Imagine this: Lowell Senior High School (LHS) varsity baseball is off to its best start in over 20 years. Standing 7-5 (As of 4/22), and 4th in a very gritty and stiff Northwest Crossroads Conference (NCC), RDP is set to make some noise this spring if they haven’t already.
Under the reign of Ben Mahar, the Red Devils have been 27-36 in his 3rd season at the helm. That would not tell the whole story, though, and there are a lot of angles to look at this from.
Let’s start with SOS, strength of schedule. The Indiana High School Athletics Association (IHSAA) does not do analytics on this; however, according to Indiana baseball websites, the argument is made that LHS has one of the toughest schedules in Northwest Indiana. Via Indiana Prep Baseball, the team plays the #2 (Crown Point), #13 (Lake Central), and #18 (Munster) ranked teams in 4A, while playing the #2( Hanover Central) and #3 (Andrean) teams in 3A, and also playing the #3 team in 1A, in Morgan Township. It is also important to note that Lowell’s squad has an average rank of 84th in the state throughout the season (via MaxPreps). With that, being 4th in a powerhouse conference like the NCC is no lack of skill whatsoever, in fact, only strengthen the teams resume.
Why are the state rankings mentioned in the first place? Well, understanding the level of competition LHS faces provides insight into the significant strides the team has made this season. With their five losses, the Red Devils’ average loss has been 3.8 runs through 12 games. Even though the Red Devils had the same record this time last year, their average losses were double, losing on average of 8 runs per game.
On the flip side, Lowell’s average win margin this year has been 8.2 runs per game, putting runs on the board and upgrading from last year’s 7.1 average win margin.
This is no discredit to last year’s team. Furthermore, the past few seasons have been nothing but a learning session, in preparation for having a solid team this year.
And not only does the coach play a part in the success, but so do the players in the box and in the bullpen.
The senior trio of Camden Mikulich, Zak Scharnke, and Ryan Wellwerts have the wealth of over three years of varsity experience, with each of the three having a batting average (BA) of over 0.445. Add the junior ,Gavin Gutteriez, and you get four Swiss army knifes that can get it done on the plate and on the mound, accouting for over 53% of the pitching appearances, and 12 out of the 19 pitching appearances. A lot of recent success can be given to pitcher Christopher Hartmeyer, in which the sophomore impressed the team with his growth onto the varsity stage. Due to injury, Hartmeyer will be shut down for the foreseeable future, but with two years left with the rising star, his 11 innings pitched this season will be counted on. To even stretch that point, the Red Devils are left with an immense amount of freshman rising on the varsity scene, making it not hard to notice the young success.
But for now, with a six-day stretch without any games, Coach Mahar’s squad will prepare for a successful and bright second half of the season. The Red Devils are back on the turf Tuesday, April 28th, where they will see cross-town rivals of #9 ranked Hanover Central Wildcats in a 2 game series. With this tough of a schedule this early on, it’s only a matter of time before Lowell Baseball will have a breakthrough.
