Boone Grove wins own tourney with 13-1 victory over Lowell

A USA-365.com Special Report by Mark Smith

4-30-2008

Team (Record) / Inning	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	R	H	E
LOWELL (7-8)	1	0	4	0	0	-	-	1	2	4
BOONE GROVE (9-2)	3	6	2	2	0	-	-	13	13	0

WP - Blake Klisurich (3-1) 3K, 1 walk (3 innings)
LP - Brandon Grubbe (2-2) 3K, 2 walks (2 innings)

LOWELL (7-8) starters
Brandon Grubbe (P) 1-for-2, double, run scored
Josh Del Rio (LF) 0-for-1, Sac. Fly, RBI
Derek Brandenburg (3B) 0-for-2
David Lang (DH) 1-for-2
Miguel Frausto (3B) 0-for-2
Craig Austgen (2B) 0-for-2
Rickey Dotson (RF) 0-for-1
James Perrin (CF) 0-for-2
Josh Manes (SS) 0-for-0, walk

BOONE GROVE (9-2) starters
Drew Kidd (2B) 2-for-3, walk
Nick DiMarco (CF) 1-for-4, triple, RBI
Josh Cobb (C) 2-for-3, walk, 3 runs scored
Zak Ursitti (SS) 2-for-3, Sac. Fly, triple, 4 RBIs
Wayland Roach (1B) 3-for-3, triple, double, walk
Kyle Ferber (RF) 0-for-3, 2 RBIs
Blake Klisurich (P) 1-for-2, RBI, walk
Ben Vasquez (LF) 1-for-3
Lynn Strohl (3B) 1-for-3, RBI

2008 BOONE GROVE Invitational
Semifinals: BOONE GROVE 13, Rensselaer 3 (6 innings)
LOWELL 20, East Chicago 10 (6 innings)
3rd Place: East Chicago 8, Rensselaer 8 (7 innings)
BOONE GROVE 13, LOWELL 1 (5 innings)

PORTER TOWNSHIP, IN - Some of us thought this might be closer. Lowell ended up with a pretty good week, but Boone Grove had a very good day Saturday at the four-team Boone Grove Invitational. The Wolves scored early and often and had most of the day off, beating Rensselaer and Lowell by 10-run margins to take the title in their own annual tournament.

It looks like Boone Grove, predicted to be a powerhouse in the preseason, is very much where they want to be. The Wolves, who lost to Merrillville and Portage in the first 10 days of the season, smoked Rensselaer 13-3 and Lowell 13-1 for their third win in two days and their eighth in a row overall.

"Our pitching is getting to be where I want it," said coach Rollie Thill, who rescheduled the Wolves' annual game at the US Steelyard in Gary for Friday night, setting up his team with four games in 24 hours. "We wanted to create a distraction and see how the guys handle it. When it comes to tournament time, those teams that don't handle distractions well, tend to lose. Arv (assistant coach Arv Kidd) and I learned that pretty quick. We try to create distractions. These two days weren't my concern. Our guys usually can get jacked up for that."

"Our boys have a tendency, after we have a big weekend, sometimes we're down when they go back to league play. We'll have to see how they react (this) week."

Lowell took a 1-0 lead in the title game on a leadoff double by pitcher Brandon Grubbe and sophomore JV call-up Josh Del Rio's sacrifice flyball against Boone starting pitcher Blake Klisurich.

But the Wolves (9-2) scored three times in the first, twice on Zak Ursitti's triple, and the defending champions were never in trouble after that. Left-handed hitting sophomore Wayland Roach, who struck out 13 as the winning pitcher in the morning semifinal, a 13-3 win over Rensselaer, had three hits and a walk against Lowell. Senior leadoff man Drew Kidd had two hits and scored two runs.

"Coach does like to put us in tough situations," Kidd confirmed, "to see how we do. He's just trying to test us. I think we like that."

Boone passed the test with a six run second inning that featured three Lowell errors and 11 Boone batters. Boone beat Lowell 2-1 in the Boone Grove Invitational championship game in 2007.

"That was embarrassing," said Lowell coach Tom Stoner, who had higher hopes after his team rallied to beat East Chicago 20-10 in the second semifinal game. "We got off to a good start (against Boone) with Brandon's double. We got the lead. But our defense was terrible. You cant stay in the ball game with a team like Boone Grove and make five or six errors."

"No excuses. We just didn't play. Brandon tried to do too much after the defense let him down. He got the ball up."

Lowell did beat South Newton 8-0, Griffith 5-1 around a 7-6 loss to Kankakee Valley.

"I have to be happy with a 4-2 week with two of our best pitchers down. We did come back (from a 6-1 deficit) in the East Chicago game. It didn't end the way we wanted, but I'm OK with the week. Josh Del Rio gave us two innings today. A week ago, he was on JV. Craig Austgen gave us five nice innings against South Newton. We had five sophomores on the field at one time against East Chicago. Even when we're getting beat, it's nice to see five sophomores about there giving us a good effort."

BOONE NOTES: The tournament ran almost 10 hours and there was talk about alternative formats.

It would be possible for one of the semifinal games to be played Friday afternoon, allowing plenty of time for the final three games. It's also possible for the third place game to be limited to five innings, allowing more time for the title contest.

East Chicago replaced North Newton in this year's Boone Grove Invitational because North Newton was required to play league games on Saturdays.

"When we announced (on the coaches web site) that we were looking for teams, we found East Chicago and then quickly there were three or four others from out east," said coach Rollie Thill. "That would have added a different flavor to the tournament, but I wasn't going to tell East Chicago 'no' after they'd already agreed to come."

The third place game between Rensselaer and East Chicago ended in an 8-8 tie after the Bombers scored three runs in the seventh inning. With the clock approaching 5:00 p.m. and daylight starting to leave, Thill asked both teams to call it a tie and they reluctantly agreed.

"As it turned out," Thill said after his team's five-inning championship game. "We didn't need to do that, but we didn't know that at the time. We'd do the same for them if the situation was reversed."

This week was somewhat of a comeback for Lowell after 10-run losses to Andrean, Highland and Lake Central the week before. Lowell has lost pitcher Keith Greer (right hand injury) for the year and senior pitcher Kevin Donovan has been cleared from an elbow injury but only to bat and play the field.

The Devils obviously are struggling to stay at the .500 mark, but despite injuries and inexperience, the Devils are still competing in most games. Coach Tom Stoner says that the Devils are going to play all makeup games even with the short pitching staff.

"As long as the IHSAA is going to give us 26 games and a tournament, we're going to play 28 games. I'm not going to be the one to cut the schedule down just because we're shorthanded."

Both teams have a handful of games left, but the prospect of the May 9 matchup between PCC leader Boone Grove and DAC leader and 4A No. 1 Crown Point (13-0-2) brings a smile to the face of Nick DiMarco, Boone's longtime center fielder.

Some of Crown Point's player (Scott and Jimmy Donley, Blake Mascarello and Mike Kozlowski) and virtually all of Boone's players come from the Lakes of the Four Seasons (the community on the Lake and Porter County line) Little League. Many have known each other for six years or more.

"Jeff Limbaugh, Scot Donley. We're pretty good friends. Especially with last night's game (won by CP 22-8 over Lake Central). I cant wait for that game."

Boone beat Crown Point 7-1 last year, one of only three loss for the Bulldogs in a 29-3 regional championship season. Boone Grove has only one baseball field at the high school. The junior varsity baseball field is at the Boone middle school, which is a quarter mile away.

"I got here about 6:15 this morning and both fields were fine," said Thill. "I was pleased."

There will be a Porter County Conference (PCC) meeting next week to determine how to form the 2009 PCC tournament. Because of the new four-week state baseball playoff format that has been approved for 2009, the final week of the season will be cut short. The playoffs will begin on what is now the final Thursday of the regular season.

The PCC tourney, as it stands now, ends on the final Wednesday of the regular season.

"We're going to have to change it," said Thill. "The sectional ends on Memorial Day next year. It starts on Memorial Day now. The only thing I think we can do is go Monday-Wednesday-Friday (on the next to last week). That's not what I want to do, but it's the only thing we can do."