(4-30-23) A field of 389 teams will begin play later this month as the pairings for the 56th Annual IHSAA Baseball State Tournament Series were announced this evening in Indianapolis.
Host schools will announce playing schedules which will then be added to the online brackets at MaxPreps.com the week before the tournament begins.
Sectional games begin Wednesday, May 24 and continue through Memorial Day (Monday, May 29), with regionals on Saturday, June 3.
This year’s state tournament has a different format than in previous years as the regional round and semi-state round have essentially switched.
The regional is now a single-game with two championship games being played back-to-back in a doubleheader format at the same site. The semi-state becomes a two-round affair with the winner advancing to the state championship game. The four state championship games will be played at Victory Field in Indianapolis, home of the Triple-A franchise Indianapolis Indians, for the 25th year overall. This year’s games will be played in a doubleheader format on Friday, June 16 and Saturday, June 17.
Among the top-ranked teams in this week’s poll from the Indiana High School Baseball Coaches Association (IHSBCA),
Class 4A’s Center Grove Trojans will begin their journey playing Bloomington South in the bye game in Sectional 13 at Mooresville.
The Andrean Fighting 59ers, the No. 1 team in Class 3A and the defending state champions, will meet Rensselaer Central in
Sectional 17 at Griffith
The Forest Park Rangers are No. 1 in Class 2A and will host Perry Central in the Sectional 48 bye game
The Clay City Eels, the top team in Class 1A, drew host White River Valley in Sectional 57.
About the Draw
To conduct the random drawing for the baseball state tournament, the IHSAA places ping-pong balls representing each school in a given sectional into a lottery-style air mix machine. A motorized fan in the bottom of the machine blows the balls around the inside of the transparent container and air then forces each ball up through a tube in random order. For example, the first ball retrieved from the machine will be the visiting team in game one with the second ball representing the home team in game one. The third ball to come out is the visitor in game two and the fourth ball the home team in game two. That same method is followed through all 64 sectionals and 8 semi-states.
No. of Schools Entered: 389 teams (most since 1986).
Breakdown by Class: 97 in 4A; 98 in 3A; 96 in 2A; 98 in 1A.
Total No. of Games: 385 games in 25 days.
Last Year’s State Champions
4A: Penn (vs. Concord in Sectional 4 at Northridge).
3A: Andrean (vs. Rensselaer Central in Sectional 17 at Griffith).
2A: Illiana Christian (vs. North Newton in Sectional 33 at Whiting).
1A: Lafayette Central Catholic (host Attica in Sectional 54).
Schools Playing Up One Class due to Tournament Success Factor
• Andrean (vs. Rensselaer Central in Sectional 17 at Griffith)
Stateline Sports Network 