Andrean captures 3A state title with 6-3 Victory Field win over West Vigo

A USA-365.com Special Report by Mark Smith

6-25-2009

Team (Record) / Inning	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	R	H	E
WEST VIGO (28-2)	0	0	0	2	1	0	0	3	9	1
ANDREAN (33-2)	2	0	3	0	0	1	-	6	9	0

Saturday, 6-20-2009 - 87-degrees, Class 3A State Championship game at Victory Field, INDIANAPOLIS, IN

WP - Adam Norton (9-0) CG, 5Ks, 1 walk, 90 pitches
LP - Jordan Pearson (14-2) CG, 5Ks, walk, 97 pitches

West Vigo (28-2)
Jordan Pearson (P) 0-for-3
Cameron Fagg (3B) 1-for-3, double, run scored
Tyler Wampler (SS) 1-for-3, RBI
Jeremy Lucas (C) 2-for-3
Aaron Welch (1B) 2-for-3, double
Brady McCalister (LF) 1-for-2, DP, Sac Fly, RBI
Scott West (2B) 0-for-2, Sac Fly, RBI
Cody Thornton (RF) 1-for-3
Dylan Alf (CF) 0-for-2, DP, walk

ANDREAN (33-2)
Kyle Kovach (CF) 1-for-3, run scored
Ryan Dineen (2B) 3-for-3, double, triple, RBI 2 runs scored
Adam Norton (P) 1-for-3, DP, RBI
Kevin Franchetti (C) 1-for-3, DP
Ken Mahala (3B) 2-for-3, HR (No. 10), RBI
Mike Pokers (2B) 1-for-3, inside the park HR (No. 6), 2 RBIs
Evan Rapcz (LF) 1-for-3,
PJ Mason (LF) 0-for-0
Tyler Ochi (DH) 0-for-3
Thomas Polus (RF) 0-for-1, walk

INDIANAPOLIS (6-20-2009) The way they like it is the way it is. Class 3A No.1 Andrean led all the way and won the championship they expected to win at the state championship Saturday. That sums up the 59er baseball season. Maybe the last two seasons. While the Niner players and coaches talked about how hard it was to be the favorite and how hard it was to be so highly touted, I don't think for a second they'd have wanted it any other way.

Top-ranked Andrean jumped to a 5-0 lead Saturday afternoon and held on to turn back third-ranked West Vigo 6-3 to win the school's second Class 3A state baseball championship in front of more than 8,000 fans in the 15,000-seat Victory Field in downtown Indianapolis.

With all due respect to every other school in Northwest Indiana and the talented West Vigo Vikings, this was just unlikely to come out any other way. Andrean (33-2) was probably the best team in the state in any class in 2009, and although they weren't flawless Saturday, I don't know if there has ever been a Lake County high school baseball team with this much ability.

"Where does this team stack up to all the past Andrean teams?" repeated 30-year coach Dave Pishkur standing in the on-field celebration after his sides' 31st win in a row. "At the top. Great leadership which we've had before. Four stud pitchers and I don't know if we've ever had four like that. Plus, the desire and the passion to win. They just really competed."

"Its tough being the favorite at the start of the year and to carry that out through the year. Baseball's kinda tough to do that. Week in and week out. A lot of those (playoff) weeks were tough. Practicing six days for one game. We're not used to that. They came into the big games and never panicked in one game. They relaxed and made some nice plays."

It is easy to be the underdog. Until you met up with a superior team. Then it gets tough very quickly.

Andrean started fast when senior shortstop Ryan Dineen, who started double plays that ended the sixth and seventh innings, made a diving stop and threw out West Vigo's Cameron Fagg to keep the Vikings scoreless in the first inning. The 59ers scored two runs in the bottom of the first on an RBI double by Dineen, who scored on a double play grounder by Kevin Franchetti.

The 59ers expanded the lead to 5-0 in the third inning when Dineen tripled and scored on Adam Norton's single. Two batters later. Mike Pokers hit a long high drive that was carried on a 15-mile-an-hour southwest wind and hit the top of the 12-foot high right field wall. Right fielder Cody Thornton slipped and fell as the ball bounced back on an angle towards center field, where West Vigo's Dylan Aff had been playing the right-handed hitter Pokers shaded into left center. As the ball rolled away from Thornton, Pokers circled the bases, scoring with a slide and a roar from the 59er fans to give the victors a 5-0 lead. This was a symbolic play. Andrean right-fielder Thomas Polus caught four high flyballs in the wind and the sun in right field. Three other 'big flies' drifted over the heads of outfielders including one ball that cleared 59er center fielder Kyle Kovach, setting up West Vigo's two-run fourth inning.

"Dineen was like Ozzie Guillen or Ozzie Smith out there," said Pishkur, with a smile. "I'm a Cub fan so it would have to be Ozzie Smith or Shawon Dunston. Thomas played really well in right field. That's a sun field here. Mike (Pokers) was running out of gas at the end (of the home run) but I couldn't stop him. Five of these kids started when they were freshmen. They deserve it. They deserve every bit of it."

High school boys don't play in stadiums with upper decks and Polus explained that with the wind blowing towards right on a sunny day, right field was not a friendly place.

"It was tough," he said. "That's for sure. The sun was hard today. It wasn't bad at the beginning of the game. But by the third or fourth inning, it was right in your eyes. It didn't matter if you had sunglasses on or not, it was still right in the middle (of the sun). You just had to put your glove to the side."

"We didn't get to practice here. The only stadium I played in was in Gary (the US Steelyard) and that was a cloudy, rainy day. You could pick up the ball well until it got above the roof. There was really only one ball that was a problem and that was an easy flyball that just sat in the sun. I didn't pick it up until it was about five feet away from me. The plays I made over the shoulder were actually easier."

Winning pitcher Adam Norton (8-0) didn't have a great day. The Notre Dame-bound right-hander was picked off first base and he gave up nine hits. In his defense, seven of the hits were ground balls that simply were well placed.

"They came out hitting today," said the senior pitcher, "and they found the holes. But we made some adjustments. The offense put up six and our defense held up. You just have to try to find the zone and I knew the defense was behind me. This is probably the best defensive team I've ever been a part of. Dineen, I don't know how many great plays he's made during the playoffs run. 'Chetti' (Kevn Franchetti), he prety much shuts down the running game. I don't have to worry about that. Thomas made some plays in right field. I know the sun was really bad out there."

Coaches usually try to lessen the pressure on players. But Pishkur said repeatedly that Norton would start every game from the sectional title game on and that the senior was his best player ever. No pressure, right?

"That's a great thing for him say," Norton said. "But he's had some great players and I don't know if that's 100% true. I just put it in my mind and let it go. But I just try to stay limited in pressure as possible. Not winning (the last three years) made us more hungry. We knew what we needed to do.

While the pre-season national ranking (No. 17 in the nation) and the seemingly stifling all-or-nothing 'big foot' assignment of winning the title was large, those were shoes everybody who had watched (they finish 63-4 in the last two seasons) them knew they could fill. The Niners insisted all year that their legacy would not depend on whether they won the state title or not but, in truth, they were the only ones saying that. Bad teams get to write their own legacy because nobody else cares. Good teams do not. Unless you complete the 'impossible mission' and win it all.

Once the title was safely in the bank, the 59ers talked a little bit differently about what the big trophy meant.

"This was a tremendous win," said 30-year coach Dave Pishkur, who mirrored his team in taking the title somewhat calmly. To win 31 games in a row, it's fantastic. We had a nice 29-game winning streak last year. Every team that wins the last game has a winning streak, but to win 31 in a row is pretty nice. This team has the longest winning streak and the second longest."

Polus tried to explain why the Niners kept suggesting that the state title wasn't the ultimate goal.

"It's kinda true," he said. "But if you're a good team, you know and you play hard every day, you feel you should be able to win a championship. We felt we had the talent and the experience."

Norton aded, "It's just one more honor our team can have saying we won state. But if we fell short our team still was really amazing."

FINALS NOTES: This is the 2nd state title for Andrean (2005 and 2009) and the win was a school-record 31st win in a row. The final mark of 33-2 is the same record Andrean had in 2005. In this decade, Andrean is 275-55 (10 seasons, 2000-2009).

Seven of West Vigo's hits were ground balls and an eighth was a flyball that drifted over the head of centerfielder Kyle Kovach that led to two runs in the 4th.

Pokers' home run hit the top of the right field wall and bounced back towards center field. The game ended when Dylan Alf's line drive was caught by Andrean SS Ryan Dineen who doubled runner Cody Thornton off first base.

Ken Mahala's sixth-inning homer was his 10th of the season, which may be an Andrean single-season record. West Vigo, a suburban Terre Haute school, had a 26-game winning streak broken. The Vikings had scored seven or more runs in a game 24 times this season before Saturday. Norton was 1-for-3 to finish his senior season with a .550 (60 of 109) batting average and the victory was his 27th in four years. Thirty of Norton's 60 hits were doubles. Ten of Ken Mahala's 34 hits (34 of 86, .394) were home runs.

Mike Pokers (6-0, 1.62 ERA) ended the season undefeated for the second year in a row. Pokers was 6-0 (0.54 ERA) in 2008.

Andrean pitcher Thomas Polus (8-1, 1.17 ERA, 57 strikeouts, in 54 innings) grabbed the state championship trophy and wouldn't let it go after the post game on field awards. Polus (22 of 75, .292) grew up in Crown Point and attended St. Mary's.

There's no way the senior left-hander hasn't wondered what his baseball life would have been like had he played for Crown Point high school, which was 88-12-2 with three regional titles the last three seasons.

"Yeah," Polus said while holding the state title trophy. "I've thought about it. But I've always gone to Catholic school. I did think about going to Crown Point, but the tradition of Andrean was something I just couldn't pass up. You feel comfortable here and you feel you have a chance to win a championship every year."

ANDREAN (33-2)
Coach Dave Pishkur (30th year, 722-230)
2008 (30-2), 2007 (25-10), 2006 (25-8), 2005 (33-2)