Crown Point (20) closes American Legion Baseball season with 8-5 loss to South Bend (50)
	A USA-365.com Special Report by Mark Smith 8-01-2010

Tuesday, 7-27-2010  -  Crown Point Regional, 89-degrees at Teagle Field at CROWN POINT, IN

WP - Alex Koehler (5-2) 2K, 1 walk, 0 runs, one hit
(starter) Cameron Evans (50) 2K, 6 walks (86 pitches)
LP - Brian Holloway (3-1) 2K, 4 walks (7.3 innings) 120 pitches

SOUTH BEND (50)
(Clay) Devon Bailey (CF-P) 1-for-5, RBI
(St. Joe's) Robert Jamieson (3B) 0-for-4, walk
(Washington) Malcolm White (LF) 2-for-4, 2 doubles, RBI
(Clay) Cody Schell (SS) 0-for-3, 2 walks
(Clay) Conner Hudnall (SS) 3-for-5, RBI
(Washington) Alex Kohler (RF-P) 2-for-4, 2 RBIs
(Washington) Cody Tharp (1B) 1-for-5, RBI
(Riley) Cameron Evans (P-RF) 2-for-4, double, RBI
(St.Joe's) Ian Lower (C) 2-for-3m, double, walk

CROWN POINT (20)
(CP) Brian Holoway (P-CF) 0-for-5
(CP) Scott Donley (SS) 2-for-4, double, walk, RBI
(CP) Josh Negele (P-RF) 0-for-4, walk
(North Newton) Mike Schroeder (LF) 2-for-4, HR, walk, RBI
(CP) Jose Andrade (C) 0-for-2, 3 walks
(CP) Jeff Limbaugh (1B) 1-for-3, HR, 2 RBis
(CP) Colin Casey (3B) 0-for-4
(CP) Beau LaSalle (2B) 1-for-4
(CP) Mike Kessler (CF) 0-for-1, 2 walks

 Crown Point Post 20 (25-8)
Manager Marty Zurbriggen - home games at Teagle Field - post number in parenthesis
6-9 (L) 7-10 Highland-180 (17-6)
6-10 (canceled - rain) at Bristol (143)
6-12 (W) 10-3 South Bend -50 (29-6)
6-12 (W) 3-0 South Bend -50 (29-6)
6-13 (canceled) Kenosha, Wisconsin (21)
6-15 (rain) Hammond (168)

West Lafayette Invitational
6-17 (W) 3-0 Decatur (Ill.) Commodores
6-19 (W) 10-3 Indiana Renegades
6-19 (W) 2-1 Indiana Black Sox
6-20 (W) 11-0 (5 inn.) Hoosier Express
6-20 (L) 2-3 Bloomington Normal

Cincy (Ohio) Flames, Wooden Bat Tournament
6-24 (W) 2-1 (Lakewood, Ohio) J&A all-stars
6-25 (L) 2-4 (Nicholasville, Ky.) Kentucky Baseball Club
6-25 (L) 1-3 (Columbus, Ohio) Team EAS
6-26 (W) 8-5 (Cincinnati )Playground All Stars

6-29 (W) 6-2 at Highland-180 (17-6)
6-30 (W) 3-2 at Highland-180 (17-6)
7-1 (W) 12-7 at East Chicago-369)
7-2 (W) 13-2 (5 inn.) Highland 180-B
7-3 (W) 16-3 (5 inn.) Plymouth-27 (21-11)
7-5 (L) 3-6 at Plymouth Post 27 (21-11)
7-6 (W) 3-2 Norwood, Ill Blues
7-7 (W) 3-2 Hammond-168 (17-7-2)
7-9 (W) 14-2 East Chicago-369
7-10 (W) 10-6 Lafayette-11 (18-13)

CROWN POINT (20) Sectional
double-elimination at Teagle Field - CP
7-14 (W) 8-7 Hammond-168 (18-7-2) p.m.
7-15 (W) 16-11 Highland Post 180 (17-6)
7-17 (L) 3-13 Highland Post 180 - 7 innings (17-6)
7-18 (W) 17-9 Highland Post 180 (17-6) title

CROWN POINT (20) Regional
at Teagle Field - Crown Point
7-23 (W) 8-4 Plymouth Post 27 (21-11)
7-26 (L) 7-9 South Bend Post 50 (29-6)
7-26 (W) 8-2 Bristol Post 143 (21-10)
7-27 (L) 5-8 South Bend Post 50 (30-6)
 

CROWN POINT (07-27-2010) I kept trying to tell CP Post 20 manager Marty Zurbriggen that his first American Legion team, with a 25-8 record, had a good season. He wasn’t really buying it. Crown Point had a state-finals-or-bust mentality and they did not reach the finals, losing 8-5 to South Bend Post 50 in the championship round of the Crown Point Regional last week. The loss ends the Crown Point portion of the baseball careers of seven CPHS grads including all-staters Josh Negele, Scott Donley and Jeff Limbaugh.

Terre Haute topped Post 50, 13-0 and swept three games to win the state title last weekend in Plymouth. Post 50, an all-star group from four South Bend high schools, had too much in speed and fundamentals for CP, which could not create post-season runs with anything other than power. It was no fluke.

“They played well and we didn’t,” said Zurbriggen. “That was the case the whole week. Their coach made some good calls.”

Post 50 stole four bases, worked a successful suicide squeeze bunt to score a key eighth-inning run, and collected five doubles. Post 20 got home runs from Jeff Limbaugh and Mike Schroeder but left the bases loaded in the seventh inning, moments before South Bend’s decisive rally.

“They brought in that lefty (winning pitcher Alex Koehler) who short-armed us and he was quick,” said Andrade, who walked three times against starting pitcher Cameron Evans. “The ball did fly out of here the way it did.”

But South Bend’s pitchers were able to change speeds well enough to keep CP’s hitters from reaching the 15-foot high Teagle Field fences. As in CP’s earlier 9-7 loss to South Bend in the second round of the regional, Post 20 couldn’t break the game open when they had the chance and Post 50 rallied to win.

Leading 5-3 in the seventh, CP loaded the bases with one out. In came Kohler, the lefty from South Bend’s Washington High School, and Andrade flied to short right on a 3-2 pitch and Limbaugh grounded to third baseman Robert Johnson, who made a bare hand stab of a bad hop. If Post 20 scores a run or more there the game is over.

But the South Bend squad knocked out CP right-hander Brian Holloway with two hits and a walk in the eighth before Xavier Ponce came on in relief. With the score tied 5-5, Ponce, a Merrillville graduate, got Cameron Evans to hit into a force play, but Washington’s Cody Tharp sliced a single to left against a pulled-in infield to give Post 50 a 6-5 lead. After another walk, CP went to left hander Josh Negele, who had pitched seven innings two days earleir. Negele gave up an RBI single to Clay high’s Deron Bailey and South Bend led 7-5.

The thing about a double-elimination tournament is that it leaves you no excuses. Especially when you are the host team. South Bend Post 50 (33-8) followed up its initial 9-7 win over Post 20 on July 25 with an 8-5 win two night’s later, moving on to last weekend’s American Legion state finals in Plymouth.

Crown Point (25-8) was just left to move on. Six of their starting players, Crown Point High School graduates, played American Legion ball for the final time at the end of season they thought would end in the state finals.

“Its a little emotional right now,” Limbaugh said after the loss. “I’ve played with a lot of these guys for three years. They’re my friends and now we can’t play together anymore. It’s over.”

POST NOTES: South Bend Post 50 split four games at the state finals in Plymouth last weekend, losing 13-0 to eventual champion Terre Haute Post 346 (39-5). Plymouth (22-15) also split four games at the finals, losing to Evansville Post 265, the eventual state runner-up.

Post 20 hopes that Jake Lindeman can play next summer. The Crown Point High School shortstop, who batted .376 (32 of 85) at the high school with 25 RBIs, was limited to pinch hitting duty all summer by an arm problem.

“He has a stretched ligament in his rotator cuff,” explained Zurbriggen. “The doctor wanted him to rest it and that’s why he didn’t play all summer. He doesn't have a tear and that’s good. They wanted him to take three weeks off and he did. Now, they want him to rest it another month. He’d have been huge out here because we could have moved Scotty (Donley) back to second and played Beau LaSalle at third defensively."

“He’d have been another bat for us and he’s got good speed. That’s something else we lacked this summer. We don’t have any speed on the bases and that showed this week.”

Many of the CPHS players were playing American Legion baseball for the first time and they seemed to like it.

“Hopefully if I get my college picked out by next summer, I’ll be back,” said Jose Andrade, who will be a senior starting this month at CPHS. “It’s cheap, fun and good competition.”

Andrade, who was Crown Point High School’s leading hitter this past spring, doesn’t seem thrilled with talk that he’ll move to first base part-time next spring so fellow senior Alex Doppler can get playing time behind the plate.

“I guess so,” Jose says. “Obviously he has a great arm. That’s what I lack, but we’re both good catchers. And my arm isn’t bad.”

Manager Marty Zubriggen said he’ll almost certainly be back to manage the summer team in 2011.

“It’ll be a new team, pretty much. The only player (of the six graduated CPHS seniors) who can come back is Scott Donley and I don’t think he will because his college coach may want him to play somewhere else. I’m excited about next year. I’ve got to get a little more organized, but I knew this year would be tough."

“You need to know who you can count on and who you can’t count on. (CP varsity coach Steve Strayer) is excited about next year. I’m excited about next year.”

Strayer also liked the idea of the high school varsity and junior varsity teams making up the American Legion “A” (19 and under) and “B” (17 and under) teams.

“I thought it worked well,” said the coach, who was the first base coach for many of the “A” team games.

Strayer also agreed that CP baseball will undergo a style change next season.

“We won’t have the power we’ve had,” he said. “We’re going to be a speed and defense team. We won’t be as good right away but we’ll be much different.”

CROWN POINT Post 20 REGIONAL
at Teagle Field- Crown Point

July 23
CROWN POINT Post 20 - 8, Plymouth Post 27 - 4
South Bend Post 50 - 11, Bristol Post 143 - 5
July 24
all games postponed - wet grounds
July 25
South Bend - 9, CROWN POINT - 7
Bristol - 9, Plymouth 2

July 26 (Monday)
CROWN POINT (24-7) 8, Bristol 2
July 27 (Tuesday)
SB Post 50 (29-6) 8, CP (20) 5


2010 American Legion State Finals
[4 regional champions and host- double-elimination at Plymouth (27)]

Thursday, July 29
South Bend (50) 9. Plymouth (27) 4
Evansville (265) 10, Madison (9) 1
Friday, July 30
Terre Haute (346) 13, South Bend (50) 0
Plymouth (27) 11, Madison (9) 2
Saturday, July 31
Terre Haute (346) 5, Evansville (265) 3
Plymouth (27) 8, South Bend (50) 4
Evansville (265) 7, Plymouth (27) 6
Sunday, Aug. 1
Terre Haute (346) 9, Evansville (265) 5 - title

Plymouth (22-15), Evansville (29-18), South Bend (33-8), Madison (18-6), Terre Haute (39-5)