The ScoutConnect staff is once again updating our IHSA ‘Large School’ – 3A & 4A – team rankings with the seventh week of Illinois high school baseball season under our belt. 

It’s a relatively quiet week on our top-10, as rain rolled through the Metro East and Southern Illinois. With that said, there’s some notable movement inside of our top-10, and we have a team returning to our rankings as well. 

As a reminder, teams taken into consideration are those that fall into our ‘Coverage Map’, which includes all of Southern Illinois, the Metro East area, Springfield, and up as high as Mt. Zion. This does not mean that our staff won’t provide coverage to all areas of the state, as well as Missouri, but for team rankings purposes, we will stick to all teams in 3A and 4A that fall underneath the Mt. Zion line.

THE TOP 10…

+ The top two spots in our rankings remain unchanged, as No. 1 Triad (20-3) and No. 2 Edwardsville (14-6) hang on to their respective rankings, and it’s really more of a 1A and 1B type of situation with these two teams. The Knights won all three of their games last week, sweeping a conference set with Jersey (5-0, 10-2) and defeating one of our top-ranked ‘Small School’ clubs in Sacred-Heart Griffin on Friday 3-1. The Tigers picked up three ranked wins last week, beating ranked Rochester 8-0 and sweeping a ‘Southwestern Conference’ series over ranked Alton (13-8, 8-1). 

+ We have a new team at No. 3, as Mascoutah (14-5) rises up a few spots to their initial preseason ranking. The Indians won all three of their games last week, sweeping conference foe Civic Memorial (11-1, 10-0) and defeating a quality Freeburg club 8-6 on Saturday. It’s the biggest week of the season coming up for Mascoutah, as the Indians will draw Mississippi Valley rival No. 1 Triad this week. 

+ Belleville East (18-7) takes a huge jump this update, climbing up six spots, and now sitting at No. 4. The Lancers had an impressive week, sweeping ranked O’Fallon (11-5, 4-3) in a crucial conference series. They’re an experienced, scrappy, and competitive club that can do a little bit of everything offensively, led by INF/RHP Grady Davis (2025), who’s slashing .532/.580/.677 in 62 at-bats this spring. Davis, as well as RHP Tommy Kramkowski (2025; Missouri State), LHP Logan Faust (2025), and OF/LHP Reid Neumayer (2026) have all thrown well in bulk innings for the Lancers. 

+ Up one spot this week, to No. 5, is Glenwood (11-4). The Titans beat Granite City 6-0 in their only game of the week and have now won four in a row. Glenwood has a challenging week ahead, as the Titans will play six games, with three of them against ranked opponents: Sacred-Heart Griffin, Edwardsville, and Teutopolis. 

+ The next three spots on our rankings are occupied, in this order, by O’Fallon (15-6), Mt. Zion (14-5), and Alton (13-10). The Panthers beat Freeburg (11-1) to start the week off before dropping both games to Belleville East (11-5, 4-3). Mt. Zion lost in walk-off fashion to Monticello (5-4) before beating ‘Small School’ ranked Pleasant Plains 8-2. Finally, Alton lost all three of their games last week, falling to Father McGivney and Edwardsville twice. 

+ Belleville West (13-7) and Rochester (15-7) round out our top-10, with Marion (14-6) falling out of the rankings. The Maroons are back this week after winning both of their games last week over Althoff Catholic (6-4) and previously undefeated Nashville (12-2). Rochester lost both of their games to Edwardsville (8-0) and Mahomet-Seymour (3-1). 

Author: Diego