Lake Station Eagles soar to 7-6 upset win over Boone Grove in Class 2A Sectional title game

A USA-365.com Special Report By Mark Smith

6-6-2005

Friday, 6-3-2005 - Partly cloudy and 74 degrees at Lake Station Sectional Championship

WP – Bobby Vizena (4-3) 4K, 4 walks (6 innings)

Luke Shaw (Save) #1, 1K, 0 walks

LP - Joe Johnson (5-3) 2K, 1 walk, 6 runs (5 innings)

Lake Station (18-13-1)

Bobby Vizena (P) Triple, 2 singles, RBI

Luke Shaw (DH) 2 singles, RBI

Jack White (LF) 2 singles

Neil Anderson (CF) 2 singles

Nate McClaran (3B) 2 RBIs

Scott Stover (1B) HR, single, 3 RBIs

BOONE GROVE (24-7)

Mike Zolper (RF) 2 singles

Danny Prochno (Catcher) Single, walk

Danny Borys (DH) 2 singles, RBI

Ryan Cupp (3B) Sac Fly, 3 walks, RBI

Kyle Amore (CF) Single, 2 RBIs

Joe Johnson (P) Single, RBI

LAKE STATION, IN (6-3-2005) - Twenty five years from now, a man in his 40s will walk past what used to be Lake Station high school and point to the old baseball diamond, tucked away in between the homes and the streets of what will then be the junior high.

“The last game I played there,” the man will say to the boy, “Way back in 2005 before you were born. We beat the No. 3 team in the state to win the school's first sectional sectional title in 32 years. Let me tell you that story.”

And the kid will say, “Aw dad, Not the Boone Grove story again!!”

It would make a good movie, but nobody from Boone Grove will want to see it. From a distance, it was an upset of epic proportions. Lake Station is a synonym for athletic failure in NW Indiana. No one on Lake Station's team had ever won a post-season game in any sport before the Eagles beat Wheeler 48 hours earlier. Boone Grove had just ended a school-record 16-game winning streak two weeks earlier.

But there was even more to Lake Station's 7-6 ambush of Class 2A No. 3 Boone Grove in the Lake Station Class 2A sectional title game late Friday.

After he was ejected in Lake Station's semifinal win over Wheeler, Eagles' coach Nick Georgian was forced to serve the mandatory IHSAA one-game suspension and could not be at the field. In one of the odder scenes imaginable, Georgian watched the game by himself, pacing the back row of the bleachers in the adjoining Lake Station football field, about 200 yards behind first base.

Because of rain Thursday, Boone (24-7) had to play the final inning of their sectional semifinal with defending sate champion Bishop Noll. The Wolves scored two unearned runs to win 10-8, a great moment for the Porter County Conference (PCC) champions. But they had to turn right around and play a team that had fate on their side.

Lake Station, with 12 seniors on the roster and eight in the starting lineup, gave up single runs in the first two innings before the tide began to turn.

As dark clouds gathered above the small backyard ball field, the Eagles (18-13-1) began to rally.  RBI hits by pitcher Bobby Vizena and Scott Stover gave Lake Station a 3-2 lead against Boone starter Joe Johnson (5-3).

It was still assumed that Boone would win until the fifth inning. Vizena's one-out triple and a ground out by designated hitter Luke Shaw made the score 4-2 and Stover pulled a long drive over the fence in left center to give lake Station a 6-2 lead. When Stover was met at home by the entire Lake Station team in a wild celebration, you knew that the Eagles had dragged Boone into a situation that was bigger than both of them.

“We knew this situation could come up when we saw the draw,” Boone coach Rollie Thill, watching the Eagle celebrate crazily on the infield grass in the 7 p.m. gloom.

“Every time we scored, they answered us. They had so much energy.”

“The thing is, we won four games three years ago,” said Georgian, who ran to the field after the final out to be mobbed by his players.

“It's a dream story, isn't it?” quipped interim coach Dock Wolf. “I was just it a stand in. It was all about Georgian.”

The Eagles, who it is believed have never before defeated a ranked team in the previous 38 years of the IHSAA state tournament, thrilled the home side of a hometown gathering of about 150 fans with a 12-hit attack. But it seemed that Boone Grove, the PCC's premier ballclub, would come from behind to win after Kyle Amore's two-run single off the leg of pitcher Vizena cut the lead to 6-5.

But Vizena struck out Boone's Danny Prochno to end the fifth and Lake Station went up 7-5 in the sixth with a little help from the Wolves.

Jack White singled and Neil Anderson sacrificed him to second base. After a passed ball, Boone did not pull the infield in and White scored on Nate McClaran's ground out to shortstop Jack Ursitti.

“There was just one out,” Thill explained. “I wanted to stay away from the big inning. We had not done a lot of that, playing in, all season. Every time they got a runner on, they scored. They found a way to get it done.”

Boone cut the lead to 7-6 in the bottom of the sixth (Boone was the home team on Lake Station's home field) when Drew Kidd and Mike Zolper got leadoff singles against Vizena, who threw 109 pitches. Shawn Bishop hit a grounder to first baseman Stover, who threw to second base for a narrow force out.

“That was a big play,” Thill said later. “I thought he beat that throw.” Ryan Cupp hit a sacrifice fly ball, scoring Kidd but Danny Stambaugh struck out, leaving the score 7-6.

In the bottom of the seventh, LS brought in left-hander Luke Shaw, who retired the side on 10 pitches and started a celebration that may have lasted all weekend.

“These boys all played Little League together,” said Wolf. “Some of them may have advanced to the regional in wrestling or some individual sport but none of them have ever won a sectional.”

As hard as this game was for Boone Grove and its seven seniors to take after winning the PCC and defeating the defending state champions, Boone Grove has some fine underclassmen. They will be back as sectional contenders next year. So will Bishop Noll.

Truthfully, Lake Station will not be. The have only five varsity players who are not seniors. It was now or never. Baseball upsets are in the eye of the beholder. Baseball is the only sport where anyone can truly beat anyone on any given day.

But Lake Station may never have beaten Boone Grove. No one could remember an Eagle win in the state tourney over Boone. Players like Lake Station center fielder Neil Anderson had never won a post-season game of any kind until the Eagles 9-7 win over Wheeler on Wednesday (6-2-2005). Then suddenly they were among the final 16 teams in the state. After Boone had left, the Eagles hung around on the darkening field, not wanting to leave.

The only way it could have been better would have been if there was one more day of school for the boys to bask in the created glory of one of the great high school upsets in recent years.

Athletic director Bill Crowley corrected, “No. We have one more day Monday. There's one day of school left.”

You'd have had to have been some kind of dreamer to make this up. Be on the lookout for the movie. It'll open in about 25 years.

SECTIONAL NOTES:  Lake Station's last sectional title was in girls softball in 2002, but that team had a losing record. In the old one class tournament, Lake Station was grouped with Hobart and Gary Roosevelt and rarely had a realistic chance to advance beyond the first round.

According to the IHSAA web site, the only sectional baseball titles for Lake Station came in 1968, 1972 and 1973 and the Eagles defeated Wirt in the title game all three times. Lake Station won the regional title in 1968 and 1969 and the Eagles advanced to the Final-4 in 1968.

The last boys team from Lake Station to win a sectional title was the 1998 football team which upset state ranked North Judson 27-19.

Boone used up their pitchers in the 10-8, two-day win over Bishop Noll, the team they had been pointing to all season.

Shawn Bishop (9-1) pitched five innings on Thursday and one more Friday.

Lake Station (18-13-1) was to be on the road Tuesday, June 7 at 4:30 p.m. for the regional title game at Rochester (22-8).

Coach Nick Georgian was asked what he did at the top of the football stands, serving his suspension and watching the game from a distance.

“I smoked a lot of cigarettes up there,” he said. “This was all about the kids. We knew they had talent. This is so great for them.”

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Revised: June 06, 2005.