Friday, 7-14-2006  (Pool "A" play) 12-and-under - 78 degrees at Crown Point

WP - Nick Gerilimos (1-0)  6K, 3 walks (4 inn.)
LP -  Tyler Kristoff (0-1) )K, 2 walks (2 inn.)

LOWELL (1-2)
Drew Simpson (1B) Single, walk
Derrick Carlson (P-CF) 2 singles

CROWN POINT (2-0)
Joey Plesac (2B) 2 singles
Joey Hopman (C) Double, 2 walks, RBI
Nick Gerilimos (P-1B) 2 singles, HBP, 4 RBIs
Casey Rapchak (SS) HR, walk, 2 RBIs

Wednesday, 7-12-2006 (Pool A play), 12-and-under at Crown Point, 4-innings

WP - Casey Rapchak  (1-0)  CG, 7K, 0 walks
LP -  Alex Anderson (0-1)  4K, 3 walks (3.7 inn.)

Hebron (0-1)
Kyle Joyce (CF) Single

CROWN POINT (1-0)
Zac Plesac (RF) Double, 2 RBIs
Joey Hopman (C) Double, 2 singles
Danny Stefanovic (1B) Single, 2 RBIs
Nick Brun (LF) Single, RBI
Nick Gerilimos (1B) Single, RBI

Wednesday, 7-12-2006  (Pool A play) 12-and-under at Crown Point, 5-innings

WP - Jake Fox (1-0)  3k, 3 walks (2 innings)
LP -  Santiago Diaz (0-1)  5K, 1 walks (3 inn.)

(Hammond) Irving (0-1)
Lalo Kilbury (RF) Single
Terry Kramer (1B) 2 walks, run scored
Ian Hernandez (2B) Walk, RBI
Diovanni Davis (CF) Walk, RBI

LOWELL (1-0)
Danny DeBoer (P-SS) Double, single, 2 RBIs
Nick Kijurna (3B) 2 singles, 2 runs scored
Nick Willison (RF) HR, double, 3 RBIs
Dean Simpson (1B) Triple, 2 singles, 2 RBIs

CROWN POINT (7-17-2006) - When you are the manager of the local Little League 12-and-under all-stars in a place like Crown Point and your league is a host site for the first week of the state tournament, you better win.  It's all about the kids and all for fun, but its not that much fun for the manager unless he wins.  That's why Crown Point manager Joe Plesac was off the hot seat late Sunday, and it had nothing to do with the 100-degree temperatures in the summer of 2006 heat wave.

"We need a day off," he joked after his first week as manager of his hometown's trademark Little League all-stars squad.  "We've been doing something every day for two weeks.  I need a day off."

Crown Point's 5-0 victory over a strong Highland team early Sunday night completed a four-game CP sweep of pool play at home.  CP outscored four foes by a combined total of 38-1 and they earned the top seed and a quarterfinal bye at the six-team District II finals starting Wednesday night (7-19-2006) at 6:00 p.m. in Dyer.

Plesac, who has three relatives (son Ronnie and nephews Zac and Joey) among the 13 all-stars, would have been second guessed had the CP boys not been able to reach the second round.  But he was able to get his boys on a positive roll and it lasted all week.

"That was the one thing I told myself when this started," Plesac admitted.  "There'd be no second guessing myself.  I'd do what I thought was was the right thing at the time.  Try to play everybody.  Come in and do the job.  If we look good, great.  If we don't, I said there'd be no second guessing."

The plan to pitch big right-hander Casey Rapchak in the first and fourth playoff games worked out as Rapchak tossed a three-hit shutout at Highland Sunday.  CP scored three times in the third inning as the Highland defense broke down behind ace left-hander Jordan Minch, who struck out 12.

CP's Joey Hopman singled and moved up to second base on a one out wild pitch.  Nick Gerolimos sliced a low bouncing ball that went through the legs of Highland first baseman Cody Peisker, allowing Hopman to score.  After a single by CP's Danny Stefanovic, Minch hit Zac Plesac with a pitch to fill the bases.

Minch struck out CP's Brett Bayer, but on a 1-1 pitch to Allen Krause, the ball got away off the glove of Highland catcher Jordan Drach.  Gerolimos scored to make it 2-0 and when Drach threw the ball towards home plate it got past Minch, allowing Stefanovic to score the 3-0 run.

With dominant pitchers on the mound, the game was truthfully over at that point.

"There's errors," said manager Sean Mosier.  "Kids make errors.  Major leaguers make errors.  That's the way it goes sometimes.  The sun will come up tomorrow.  We're still in the tournament."

Little League games are notoriously nutty.  They usually resemble Chicago Cub games when the wind blows out.  But this Highland-Crown Point game resembled a late round Little League playoff.  Because of the short distances on Little League fields, top strikeout pitchers and home runs dominate.  Rapchack struck out nine and threw 85 pitches in six innings.  CP played errorless ball; 12 Highland batters put the ball into play.  Minch, who struck out 14 in a 2-0 win over Lowell on Thursday, fanned 12 CP boys.  But of 13 CP batters who put the ball into play, nine came in the last three innings.  The goal at all levels of baseball is to wear out the pitcher and CP was able to do that against a premier lefty.  In the fifth inning, CP had three successive hits by Stefanovic, Bayer and Zac Plesac including Zac Plesac's line drive home run to left center.

"I thought we put the bat on the ball,"  said manager Plesac, noting the 109 pitches Minch tossed.

"We had chances to score in the first two innings, but we couldn't bunt and move the runners up.  That's something we'll have to work on, because we're only going to see top pitchers from this point on."

Coming into Sunday's game, Highland had posted consecutive shutouts 2-0 over Lowell, 11-0 over Irving and 5-0 over Hebron.  Had Highland defeated CP, they'd have been the No. 1 seed at the district finals.  The finals are single-elimination and they force a non-top seed to win three games in three days, probably with three different pitchers.

Realistically, especially with the intense heat wearing out pitching this month, you needed a quarterfinal bye in the district finals.  The two teams with the byes, arch-rivals Dyer (4-0) and Crown Point (4-0) are the clear cut favorites.

"We've probably got to beat Munster and Dyer," said Plesac of the week to come. "That (CP-Dyer) would be a great game.  There'd be a lot of people at that one."

LITTLE LEAGUE NOTES:  Since there were only four all-star teams at the Robertsdale pool play site as opposed to five at Dyer and Crown Point, any Robertsdale team could have virtually assured themselves the number one seed by posting three shutouts.  A team at Dyer or C would have had to post four shutouts to beat the Robertsdale winner.  But in the first two nights of pool play at Robertsdale, all four all-star teams split two games, taking them all out of contention for a top seed since CP and Highland were both 3-0 entering Sunday's play.

There was some confusion about whether pitching records continue over from pool play to the district finals.  The consensus is that pitching records do carry over.  In other words, the Little League stipulation that a player who pitches more then one inning in a game is ineligible from pitching in the next game.  So ace starters Casey Rapchak of Crown Point and Jordan Minch of Highland cannot pitch for their side until and unless they reach the second game of the district finals.  That made it almost certain that Nick Gerilimos will start for CP Thursday night in the District semifinals.  The CP 12s, one of the top two seeds in the six-team finals, got a quarterfinal bye.  For Minch to pitch again for the Highland 12s, Highland must defeat Robertsdale Wednesday night.

Crown Point carries high hopes to the District finals even though Dyer, the 11-and under state champs in 2005, are the hosts.  Casey Rapchak, the CP Little League home run champion, had two homers in four district games even though he did not hit well.  But the Dyer Little League field is smaller than Crown Point's and anyone who pitches to him in Dyer will do so at great risk.  CP did not hit as well as they'd hoped last week.

"The boys have to understand when they're facing good pitching they are not always going to get a hit," said manager Joe Plesac. "They can't always shake it off like I think older boys do.  They haven't played that long and they don't have that experience."

Joe Plesac's brother Dan, the 17-year veteran of baseball's major leagues and Chicago Cubs in-studio baseball analyst for Comcast Sports, was at the game Sunday and saw nephew Zac's two-run fifth inning home run.  With Dan Plesac's high profile on TV, and their families' history in athletics at Crown Point high school, every at bat by the little Plesacs is watched closely.

"Every time he makes an out he comes to me and says how the other pitchers are really bearing down on him," laughed Dan.  "This was great.  I'm going to try to be there (in Dyer) Thursday."

2006  Little League District II playoffs
(top two teams from pools A, B and C) go to the district finals in Dyer.

LITTLE LEAGUE 12s  -   POOL A  -  CROWN POINT
7-12 - LOWELL 12, Irving 2 (5 inn.);  CROWN POINT 11, Hebron 0 (4 inn.)
7-13 - Hebron 10, Irving 0;  Highland 2, LOWELL 0
7-14 - CROWN POINT 8, LOWELL 1;  Highland 10, Irving 0 
7-15 -Highland 5, Hebron 0;  CROWN POINT 14, Irving 0 (4 inn.)
7-16 - CROWN POINT 5, Highland 0;  LOWELL 12, Hebron 1

LITTLE LEAGUE 12s  -   POOL B  -  DYER
7-12 - DYER 14, CEDAR LAKE 1;  Whiting 5, Hobart Township 2
7-13 - DYER 19, Whiting 0;  Munster 17, CEDAR LAKE 6
7-14 - CEDAR LAKE 8, Hobart Township 3;  DYER 3, Munster 1
7-15 - Munster 21, Whiting 2;  DYER 9, Hobart Township 5
7-16 (Sun) Munster 00,  Hobart Township 00;  CEDAR LAKE 00, Whiting 00

LITTLE LEAGUE 12s  -   POOL C  -  (Hammond) Robertsdale
7-14 - Hessville 10, Robertsdale 1;  DeMotte 3,  Roselawn 2
7-15 - Robertsdale 16, DeMotte 4;  Roselawn 7, Hessville 6
7-16 - Hessville  9, DeMotte 2;  Robertsdale 00, Roselawn


LITTLE LEAGUE 12s (District Finals) at DYER (single-elimination)
7-19 (W) Munster (3-1)  vs. Hessville  (2-1)  6 p.m.
7-19 (W) Highland (3-1) vs. Robertsdale (2-1) 8 p.m.
7-20 (Th) CROWN POINT (4-0)  vs. Wednesday's 6 p.m. winner
7-20 (Th) DYER (4-0)  vs. Wednesday's 8 p.m. winner
7-21 (F) District II championship game - 7 p.m.

LITTLE LEAGUE 12s
(Indiana state finals) at MERRILLVILLE (pool A)
7-27 (Th) District II champion vs. Sectional 5 champ - 5:30 p.m.
7-27 (Th) Sectional I champ vs. District I champion - 8 p.m.
7-28 (F) Section 1 champ vs. District II champ - 5:30 p.m.
7-28 (F) Section 5 champ vs. District I champ - 8 p.m.
7-29 (Sat) District I champ vs. District II champ - 5:30 p.m.
7-29 (Sat) Section 1 vs. Section  5  - 8 p.m.
Championship Sunday
7-30 (Sun) State semifinal game one - 1 p.m.
7-30 (Sun) State semifinal game two - 1 p.m.
7-30 (Sun) 2006 Indiana state championship game.
(Winner advances to Central States Regional in Indianapolis on Thursday, Aug. 6)

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Revised: July 29, 2006.