and are very good baseball programs," Upp said. "We're quite confident that they too had to battle through the sectional and the rain delays to become sectional champions. The regional tournament teams have quality players throughout each teams' lineup and the coaching staffs of each team consists of very good people with very good baseball minds."
