Elwood, Lawrence North Climb Baseball Rankings

The Elwood Panthers opened the 2009 high school baseball season with a pair of road losses to Class 3A Western and Class 4A Fishers in late March, but since then the 2008 Class 2A state runner-ups have been on a tear.

Winning 15 consecutive games while also capturing the program's first Nick Muller Memorial Baseball Tournament championship for the unofficial Madison County crown last month, the Panthers have improved to 15-2 and have come full circle to reclaim the No. 1 ranking in Class 2A.

In this week's Indiana High School Baseball Coaches Association polls, Elwood jumped from seventh to the top-spot, a position they formerly held when the IHSBCA released its preseason rankings in March.

The Panthers are only the second team to hold the top-spot in Class 2A this season with the other being Park Tudor (15-4), which owned the position for two consecutive weeks in April. Park Tudor is currently ranked fifth.

Overall, five Central Indiana teams hold top-10 positions in Class 2A.

Cascade (16-3) is ranked sixth while both No. 8 Heritage Christian (14-4) and No. 10 Scecina (11-5) broke into the rankings for the first time this season.

In Class 3A, Brebeuf (14-4) improved to seventh after holding the ninth spot last week.

In Class 4A, undefeated Cathedral (16-0) maintained it No. 2 ranking for a second straight week while Brownsburg (16-4) dropped slightly to sixth.

Lawrence North broke into the ranking at eighth this week after a strong showing in the Marion County Baseball Tournament. In three County tournament games, the Wildcats defeated Decatur Central 11-4 before toppling Pike 9-1 and Ben Davis 6-4.

Decatur Central (12-4) dropped out of the top-10 after holding the seventh spot last week.

Lawrence North (13-3) will vie for the Marion County Tournament title this Friday at Victory Field against the defending champion Southport Cardinals.