Indiana Preps | On The Line / Baseball

The IHSAA baseball state tournament opens Wednesday, May 27, and 381 teams across four classifications are about to find out what their season was worth. Sectional championships wrap up June 1. Regionals follow June 6. Semi-states June 13. And then the whole thing ends June 19-20 at Victory Field in downtown Indianapolis — the same park where professional baseball has been played in this city for over a century. Between now and then, somebody ranked first has to lose.

Here’s who we’re watching.

CLASS 4A

Center Grove enters as the No. 1 team in the state and lands in what may be the most consequential sectional bracket in 4A. Center Grove tops the 4A coaches poll heading into sectionals, and they’re hosted at their own field in Sectional 12 — but Mooresville, is also in that same six-team bracket. The Trojans and Pioneers could meet in the semifinals. Two of the top teams in the state potentially knocking each other out before regionals even start is the kind of bracket carnage that changes conversations about who the real 4A favorite is.

Drake McClurg — the highest-rated position player in Indiana’s Class of 2027 nationally, committed to Texas A&M — leads the Center Grove lineup. Mooresville’s Hudson DeVaughan, the Alabama commit who entered the spring with a 0.00 ERA and 40 strikeouts in his first three starts, is the arm everyone in that bracket needs to figure out.

Noblesville sits at No. 2 in the state and draws a loaded Sectional 8 that includes Carmel, Hamilton Southeastern, Westfield, and Fishers. If the No. 2 team in 4A and four other programs with legitimate postseason credentials are all in the same six-team bracket, someone significant is going home before June.

Elsewhere in 4A, Fort Wayne Snider enters Sectional 5 — hosted at Carroll — with Isaiah Snavely, one of the top-ranked prospects in the country in the Class of 2027, in the middle of their lineup. The Panthers became just the third team in program history to reach semi-state last spring. They know what this stage requires now.

CLASS 3A

The marquee matchup of the entire tournament — in any class — is set for Sectional 25. Brebeuf Jesuit and Guerin Catholic are on opposite sides of the same bracket, meaning if both programs advance, they meet in the championship. Two Indianapolis Catholic schools. Two programs with legitimate claims to being among the best in 3A. And a bracket hosted at Crawfordsville that also includes Tri-West Hendricks, Frankfort, Danville Community, and Lebanon.

Guerin Catholic sits at No. 2 in the Class 3A coaches poll heading into the postseason. Brebeuf has been one of the more consistent programs in Central Indiana baseball for years. A sectional championship game between those two programs would be one of the best games played in Indiana high school baseball this spring, regardless of classification.

Also worth watching in 3A: Cathedral draws Sectional 26 — hosted at their own facility — against a bracket that includes Bishop Chatard, who has been a consistent 3A power. Another private school rivalry with postseason implications.

CLASS 2A

The 2A field spreads across 16 sectionals with 99 teams entered. The names worth circling: Hagerstown and Shenandoah both entered the season with strong programs and face their own bracket paths toward a state meet at Victory Field. The 2A tournament has produced some of Indiana’s most compelling postseason baseball in recent years — often because the small-school format rewards pitching depth, and the programs built around one dominant arm can carry a bracket.

Cole Cheatham of Union County — the top arm in the state in the Class of 2027, West Virginia commit, mid-90s fastball — enters Sectional 44 at Centerville alongside Winchester Community, Shenandoah, Hagerstown, and Northeastern. If Cheatham is pitching, Union County is dangerous.

CLASS 1A

The 1A field is the deepest in the state numerically — 101 teams across 16 sectionals — and the most unpredictable. Programs that haven’t been in the conversation all season can ride one hot arm to a sectional title. Lafayette Central Catholic has been among the most consistent 1A programs in Indiana, and Barr-Reeve brings a program culture built around winning in May. Both are worth tracking as the bracket unfolds.

The Timeline

Sectional games: May 27–June 1. Sectional championships June 1. Regionals: June 6. Semi-states: June 13. State Finals: June 19–20 at Victory Field, Indianapolis.

Admission is $8 per session or $20 for all sessions. First pitches Wednesday.

Indiana Preps covers high school athletics across the state of Indiana.