IHSAA Baseball State Tournament Pairings Announced

VIEW – IHSAA Baseball Sectional Brackets

April 28, 2024

A field of 386 teams will begin play next month as the pairings for the 57th Annual IHSAA Baseball State Tournament Series were announced this evening on IHSAAtv.org. Sectional games begin Wednesday, May 22, and continue through Memorial Day (Monday, May 27), with regionals on Saturday, June 1. Two regional championship games will be played in a doubleheader format at the same site with each winner advancing to the four-team semi-state on Saturday, June 8. The four state championship games will be played at Victory Field in Indianapolis, home of the Triple-A franchise Indianapolis Indians, for the 26th year overall. The games will be played in a doubleheader format on Friday, June 14 and Saturday, June 15.

Host schools will announce playing schedules which will then be added to the online brackets at MaxPreps.com the week before the tournament begins.

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: 386 teams.
Breakdown by Class: 97 in 4A; 97 in 3A; 95 in 2A; 97 in 1A.

Total No. of Games: 383 games in 25 days.

Last Year’s State Champions

4A: Penn (host Concord in Sectional 4).
3A: Silver Creek (vs. Scottsburg in Sectional 30 at North Harrison).
2A: Illiana Christian (vs. Hammond Bishop Noll in Sectional 33 at Whiting).
1A: Lafayette Central Catholic (host Covington in Sectional 54).

Schools Playing Up One Class due to Tournament Success Factor

Andrean (vs. Hanover Central in Sectional 17 at Highland).

Last Year’s Sectional Champions
4A: Brownsburg, Castle, Center Grove, Columbus North, DeKalb, Franklin Central, Hamilton Southeastern, Harrison (West Lafayette), Homestead, Indianapolis Cathedral, Jeffersonville, Lake Central, LaPorte, New Palestine, Penn, Valparaiso.
3A: Andrean, Beech Grove, Connersville, East Noble, Evansville Memorial, Frankfort, Heritage, Indianapolis Bishop Chatard, Mishawaka Marian, New Castle, New Prairie, Norwell, Silver Creek Southridge, Tri-West Hendricks, West Vigo.
2A: Bremen, Brownstown Central, Cloverdale, Covenant Christian, Delphi Community, Eastern (Greentown), Fort Wayne Bishop Luers, Hagerstown, Hebron, Heritage Christian, Illiana Christian, Mitchell, Perry Central, Providence, Westview, Winchester Community.
1A: Barr-Reeve, Bethesda Christian, Blue River Valley, Borden, Evansville Christian, Fort Wayne Blackhawk Christian, Greenwood Christian, Lafayette Central Catholic, Marquette Catholic,Morgan Township, North Decatur, Rising Sun, Rossville, Shakamak, Southwood, Wes-Del.

Schools that Won First Sectional Championship Last Year
2A: Perry Central.
1A: Evansville Christian.

Active Sectional Championship Streaks (Three or more years)
6: Indianapolis Cathedral, Silver Creek.
5: Evansville Memorial, Shakamak.
4: Delphi Community.
3: Borden, Harrison (West Lafayette), Homestead, Norwell, Providence.
Most Consecutive Sectional Championships
21 by Logansport, 1973-93.

Top 10 All-Time Sectional Championships
40: Jasper.
37: LaPorte.
32: Evansville Memorial.
31: Andrean.
29: Logansport, Richmond.
28: Shakamak.
27: Hammond Bishop Noll, Jeffersonville.
26: Indianapolis Cathedral.
Most State Championships
9: Lafayette Central Catholic.
8: Andrean, LaPorte.
6: Jasper, Penn.
4: Logansport, South Spencer.
3: Evansville Memorial, Fort Wayne Blackhawk Christian, Indianapolis Cathedral, Norwell.
Active Consecutive Tournament Win Streaks
14: Lafayette Central Catholic, Penn.
13: Illiana Christian.
6: Silver Creek.

Most Consecutive State Tournament Wins
38: Lafayette Central Catholic (2009-14)
28: Jasper (1996-99)
19: Fort Wayne Blackhawk Christian (2005-07)
17: Andrean (2009-11)
16: Andrean (2014-16)
16: Carroll (Fort Wayne) (2010-12)
16: Evansville Memorial (1978-79)
16: North Posey (2005-07)
15: Andrean (2018-19, 2021)
14: Heritage Christian (2009-10)
14: Lafayette Central Catholic (2022-current)
14: Logansport (1991-92)
14: New Palestine (2003-05)
14: Penn (2022-current)
13: Illiana Christian (2022-current)