Boone Grove, Hanover Central survive scares, advance to PCC Tournament semifinals

A USA-365.com Special Report By Mark Smith

5-23-2005

Saturday, 5-21-2005 - Mostly Sunny and 70 degrees at Union Mills

WP – Shawn Bishop (9-1) 1K, 0 walks (1.3 innings)
LP – Andrew Duncan (3-4) 90K, 3 walks (1.7 innings)

LaCROSSE (10-10)

Andrew Duncan (LF) HR, triple, 2 RBIs

Josh Troxel (Catcher) HR, double, 2 singles, 3 RBIs

Sean Smith (RF) HR, single, 4 RBIs

Chris Tucker (P) 2 singles, 2 HBPs

BOONE GROVE (20-5)

Ryan Cupp (3B) Triple, 2 singles, 4 RBIs

Mike Zolper (RF) Single, 2 walks

Shawn Bishop (LF) Single, walk, RBI

Danny Prochno (Catcher) Single, walk, sac bunt, sac fly, RBI

Danny Stombaugh (1B) Double, single, 3 RBIs

Saturday, 5-21-2005 - Mostly Sunny and 70 degrees at Union Mills

WP – Larry Pempek (4-1) CG, 10K, 6 walks
LP – Jeff Intagliata (3-3) CG, 5K, 2 walks

South Central (13-11)

Wes Bucher (3B) Double, single, walks

CJ Rowe (Catcher) Double, single, 2 walks

HANOVER CENTRAL (13-8)

Mark Myszkowski (2B) Single, 2 walks

Todd Sheehy (SS) HR, single, 2 RBIs

Brent DeMateo (Catcher) Double, RBI

Joe Angone (CF) Double, single 2 RBIs

Larry Pempek (P) Single, HBP

PORTER COUNTY CONFERENCE (PCC) Quarterfinals

5-21-2005 at South Central

HEBRON 4, Kouts 1

HANOVER CENTRAL 5, South Central 4

Morgan Township 7, Washington Township 6 ( 8 innings)

BOONE GROVE 13, LaCrosse 11

PCC SEMIFINALS (5-23-2005)

HEBRON (12-9) vs. HANOVER CENTRAL (13-8)

4:30 p.m. at South Central

Morgan Township (11-10) vs. BOONE GROVE (20-5)

4:30 p.m. at Washington Twp.

PCC CHAMPIONSHIP (5-25-2005)

at South Central - 4:30 p.m.

UNION MILLS, IN (5-21-2005) - The beauty of the Porter County Conference (PCC) has nothing to do with the quality of the teams. It's the equality of the teams.

That was as evident as it could be on the rolling rural green acres of southwest LaPorte County Saturday as the eight PCC teams battled it out in a 10-hour marathon of never-say-die baseball under a cloud-dotted backdrop.

After a conventional 4-1 win by Hebron over Kouts, Hanover Central rallied past South Central 5-4, Morgan won an equally see-saw game with Washington Township 7-6 and regular season champion Boone Grove survived a 14-hit attack to beat LaCrosse 13-11 in the quarterfinal round of the 2005 PCC tournament.

In Monday's semifinals, Hanover draws Hebron at South Central while Boone Grove takes on Morgan at Washington Township. Arguably the top four teams in the league, but it won't be the same.

The passing parade of the entire evenly-matched PCC across the front lawn landscape at South Central, set against the back drop of passing cars, kids riding horses, wavy brown fields of corn under a high blue sky was exactly what you would picture for the Saturday showcase baseball event of a small school country league.

It was evident this day would not go quietly in the second game when Hanover carried a 2-0 lead into the seventh inning. With two out and the bases loaded, SC's Evan Walter battled starting pitcher Larry Pempek through nine pitches to a 3-2 count, finally earning ball four and an RBI walk.

With the count 1-1 to Wes Bucher, the LaCrosse senior drilled a hard line drive to center field that Hanover center fielder Joe Angone broke late on and could not catch up to. The three-run double gave South Central a 4-2 edge.

“I should have had it,” Angone said later. “It was just a few feet. I wasn't that far from it. That's all I was thinking about when I went up to bat.”

Angone would get a chance for instant redemption. In the bottom of the seventh, with two out and two on base, Brent DeMateo doubled down the third base line to cut the lead to 4-3, bringing Angone to the plate.

On an 0-1 pitch, the Hanover sophomore, who was 3-for-3 in Friday's 12-1 home win over River Forest, boomed a drive to left center that could not be caught and the two-run double gave Hanover the 5-4 victory.

“When I hit the ball, I just ran. I didn't look at it. I was a little nervous but I had to redeem myself. You feel bad. I didn't say a word. I was going to apologize after the game. Everybody wanted to kill me one minute and the next, they're all happy. In a matter of minutes. ”

Coach Ron Szanyi joked, “We'll let him ride home on the bus with us. We knew the outfielders were having problems picking up the ball off the bat, but we've had some outfield problems all year. We're not going to run a lot of balls down. He didn't play it right, but maybe I should have backed him up. I don't know.”

Hanover led 2-0 in the bottom of the first inning when junior Todd Sheehy followed Mark Myszkowski's leadoff single with a high fly opposite field home run to right center field at the small South Central ballpark.

“We're pretty confident with Larry on the mound, Szanyi said of Pempek (4-1) and South Central coach Kevin Hannon agreed.

“We're not going to see a pitcher like that again,” said Hannon of Pempek, who throws fastballs in the high 80s. We had some kids step up, but then they have two kids who stepped up and beat us. I told the kids that's why we play sports. There's some games where you can't determine who's going to win. I don't think our kids let down. I think Hanover came up and beat us.”

Pempek gave HC a strong performance after being hit by a pitch on the left arm in the third inning and was hit by a throw on a stolen base in the first inning.

“I coached wrestling for 20 years,” said Szanyi, who also three weeks ago, saw junior Jake Kint (who has since returned to the lineup) almost knocked out by a curve ball that didn't break. “I don't think I've had as much blood and injuries are we have this year.”

Make no mistake, Hanover is where they want to be. HC has never won the PCC tournament and they have a serious chance to do it next week. If they defeat Hebron, they will have Pempek, the MVP of the PCC ready for the finals Wednesday, a game they expect to be against arch-rival Boone Grove (20-5).

“It would be big,” said Szayni. “It would be great for me and it would be great for the kids. They've gone through a lot the last few years with the coaching changes and no home field.

“We feel like an orphan. We play at Teagle (Post 20's American Legion field in Crown Point), but we have to get on the bus every day. I'm enjoying myself, but coming back at midseason... That was never why I left. But they had to adjust to me coming back. I think we're playing above our ability right now.”

Boone Grove is probably playing over their ability right now, as well, although they didn't Saturday. LaCrosse, which appeared to have as many or more outfield problems as Hanover, would have won if they'd caught all of Boone's routine fly balls.

The Wolves won their 14^th game in a row and overcame a second inning grand slam by LaCrosse outfielder Sean Smith. Smith's drive to the left of the 310 foot sign in left field, hit the bright yellow drain piping that covers the jagged ends of South Central's five foot high outfield fence and bounced over the wall for four LaCrosse runs.

Boone rallied with a four-run fourth inning to take an 8-5 lead when the LaCrosse outfield missed consecutive fly balls for run scoring errors. Run-scoring hits by Andrew Duncan and Josh Troxel tied the game 8-8 in the fifth inning and forced Boone head coach Rollie Thill to go get ace left-hander Shawn Bishop (8-1) from the bullpen.

But Bishop, like 6-4 right-handed starter Danny Borys, could not contain the fired up Tigers.

“This winning streak is tough,” said Thill, who reached the 20-win plateau for the second time in three years at Boone. “They (LaCrosse) never gave up and they never stopped hitting. I've got to give them a lot of credit. I didn't want to use Bishop today but it was 8-6 and there were two men on so I had to make the change.”

Boone broke the 8-8 tie with three runs in the fifth inning on a sacrifice fly by Danny Prochno and a two-run single by sophomore Ryan Cupp. The lead was 13-8 when Thill broke in Cupp to get the final three outs in the seventh inning.

LaCrosse answered with two-strike home runs from Andrew Duncan and Josh Troxel before Cupp, a curveballer, got the final two outs.

“They did everything they could to win the game,” said Thill of LaCrosse. “They found a way to get a bat on the ball. If our big 6-4 post player doesn't grab that ball and turn it into a double play in the sixth, we'd have been in trouble.

With two on and nobody out, Borys, who moved to second base when Bishop came in to pitch, leaped and caught a potential base hit by LaCrosse's Anthony Meiss and doubled Nick Tochell off second base.

“I think we learned today that everyone's coming after you,” Thill explained. “Morgan will be coming after us Monday.”

But Monday just wont be like Saturday. The longest day of the baseball season again lived up to its billing.

PCC NOTES: Hanover tennis coach Greg Whitacre had a heart attack earlier this week and had triple bypass heart surgery. “Apparently he's doing okay,” said Ron Szayni. “That's why he wasn't at the (CP) tennis sectional. He drove himself to the hospital. He was lucky.”

Boone coach Rollie Thill wasn't excited by reaching the 20 win level.

“It really doesn't mean anything unless you do something in the state tournament,” he admitted. “We're near the school record wining streak, which is 16. So, we're almost there.

But I tell the kids that those guys in the other dugout really get excited because they want to be the one to end the streak. I give them a lot of credit today. We beat them last week and they were much better today. ”

The four quarterfinal games took almost exactly 10 hours at South Central Saturday, with the Boone-LaCrosse game ending at 7 p.m.. Even though the finals game began at 4:30 p.m., which was 90 minutes later than the original schedule, 2 ½ hours a game is about as good a time performance as can be expected for the opening day of the PCC baseball tournament.

What the tournament truly needs is two fields at the same site with staggered starting times so one quarterfinal game can begin while another is ending. Hardly anyone watches all four games anyway so fans and players could be directed to the correct site and wouldn't have to quickly evict one another from the dugout of stands when a game ends. Trouble is, no PCC schools has two adjoining varsity caliber fields.

Rain was expected for Monday's semifinals but Tuesday is available as a rain day where no PCC teams have games scheduled.

In the Morgan-Washington game, Washington got a bases-loaded bunt single by Adam White to go ahead 5-4 in the top of the sixth inning after Morgan had held leads of 1-0 and 4-2. Morgan tied the game on an RBI-single by clean-up batter Ty Eaton in the bottom of the sixth. .

Washington took a 6-5 lead in the eighth inning on a bases-loaded walk to White. But Eaton, who was 4-for-5, tied the game with a line drive single to left with two out in the last of the eighth. Ryan Rettinger then won the game with an RBI hit down the third base line. Morgan's Josh Reno struck out 13 in 7 1/3 innings but the Cherokees left 12 runners on base.

Washington Township (10-12) had the worst record in the PCC after Saturday.

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Revised: May 23, 2005.