2A Boone Grove comes from behind to beat 4A Lowell, 5-4 at Railcats' US Steelyard

A USA-365.com Special Report By Mark Smith

4-11-2004

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

4-10-2004 - 51 degrees at the US Steelyard - Gary

WP - Elliott Schultz (2-0) CG No. 2, 4K, 4 walks
LP - Nick DeVries (0-1) 0K, 1 walk (2 inn.)
Jason Corns (L) 1K, 0 walks (3 inn.)

Chris Josvai (Boone) Triple, single, 2 runs scored
Elliott Schultz (Boone) 3 singles, RBI
Jeremy Wright (Boone) Double, RBI
Ed Overdorf (LOWELL) Single, Sac. Fly, RBI
Jason Corns (LOWELL) Single, walk, RBI

GARY (4-10-2004) - It's not whether you win or lose but how you play the game. Or, occasionally, if you get into the game. In the second annual RailCats Prep Baseball challenge, yes you wanted go win, but you also wanted to get everybody in.

The combination of Boone playing well and Lowell making sure every player got to play, helped the Wolves come from behind and beat their Route 2 rivals, 5-4 Saturday afternoon.

It was odd to see Lowell coach Kent Hess substitute form his number three hitter Ed Overdorf in the fourth inning. But the idea was to get everybody into the game.

"That was my thought," said Hess. "I think that was the thought on the other side as well. We had 16 players, 15 got in and one couldn't play because of injury."

Still, that takes little away from Boone Grove's comeback. The Wolves, coming off a 3-2 loss to North Newton, trailed 4-1 after 1 1/2 innings, but rallied with scrambling offense and defense. The 2A Wolves avenged a loss to their 4A Route 2 neighbor last April. Boone made four diving catches to help complete game left-handed pitcher Elliott Schultz (2-0) hold down the Red Devils (3-2) and Schultz' fifth inning single broke a 4-4 tie to give the Wolves the win in front of about 400 chilled fans in the multimillion dollar US Steelyard in downtown Gary.

"Do we play that way all the time?" smiled Boone catcher Dan Prochno, fully aware of the Wolves' odd six-game resume so far. "I don't know. But we have the capability of playing that way."

Third baseman Matt Langbehn, who made two strong back-to-back stops in the fifth inning, noted, "I don't know how we lost to North Newton but we are 3-0 against Class 4A teams."

Lowell jumped ahead 3-0 after Schultz hit two batters and walked two more in the top half of the first inning. Boone rallied immediately when Chris Josvai tripled and scored against Lowell pitcher Jason Corns but Lowell led 4-1 in the second inning when Schultz gave up two walks, a wild pitch and a sacrifice fly to Overdorf.

Boone scored on Jeremy Wright's RBI double in the second and a pivotal play may have occurred in the top of the third. Corns walked and stole second, moving to third base on Mike Stoner's flyball.

Hess, who had successfully called on leadoff man Kyle Metz to score the third run on a squeeze bunt, asked senior Greg Johnson to do the same thing with Corns.

Johnson missed the pitch, and Corns, caught in a rundown between third base and home plate, just shoulder blocked Prochno to the ground. Corns is 6-4 and about 210 pounds. Prochno, just 5-6 and 140, was knocked flat and had to be helped up. The Boone fans and bench howled in protest and they made it a point of telling Corns how they felt about the play. In the next half inning there were words between the home umpire and Corns while the fans on both sides got excited.

When two Lowell errors allowed Boone to tie the game in the third inning, Hess pulled Corns off the mound and moved him to right field, where the Boone fans couldn't heckle him.

"I thought that the way he was throwing," said the veteran coach, "there were some issues and I thought a change at that time was warranted. Is that the politically correct way of saying it? I don't think there was malicious intent in the collision. But the focus got away from baseball for about an inning. Under the circumstances, we needed a change."

The key play of the fourth inning was a dropped fly ball by Lowell's usually capable Mike Beier in center field. If Beier catches the ball in right center, Lowell takes a 4-3 lead to the fourth inning.

Boone, meanwhile, was making all the plays. Senior right fielder Shawn Bishop made a diving, sliding catch of Nate Oaf's flyball to end the fifth after Langbehn, a starter in basketball, had ranged in in front of the shortstop to steal potential base hits from Mike Smith and Bobby Hayden. Boone center fielder Casey Clemens raced in for a diving catch of Stoner's pop fly in the sixth. Schulz, who was 5-0 last season, helped himself when he picked off Lowell's Clayton Miller, who singled to lead off the fourth inning. The breaking ball left hander walked four but he allowed only three hits.

"Their pitcher did a nice job," said Hess. "Anytime you have a pitcher who will throw the ball over the plate and trust his defense to make the plays, he'll probably have a good outing. When you know that the other kids will throw the leather behind you, you go out there and do what you need to do."

Prochno said, "I think it (the collision) lifted us. We started making some great defensive plays. I couldn't be happier to see those plays. (Schultz) got all three pitches going."

Boone was happy to even their record before starting Porter County Conference (PCC) play, but as it always is at the Steelyard, the final comments were on how great it was to play in the 6,800-seat pro ballpark.

"If you can't get excited about playing here, you just can't get excited, said Red Devils coach Hess. "This is an outstanding environment for playing baseball. Lowell is very appreciative of the opportunity to come here and we want to keep coming as long as they'll have us. For a high school kid not to be able to play here would be heartbreaking. We had it scripted out so everybody who could play would play. We want to win but early in the season, we wanted to make sure everybody got into the game."

Langbehn added. "I love it here. I wish we could play a tournament here. It was cold but its warmer than last year. I wish we could play more than one game here."

DEVIL NOTES: Hess wasn't upset about the loss but he was upset about four Lowell errors. "We made too many mistakes," Hess said. "That's okay. It's early but it's getting old. The keys to the game was that their pitcher stayed in the strike zone. They made four or five really nice defensive plays. The momentum changed."

The crowd at the US Steelyard was slim, due to the early season nature of the game and the chilly weather. Winless East Chicago upset Gary Roosevelt 8-7 in eight innings in Saturday's first game.

The Steelyard appeared in mid-season conditions. Except for some bad turf behind home plate, the playing surface was excellent. RailCats management was very gracious, allowing many who simply said they were with the team, to enter for free. Concessions were still outrageously priced. A polish sausage was $3.50. A cheeseburger was $4.25. There appeared to be few takers.

In 2003, Boone Grove lost to Lowell 7-2.

2004 LOWELL Baseball
Head Coach Kent Hess (17th year, 244-237-1) 2003: 25-7 - LAC Games in CAPS
all games at 4:45 p.m. unless otherwise indicated

4-1: 5-3 (5) Wheeler (0-1)
4-2: 0-11 (5) Lake Central (3-1)
4-6: 7-2 at Hanover Central (0-3)
4-8: 11-3 at Rensselaer (1-1)
4-10: 4-5 Boone Grove (3-3)

4-12-4 (M) at KANKAKEE VALLEY
4-14-4 (W) HIGHLAND
4-15-4 (Th) South Newton
4-16-4 (F) at ANDREAN
4-19-4 (M) at BISHOP NOLL - 4:30 p.m.
4-20-4 (Tu) at Calumet
4-21-4 (W) HOBART
4-23-4 (F) MUNSTER
4-26-4 (M) at GRIFFITH - 4:30 p.m.
4-28-4 (W) KANKAKEE VALLEY - 4:30 p.m.
4-30-4 (F) at HIGHLAND

5-3-4 (M) ANDREAN
5-4-4 (Tu) at Merrillville
5-5-4 (W) BISHOP NOLL
5-6-4 (Th) at HOBART - 4:30 p.m.
5-10-4 (M) at MUNSTER
5-12-4 (W) GRIFFITH
5-13-4 (Th) at Hebron - 4:30 p.m.

Lake Athletic Conference (LAC) Tournament
5-17-4 (M) 1st round games
5-18-4 (Tu) Quarterfinal games
5-19-4 (W) consolation games
5-20-4 (Th) Semifinal games
5-22-4 (S) LAC Championship games
5-25-4 (Tu) Crown Point - 4:30 p.m.
4-27-4 (Th) at North Newton - 4:30 p.m.
4-28-4 (F) at LaPorte

Munster 4A Sectional
5-31-4 (M) quarterfinal
6-2-4 (W) semifinals
6-4-4 (F) Championship

4A Regional
6-8-4 (Tu) one game

4A Lafayette Semi-State
6-12-4 (S) semifinals
6-12-4 (S) championship

4A State Championship (at Victory Field - Indianapolis)
6-19-4 (S) 7 p.m.