2007 American Legion Regional Playoff Preview

A USA-365.com Special Report by Mark Smith

8-01-2007

Plymouth American Legion Baseball Regional
double-elimination at Bill Nixon Field in Plymouth - Tickets $4 (each day) no radio
8-3 (F) Mishawaka (19-14) vs. Highland (15-4-1) 4:00 p.m. (EDT)
8-3 (F) Hammond (18-10) vs. Crown Point (17-11) 7:30 p.m. (EDT)
8-4 (S) Friday's winners meet - 11:00 a.m.
8-4 (S) Friday's losers meet - 1:30 p.m.
8-4 (S) Elimination game - 6:00 p.m.
8-5 (Sun) championship game one - 12:00 noon
8-5 (Sun) championship game two - 3:00 p.m.**

** winner meets the Kokomo regional champion on Friday, Aug. 10 at 4:00 p.m.
(EDT) in the four-team American Legion state finals.

Terre Haute American Legion Baseball Regional
double-elimination at Terre Haute North

8-3 (F) Madison (24-9) vs. Terre Haute (37-9) 4 p.m. (EDT)
8-3 (F) Rockport vs. Evansville (27-15) 7:30 (EDT)

Kokomo American Legion Baseball Regional
double-elimination at Highland Park - Kokomo

8-3 (F) Bristol (21-11) vs. Kokomo (24-8) 4:00 p.m. (EDT)
8-3 (F) Lafayette (25-15) vs. St. Leon Sectional winner 7:30 (EDT)

PLYMOUTH (8-1-2007) - Some weekends in American Legion baseball you don't face the best competition. Some weekends everybody does not show up. Some weekends there isn't much on the line. This isn't one of those weekends.

Nobody gets a break starting Friday as the American Legion starts the search for its four state finalists. Truthfully, one team gets a break. Host Madison Post 9 will be on the field somewhere when the 2007 four-team state finals begin on Friday, Aug. 10 on the banks of the Ohio River. So two teams will come out of the Terre Haute regional at Northside High School and Madison is one of them. But only one team will advance out of Bill Nixon Field in Plymouth and any of the four have a realistic chance to get the downstate ticket. When you're playing nine inning games and it's double-elimination, there are no short days, no lucky wins and no excuses.

If you like semistate high school baseball, this is a bigger and better version of that.

MISHAWAKA (19-14)

MISHAWAKA - Post 161 upset defending sectional champion South Bend Post 20 (23-10-1) twice to win the four-team Plymouth Sectional. Marian high graduate Bobby Rinard was 7-for-7 with six RBIs in the two wins over South Bend 14-11 and 11-7. Mishawaka collected 10 hits in the title game and had 14 in the 14-11 win last Saturday. Post 161 scored 31 runs but they were charged with 11 errors in three sectional games. I believe that Mishawaka Caveman right-hander Jason Buck, who will attend Tri-State College in Fort Wayne, will start the first game. Mishawaka appears to have a potent offensive team but, as the scores of the sectional games would indicate, the pitching and defense is very much suspect. Give them the advantage of having won three times in Plymouth already. Post 161 may benefit from what ever home field advantage you can have. Mishawaka is a combination of Mishawaka high, (Mishawaka) Marian and semistate finalist Penn, which contributed outfielder Mike Zudiema, Brady Iams and Dustin Gostzola. This is a team full of big school players and they won't be easy to contain. If it gets to be a slugfest, Mishawaka wins. Runs for them here are so easy that Cavemen can do it.

HAMMOND (18-10)

HAMMOND - This combination of rivals and neighbors Lake Central and Munster has played a good schedule and they figure to throw Munster grad Chris Winterhaler against Crown Point. Winterhaler struck out 10 in a 16-7 win over Cedar Lake on July 10 and he pitched four innings on a 5-4 win over Crown Point on early July 3. Nick Eggbrecht struck out 13 last week in Hammond's 13-3 rout of Valparaiso last week. This is a quality team with Munster Brett Keeler (.466, 4 HRs, 32 RBIs in high school this spring), LC's AJ Doyle (33-84, .393 at LC this year) and big right-hander Danny Manick. Hammond appears solid at most positions. They probably lack the one dominant pitcher you need in a tournament like this where you cannot afford to lose the opener, but they have depth in pitching and, like Mishawaka, these are big school players in a big game situation. You have to like Hammond's hitters in a park that will give up some home runs.

HIGHLAND (15-4-1)

HIGHLAND - Highland has just one player from Morton but its David Wallace, who batted .424 for the Governors this spring. Post 180 has only played 20 games and they haven't played as wide-ranging a schedule as Post 20, for example, which has faced Kokomo, Plymouth (twice), Anderson, Terre Haute, Bristol (twice), Evansville and Lafayette. But Highland has defeated both Crown Point and Hammond and they clearly can't get into a slugfest with Mishawaka. Wallace had three RBIs in the 13-3 win over Whiting Post 80 in the sectional championship game. Greg Schmitt pitched nine innings with nine strikeouts and four walks. Highland high schools' Nick Cianci, Glenn Durocher, Doug Fritz and Matt Bugajski anchor this team with Munster's Pat Kozlowksi, Pete Jurich and Winterhaler, all solid prep varsity players. Wallace could start, but I would think Highland's going to use a 'commttee' of pitchers here, especially with game-time temperatures Friday afternoon predicted in the mid-90s. There is some doubt about Highland's schedule during the spring and summer. The high school does not play the teams that LC, CP and Penn do. But, whatever the schedule, Highland has, by far, the best record here.

CROWN POINT (17-11)

CROWN POINT - CP only had to win twice to escape the three-team Crown Point Sectional, so the post-season, for them, comes down to this weekend when they travel to battle their top summer rival. Hammond defeated CP 5-4 last month, but Post 20 played that game with Chris Saroff, the Duneland Conference MVP was 9-0 during the high school season and struck out `12 in six innings against Hobart is a 12-3 win last weekend. Crown Point does not have the overall hitting prowess of the other three and they leave a lot of runners on base. But catcher Adam Kennedy had a 4 RBIs game against Cedar Lake in the 11-2 sectional championship victory over Cedar Lake. Matt Dobin was the top left-handed hitter in Lake County this year. The Kankakee Valley grad batted .553 with eight home runs and 37 RBIs and he holds almost all of KV's offensive records. If CP wins the first game with Saroff pitching, they have a lot of eager candidates for the final two days, especially if injured Merrillville right-hander Caleb Douglas is 100%. Relief pitcher Andrew Higgins has not been with Post 20 most of the season, but he 'closed' both games last weekend. CP has some small school players, but one of them, Marty Rasala, was an all-Porter County Conference (PCC) player at Kouts and he returns to the team this week after missing the sectional. Leadoff man RJ Zambrano of Merrillville is a key man here. If he reaches base in front of Dobin, Saroff and Kennedy, this will be a big Post 20 weekend.

LEGION NOTES: Bristol Post 143 (21-11) beat Orlen Post 423 by an 18-0 score and topped Churubusco Post 157 by an 18-11 score to win the Bristol Sectional last weekend. Bristol joins Lafayette Post 11 (25-13) at the Kokomo regional Friday.

Lafayette was 4-0 at the Lafayette Sectional, defeating Crawfordsville 11-3, Carroll County 21-9, Attica 18-1 and Carroll County 11-5.

Kokomo Post 6 routed Richmond, Muncie and Anderson by a total count of 51-15 to win the Kokomo Sectional. Kokomo (24-8) beat Anderson 16-6 in the title game Sunday. The 'Sixers' will host the regional.

Terre Haute Post 346 would appear to be the state favorite with two weeks to play. Terre Haute (37-9) beat Vincennes 3-0, Greene County 5-3 and Vincennes 13-4 to win the Vincennes sectional. Terre Haute, the 2006 state champ, now hosts the Terre Haute Regional and will play the Madison Sectional champ, which was Madison Post 9. Evansville Post 265 (27-15) and Rockport Post 254 meet in the second semifinal game at Terre haute Friday.

Madison (24-9) gets a bye to the state finals because they are the host, but they swept a double-header from Seymour Post 89 to advance to the regional. Madison, which has won 25 consecutive sectional titles, got 15 strikeouts from Clarksville right-hander Chris Wanty in a 5-1 win over Seymour Saturday.