On Tuesday, April 21, the WIAA Board of Control asserted to cancel all 2020 spring competitions, baseball included. While saddened for the graduating class of 2020, the PBR Wisconsin staff will do its best to highlight what could have been this spring, in what was set to be an exciting campaign filled with intriguing storylines to know and players to follow.

We published our ‘Watchlist Squads’ post on Monday, April 20, spotlighting almost 20 need-to-know programs that fell short of official ‘Bubble’ or Power 25 status for our preseason team rankings. Today, and for the remainder of the week, we’re going to be individually detailing our ‘On the Bubble’ teams – teams that earned serious consideration for our Preseason Power 25 Rankings, but ultimately fell just short.

Our 2020 preseason coverage continues today.

Team: Kenosha Indian Trail
Preseason Rank: On The Bubble
2019 Record: 15-13
Conference: Southeast
WIAA Class: D-1
Head Coach: Mike Schmidt
Playoff Run: Regional Finalist
2019 Final Rank: NR
Returning Starters: 5
Returning Pitchers: 3 

OUTLOOK

This is a competitive, balanced roster that earned sincere consideration for the back-end of our Preseason Power 25 rankings. Indian Trail has a healthy mix of returning talent, young stars in the making, and senior leadership at the head of its rotation. That’s a winning combination.

There’s a lack of depth here, however, which few teams have the luxury of owning on a year-to-year basis, but Indian Trail also endured some big hot and cold stretches in 2019. The Hawks have one of the conference’s best double play tandems – and that’s saying something – with Ian Choi (2022) and Max Tindall (2021) patrolling the middle of the diamond. Choi, in particular, is establishing himself as one of the top uncommitted sophomores in a loaded 2022 class and he was primed to take a huge step on offense for these Hawks in 2020. Run production was going to be an issue of IT this spring, and Choi could have been its problem solver.

If runs come at a premium, you have to be able to pitch, and Indian Trail was equipped with a true No. 1, Sam Scarlato (2020; McHenry County JC commit), who we’ll touch on more in the section below. Lanky junior RHP Noah Reeves also looked ready to make a jump after a solid sophomore season. We saw him in the winter where he clearly improved, giving this staff two reliable arms to roll out inside this always-competitive conference race.

SENIOR SPOTLIGHT

This staff’s go-to arm, Scarlato, has demonstrated an expert feel to pitch on multiple occasions in front of our staff. He was one of the top returning arms in the conference – and the Southeast has a few talented candidates – so he could have steered the Hawks to a better spring in his final prep season. Fellow senior righty Jacob Shippee was also set to be the third arm on this staff, an especially important role in a conference like the Southeast where teams play three-game series against each other. It’s a shame we won’t get to see this staff attempt to pull Indian Trail to another winning spring.

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