Updated Illinois Power 25 Team Rankings

We purposely waited a couple of weeks to release our initial Power 25 Team Rankings because we wanted to allow more teams to get games under their belts. It’s still really early, and thus hard to say an undefeated team is truly better than a team with one or two losses that has played a quality schedule. The good thing about several of our teams in the Power 25 is that most of the debates will be settled on the field at some point this spring.

CLIMBING

+ No. 1 Brother Rice (10-0): We touched on the Crusaders and their hot start in our Power 25 story last week which included bringing home the Championship at the National High School Select Tournament at LakePoint in Emerson, GA. They continued their torrid start with a 3-0 week with wins over DePaul College Prep, De La Salle and Leo. In their three wins on the week, they outscored opponents 35-7. The Crusaders now officially sit at the top of the Power 25 and have four conference games scheduled for the week ahead. 

+ No. 2 Edwardsville (9-0): The Tigers are up nine spots, now sitting at No. 2 in the state after a 9-0 start to the season. They have wins against three Preseason Power 25 teams in No. 1 Huntley, No. 19 New Trier and No. 13 Lincoln-Way East. This past week they went 3-0 in dominant fashion taking down Sacred Heart-Griffin 9-1, Lincoln-Way East 11-1 and Columbia 3-0. Despite it still being very early in the season, the Tigers have shown one of the more complete rosters we have seen to-date.

+ No. 9 St. Laurence (9-0): The Vikings are yet another unbeaten team making a move up the rankings. The Vikings are up six spots after a perfect 9-0 start to the season and 3-0 week. They allowed one run over their three games outscoring Leo, DePaul College Prep and De La Salle 33-1. 

+ No. 13 Belleville East (8-1): The Lancers shot up the list 12 spots to No. 13 after an impressive 8-1 start to the season. This past week East went 4-0 with two wins over last year’s 3A state champion Springfield 5-4 and 11-1. They also knocked off Granite City 12-2 and Wauconda 9-1. The Lancers have a plethora of highly-talented arms and if they continue to swing the bats like they did this past week, they should be very tough to beat moving forward. 

SINKING

+ No. 14 Homewood-Flossmoor (5-3): The Vikings have played one of the toughest schedules in the state facing two Preseason top-five programs in Illinois as well as some of the top programs in Kentucky and Ohio this past week on their spring trip. They drop 10 spots to No. 14 in the Power 25 but with a win over No. 4 Nazareth under their belt, they are still extremely dangerous and have all kinds of talent on the roster. A big bounce back week could have the Vikings shooting back up the board by next week.

+ No. 18 Lincoln-Way East (5-2): A tough 0-2 week has the Griffins down five spots to No. 18 on the Power 25. The Griffins lost 11-1 to the new No. 2 team in the state Edwardsville and also got beat by Maine South 5-1. Their five wins, including one against No. 23 Marist have been in impressive fashion, so there's still plenty to like about the Griffins moving forward.

+ No. 23 Marist (3-2): A big 8-0 win over Andrew was the only game the RedHawks played in Week 3 of the season. It has been an up-and-down start to the year with their two losses coming to No. 18 Lincoln-Way East and a solid Joliet Catholic squad 6-5. Time will tell with this club as it has been hard to get a true read on just how dangerous the RedHawks will be in 2022. They drop eight spots to No. 23 as a result.

+ No. 24 Normal University (2-3): The Preseason No. 3 team in the state has had a tough go of it so far in the limited number of games they have played. They picked up a 16-0 win over Springfield Southeast in their only game last week but the Pioneers started 1-3 in their first two weeks with losses to Sacred Heart-Griffin, Mount Vernon and Oak Forest. With so many quality teams knocking on the door of the Power 25, they will need to get it going in a hurry if they want to keep a spot on the list.

NEW TO THE TOP 25

+ No. 4 Lockport (9-0): We touched on the Porters as one of the hottest teams to start the year in our Power 25 Update last week. Since that time, they proceeded to go 3-0 taking home the WJOL Tournament with strong wins over Minooka 5-4 in the Championship, No. 10 Providence 10-0 and Lincoln-Way West 15-3. The Porters have one of the most dangerous offenses in the state with enough depth and talent on the mound to compete with anyone in the state. Arguably their most impressive win to-date was a 4-3 victory over No. 25 Oswego East with two potential draft picks on the mound in the same game for Oswego East. The Porters are playing with all kinds of confidence and now sit at No. 9 in the Power 25 after their 9-0 start. 

+ No. 15 Naperville Central (5-0): Another team that was mentioned last week as a team to watch, proceeded to collect two wins this week pushing their record to 5-0. Naperville Central knocked off Lyons Township 14-8 and Joliet Catholic 7-4. The Redhawks are a talented group full of juniors who have been producing at a high rate to start the season and now sit at No. 15 in the state. 

+ No. 16 Minooka (6-1): The Indians collected two big wins in the first two weeks of the season and kept it going with a noteworthy week three. They went 4-1 on the week, making it to the WJOL Championship before being knocked off by No. 9 Lockport 5-4. En-route to the Championship, Minooka defeated Plainfield Central 1-0 and Joliet West 7-5. They also took down Waubonsie 12-1 and Andrew 4-3 on the week. 

+ No. 20 Glenbrook North (7-0): The Spartans have cruised to a 7-0 start to begin the season and are one of four undefeated teams to jump into the rankings for the first time, now sitting at No. 20 in the Power 25. Glenbrook North has not really been tested to begin the season with their closest win being decided by three runs. The Spartans have outscored opponents 87-6 to begin the season.

+ No. 21 Warren (7-0): The Blue Devils are off to an undefeated start and jump into the rankings for the first time at No. 21. They were busy this past week going a perfect 6-0 with three wins over Grayslake North. They also have wins over Lane Tech 8-4, Johnsburg 10-2 and Grant 9-5 to begin the season. The Blue Devils are led by RHPs Kendall Lyons (‘22; UIC) and Adam Behrens (‘23; Arizona State) on the mound, with a number of other quality arms in the mix as well.

DROPPED OUT

+ Mount Carmel (5-3)
+ Freeburg (8-2)
+ New Trier (1-5)
+ Yorkville (5-2)
+ St. Charles East (2-1-1)

JUST MISSED THE CUT

+ Breese Central (10-0)
+ Geneseo (4-0)
+ Glenwood (7-1)
+ Stevenson (6-1)
+ Plainfield Central (8-1)
+ St. Joseph-Ogden (8-1)
+ North Clay (9-1)
+ Champaign Central (8-1)
+ Lincoln-Way Central (1-0)
+ Loyola (4-0)
+ Morton (4-0)
+ Mascoutah (7-1)

UPDATED TOP 10

+ CLICK HERE to view entire Power 25 Team Rankings

2022 SEASON

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