Crown Point, Cedar Lake Little League Minors (age 9-10) advance with wins over Hessville, DeMotte

A USA-365.com Special Report By Mark Smith

Team (Record) / Inning	1	2	3	4	5	6	R	H	E
CROWN POINT (3-1)	2	0	0	2	4	0	8	12	2
Hessville (2-2)	2	2	0	0	0	0	4	8	5

Little League (age 9-10) District II finals --- 7-9-2003
71 degrees at DYER Little League
WP- Nick Gerolimos (2-0) 8K, 4 walks ( 5.3 inn.)
Casey Rapchak (Save) 2Ks, 0 walks
LP - Tyler Smith (1-1) 5Ks, 2 walks (5 inn.)

CROWN POINT
11 singles, doubles
Austin Atherton (CP) 3 singles, double, 5 RBIs
Casey Rapchak (CP) 2 singles
Jake Lindeman (CP) 2 singles
Kyle Shrewsbury (CP) Single, 2 RBIs

Hessville
5 singles, 3 doubles
Jake Scarborough (H) Double, single, 3 RBIs
Christian Lopez (H) 2 singles, 2 RBIs

Team (Record) / Inning	1	2	3	4	5	6	R	H	E
Cedar Lake (3-1)	0	3	3	0	0	3	9	7	3
DeMotte (2-2)	2	0	1	1	0	1	5	5	8

Little League (age 9-10) District II finals --- 7-9-2003
71 degrees at DYER Little League
WP- Nic Sampognaro (2-0) 3K, 3 walks (4.3 inn.)
LP - Josh Lins (1-1) 0K, 0 walks (2.3 inn.)

CEDAR LAKE
5 singles, 2 doubles, 2 stolen bases
Danny Nowitski (CL) 2 doubles, 3 RBIs
Cody Bacon (CL) Single, walk, RBI
Joey Styx (CL) 2 walks

DeMotte
5 singles, 3 doubles
Tyler Simmons (D) Double, RBI
Seth Raebul (D) 2 singles, walk, 2 RBIs

DYER (7-9-2003) - Teams that reach the district Little League finals with one loss have to close down their focus. They can't think about the nearly impossible task of winning six consecutive games to take the title. But somebody has to win all these elimination games. Somebody has to emerge from the loser's bracket.

After Wednesday, Crown Point and Cedar Lake were still playing the proverbial one game at a time. CP beat Hessville 8-4 and Cedar Lake outscored DeMotte 9-5.

Their reward? Two more elimination games 24 hours later.

"The bad thing about this," said CP manager Randy Rapchak, "is that they moved the tournament up a week and I really don't know these guys. "I've coached them but I don't really know them. Who can catch. Who can play shortstop."

Rapchak knows who can hit though. Center fielder Austin Atherton stroked four base hits, highlighting three run-scoring rallies to give CP the victory in a 6 p.m. game that was delayed by about 45 minutes due to late afternoon rain.

Atherton, a tiny left-handed batter, sliced an RBI single in the first inning, doubled home two runs in a four-run fourth and sliced a two-run single in the fifth inning.

"He must be batting something like .800 for us." said Rapchak. "I really think we've got about eight good hitters in our lineup. We lost to Highland National 6-5."

The 2-2 tie was broken in the fourth inning when Atherton dropped a flyball in deep left center and scored Casey Rapchak and Kyle Shrewsbury. Shrewsbury and Atherton got two run hits in the fifth as Crown Point scored six runs after two out.

Cedar Lake, in the district 10-and-under for the second consecutive season, rallied from a 2-0 deficit with three unearned third inning runs in four errors. Cedar Lake got singles from Zac Sheehy and Cody Bacon in the fourth inning before Danny Nowitzki drove in two runs with a line drive down the right field line for a 5-2 lead.

Nowitzki, just nine years old, added an RBI double in the sixth inning as four DeMotte pitchers were sabotaged by eight errors.

"He hit a home run when he was eight years old at Griffith," manager Rich Bacon said. "He's going to be an excellent hitter."

Cedar Lake, in a lot of respects, is a two year project because they have five nine-year-olds on the team who will be back in the 10-and-under all-star tourney next year. Every year you want to go a little further.

"We've got a good bunch of guys," said Bacon. "We should really be good next year."

To be in the final six in the district is already pretty good.

LITTLE NOTES: Hessville left 10 runners on base and would have taken a 4-2 lead in the third inning if CP's pitcher Nick Gerilimos had not grabbed a hard line drive by Christian Lopez with runners at second and third.

Cedar Lake's chances to advance took a hit when Nic Sampognaro entered the game in the third inning and completed the victory. Sampognaro is arguably Cedar Lake's best pitcher and Little League rules requires a player who pitches four innings to sit out the next two days.
"I know," said manager Rich Bacon. "But we had to win THIS game. I think we have six pitchers. " Bacon explained why Cedar Lake, given the option, chose to bat first. "If you can get two or three runs in the first inning, the other team can break down. Plus if you can get far enough ahead, you can go 3-1-1-1 with the pitchers."

Any pitcher who pitches one inning can come back the next day and, a pitcher who only goes three innings, can come back two days later. In the loser's bracket of a multiple-team tournament, that is a must.

Tuesday's rainouts pushed the entire district finals back a day but District II is reportedly ahead of a couple of other districts in central Indiana which have almost been washed away by a week of nearly continuous rain.

MINORS (ages 9-10)
District II finals at DYER - July 7
DYER   4, Highland National 2
Munster National 5, Munster American 3

District II finals at DYER -   July 9
CROWN POINT 8, Hessville 4
CEDAR LAKE 9, DeMotte   5

District II finals at DYER - Thursday, July 10
CROWN POINT (3-1) vs. Munster American (3-1)
CEDAR LAKE (3-1) vs. Highland National (3-1)

District II FINALS in DYER    Friday, July 11
DYER (3-0) vs. Munster National (3-0) 6 p.m.
CL or Highland (N) vs CP or Munster (A) 8 p.m.

District II FINALS in DYER    Saturday, July 12
Loser's bracket finals - 7 p.m.
District II FINALS in GRIFFITH   Sunday, July 13
Championship round game one - 7 p.m.
District II FINALS in GRIFFITH   Monday, July 14
Championship round game two - 7 p.m.