Andrean wins 3A Semistate title with 5-1 win over New Haven

A USA-365.com Special Report by Mark Smith

6-14-2010

Senior Matt Doolin (21) swings away as his teammates watch. Andrean is going for a second consecutive state championship. (All Photos by Mark Smith)

Team (Record) / Inning	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	R	H	E
ANDREAN (28-6)	0	0	1	0	2	1	1	5	10	0
New Haven (22-8)	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	3	1

Saturday, 6-12-2010 - Class 3A Northern Semistate Championship at Covaleski Stadium at South Bend, IN

WP - Ken Mahala (9-0) CG, 9K, 1 walk, 3 WPs (95 pitches)
LP - Brandon Pease (10-2) 5K, 1 walk (6 inn.)

ANDREAN (28-6)
Vince Tornincasa (CF) 0-for-2, 2 sac bunts
Mark Pishkur (2B) 2-for-4
Ken Mahala (P) 1-for-3, sac fly, 2 RBIs
PJ Mason (RF) 0-for-4
Matt Doolin (1B) 0-for-3, walk
Jordan Falls (C) 1-for-3, double
Zack Goldasich (DH) 2-for-3
Tyler Ochi (3B) 1-for-3
Mike Brosseau (SS) 3-for-3, double, RBI

New Haven (22-8)
Logan Baker (C) 1-for-3
Caleb Heckley (CF) 0-for-3
Lucas Salerno (SS) 1-for-2, RBI, HBP
Brandon Pease (P) 0-for-3
Kyle Sovine (1B) 1-for-3
Trevor Waidelich (3B) 0-for-2, walk
Scott Ferguson (DH) 0-for-3
Justin Miller (LF) 0-for-3
Zach Brown (2B) 0-for-0, sac bunt, 2 HBP

SOUTH BEND, IN (6-12-2010) You wonder how they do it. The 2010 Andrean 59ers are a young team and the faces look young. Some of these boys were sitting in the stands or had comfortable seats deep in the dugout last year at Victory Field in Indianapolis when the then-top-ranked 59ers completed their domination of the 3A playoffs, winning the school's second state championship.

Next Saturday, those boys are going back to Indianapolis and they will not be watching.

Led by the pitching of senior Ken Mahala and five base hits from the sophomore double-play combination of Mike Brosseau and Mark Pishkur, the Niners pulled away from New Haven Saturday for a 5-1 victory and the schools' fourth semistate baseball title.

Outscoring six foes by a combined score of 56-8, Andrean (28-6) completed an eye-opening walk through the Class 3A playoffs. With three sophomores and two juniors in the lineup, all of whom were nowhere near the starting lineup during last year's state playoff run, the Niners coaching staff of Dave and son Ryne Pishkur plus pitching coach Jim Nohos have to know they reinvented the wheel here. You should not be able to graduate four Division I players (as Andrean did in 2009) and return to the state championship game the next season. It's barely possible.

"I told everybody at the start of the year that I thought we could be good by the end of the year," said Pishkur, heading for his fourth state championship game in 31 years of coaching at the Merrillville Catholic school. "But after a while, we weren't good. We weren't playing hard. We had to start from scratch. We had a little religion. We made some changes and we've played well."

"I'm really happy for the seniors because, with the exception of Kenny, everybody else lived in the shadows. They got that blue ring (for being state champs) but deep down inside they don't think they contributed to that ring. Obviously, they know they contributed this time and it doesn't get any better than when you are playing for the state championship."

Andrean fell behind 1-0 on a run-scoring single by New Haven's Lucas Salerno. But when Andrean junior rookie catcher Jordan Falls threw out Salerno trying to steal second base to kill that first inning rally, the Niners seemed to believe they were to be OK.

Andrean scored in the third when Brosseau, a 145-pound shortstop, doubled over the head of center fielder Caleb Heckley and came home two outs later on an 0-2 pitch single from Mahala.

The 1-1 tie remained until the fifth inning when Brosseau singled again. Vince Tornincasa laid down a sacrifice bunt that New Haven pitcher Brandon Pease bounced past first baseman Kyle Sovine. When the dust settled, Andrean had runners at first and third with nobody out.

Mark Pishkur, Ryne's little brother and Dave's son, then put Andrean ahead with a hit and run single to right field. Two outs latter, the youngest Pishkur intentionally wandered off first base and got caught up in a rundown between first and second base, allowing Tornincasa to score from third and give Andrean a 3-1 lead.

"That was nice," said coach Pishkur of his son. "Because he had to make up for the time he struck out with a runner at third. We were just playing for one run. For him to get back to first base is fine, but we'd take a run for an out at that point."

Mahala (9-0), facing a New Haven lineup with five left-handed hitters in the first five positions of the batting order, gave up three singles, none after the fourth inning. The strong right-hander who has now pitched complete game wins in the regional and semistate title games, hit three batters with pitches but otherwise, was in control.

"Kenny's throwing well," coach Pishur said. "That's a small ball team. They bunt. They slash. They're not going up there and start swinging away. So we thought that when we got a good lead it took them out of their game plan. Any run we can tack on was good for us."

The 59er coaching staff scouted New Haven's 9-2 regional championship victory over Elmhurst so he knew that New Haven had five left-handed hitters at the top of the batting order. With 6-foot-5 left-hander Sean Manaea available, the thought might have been to start Manaea and use Mahala in relief. Coach Pishkur never had that thought.

"When we found out they were a bunting team," he said, "that ruled out Sean. Kenny's too good an athlete not to put on the mound. Kenny's an infielder. When he's on the mound you have an extra infielder."

Andrean played errorless ball and Mahala was so dominant that a couple of New Haven batters tried to bunt with one out and the Bulldogs (22-8) two runs behind. They were basically admitting they could not hit the 59er senior right-hander.

"I've played with the seniors since I was 13 years old with the Playmakers and the Seminoles," Mahala said. "They're hard workers. We've come a long way this year. I knew it was all on me today. This is exactly where I wanted to be."

The seniors were an edge for Andrean, but they had an air of calm no matter how much the small New Haven crowd yelled for their boys. Andrean had the air of a team that's been here before, even though most of them haven't.

"Our schedule doesn't hurt us," said coach Pishkur. "We played Cathedral, Naperville Central. They're in the Final 4 in Illinois. I hope they win. Lafayette Catholic. We went to Carmel. Those things help. Highland has good left-handed pitchers. Munster has good left-handed pitchers. Penn has a good left-handed pitcher. As good as this guy (Pease) was, we were challenged with left-handed pitching all week.

"We didn't see a right-handed pitcher all week in batting practice. I don't know if it made a difference. But you tell them it does and if they believe it, it's great. We hit at Notre Dame before the game. It's nice to have some connections there. We got in the cages and hit there. We brought a lefty in to pitch to us there."

Brosseau confirmed his team was well-prepared for New Haven.

"We practiced all week for their running," Mike said. "We had a good scouting report on them. We knew they bunted a lot. We had confidence in five (Ken Mahala) and we thought we were ready. We had a good chance if we scored more than two runs."

Brosseau epitomizes this team. He's starting on a state finals high school team and he looks like he's 12 years old.

"That's been said before," he said. "I know. But you've got to have confidence out there. The state title has been our goal from day one."

Catcher Jordan Falls also lauded his coaches' preparation.

"We had their signs," he said. "So we knew they were going to go. I had that advantage so I should have had every single one of their base runners. I couldn't get the grip on the ball. Bunt sign. Steal sign. We were well prepared. It really helps when you know what you're up against. That was only the third guy who stole on me all year."

Coach Pishkur smiled and said, "We just guessed right a lot. We knew they like to go early in the count and they did go early in the count."

"You don't make a prediction that you're going to go to the state finals when you lose (to graduation) what we lost last year. The seniors stepped up. Kenny's been quality. We knew that. We knew when he was on the mound, we'd be tough to beat and when the sectionals come, he's on the mound all the time."

"It was just a matter of developing players to fill in the holes. If you saw our lineup in the first game of the year. The first baseman was catching. The catcher was on the bench. The second baseman was playing short. The shortstop was on the bench. The center fielder was playing third base. We just kept tinkering and tinkering and tinkering until we found the right nine guys that belonged out there."

Senior outfielder Vince Tornincasa said, "In the first game (a 16-11 loss to Lemont, Il. in March), we had to score five runs in the last inning to send it into extra innings. I started the year in the infield. How'd I learn outfield? Coach hitting me 100 fungoes a day. It's very satisfying to be here."

"That's one thing we never talked about," said Tornincasa. "We've always talked about getting to state and winning state. But we've never really talked about it being back-to-back."

Probably because it's a 'rebuilding' Andrean team playing for the state championship Saturday.

SEMISTATE NOTES: One of the oddities of this year's Andrean state finals run has been that in both the regional and semistate games, the final out has been a ground ball to coach Dave Pishkur's son Mark, the Niner second baseman.

"I was thinking about that when I was out there," Mark said. "That is odd. I'm thinking. Here it is to me again."

Andrean faced three teams that reached state championship games. The Niners defeated Naperville Central 12-3 last month and NC (36-4) qualified for the Class 4A Illinois state championship game. They lost to Lafayette Catholic, which will try to win its second consecutive 1A title Saturday. Andrean also lost 13-3 to Cathedral (31-1), which will play Carroll for the 4A title Saturday night.

"I used to wear winter underarmour all year long as a superstition," he recalled. "It could be 102 and I was wearing long under armour. So this didn't seem that hot."

2010 Andrean (28-6)
Coach Dave Pishkur (31th season - 749-236) 33-2 (2009), 30-2 (2008)

4-1 (L) 10-16 Lemont, Ill.
4-3 (W) 4-2 Gavit
4-6 (W) 6-2 Clark (21-10)
4-8 (W) 10-0 Illiana Christian (24-11)
4-10 (W) 4-2 at Penn (23-6)
4-13 (W) 17-4 (5 inn.) at Lowell (12-13-1)
4-15 (W) 7-0 at Griffith (10-20)
4-17 (W) 13-7 at Chesterton (4-19)
4-19 (W) 3-2 Kankakee Valley (16-13)
4-21 (W) 6-2 (Chicago Heights, Ill.) Marian Catholic
4-23 (L) 5-6 Highland (20-11)
4-24 (L) 4-5 Bishop Noll (20-5)
4-27 (L) 3-5 Munster (23-8)
4-29 (W) 7-2 Hobart

4-29 (rain) Brebuef Invitational

5-3 (W) 6-5 Lowell (12-13-1) 8 innings
5-4 (W) 12-3 Naperville Central (36-4) at Notre Dame
5-5 (W) 7-4 Griffith (10-20)
5-6 (L) 3-13 (5 inn.) Cathedral (30-1)
5-7 (W) 10-0 at Kankakee Valley (16-13)
5-9 (W) 6-3 Gavit
5-9 (W) 11-0 Gavit
5-13 (W) 7-2 Highland
5-17 (W) 8-2 Munster (23-8)
5-19 (W) 12-4 Hobart

Carmel Invitational
5-21 (L) 2-8 Lafayette Catholic (25-7)
5-21 (W) 12-0 (FW) Northrup

5-24 (W) 11-0 Merrillville (10-16)
5-25 (W) 7-3 (Burbank, Ill.) Reavis

Andrean (3A) Sectional
5-27 (W) 10-0 (5 inn.) Knox
5-29 (W) 15-0 (5 inn.) Griffith (10-20)
5-29 (W) 5-2 Kankakee Valley (16-13)

Plymouth (3A) Regional
6-5 (W) 12-3 (SB) St. Joseph's (21-8)
6-5 (W) 9-2 Western (20-6)

South Bend (3A) Semistate
6-12 (W) 5-1 New Haven (22-8)

State (3A) Championship
6-19 (Sat) 3 p.m. = WWCA (1270) AM, WEFM (95.9) FM