Crown Point advances beyond pool play at Ohio Valley Regional in Cal Ripken 12s Baseball
A USA-365.com Special Report by Mark Smith  (7-28-2009)

Saturday, July 25, 2008 - 66 degrees, Pool Play in RILEY, IN

WP - Donnie Ernst (1-0) 7K, 1 walk (76 pitches)
LP - Rendon Shoulders (0-1) 3K, 4 walks (1.3 innngs)

Henderson County, Kentucky (5-2)
Ethan Meeler (3B) 1-for-2, walk
Rendon Shoulders (P) 0-for-3
Kaleb Duckworth (SS-P) 1-for-3, double, RBI
Matt Gabe (C) 0-for-2
Alec Jameson (PH) 0-for-1
Logan Ford (LF) 0-for-3
Danny Steiner (1B) 1-for-3
Chad Shoulders (RF) 0-for-2
Dylan Payne (2B) 0-for-1
Kolton Lynn (PH) 0-for-1
Ricky Matthews (CF) 2-for-2, double

CROWN POINT (8-5)
Billy Bernhardt (CF-C) 4-for-4
Mitch Kooi (SS) 0-for-3, walk, RBI
Donnie Ernst (P) 0-for-2, Sac Fly, walk, RBI
Freddy Newman (LF) 1-for-2, double, 2 walks, RBI
Ryan Prodoehl (3B) 3-for-4, HR, 3 RBIs
Troy Grady (RF) 0-for-0, HBP, walk
Noah Thiel (PH) 0-for-1
Nick Kulpa (C) 0-for-2
Wes Lewis (PH) 1-for-1
Cameron Djukic (2B) 0-for-1, walk
Kevin Cunningham (1B) 0-for-1, walk, HBP
Jacob Balko (PH) 0-for-1

 

Saturday, July 25, 2008 - 78 degrees, Pool Play in RILEY, IN

WP - Mitch Kooi (3-1) 0K, 0 walk (3 inn.)
LP - Alex Harder (0-1) 2K, 4 walsk (3 inn.)

(Niles, Michigan) Brandywine (4-2)
Blake Lerner (CF) 1-for-4
Tommy Newton (SS) 0-for-3
Alex Hardy (P) 0-for-3
Andrew Duckett (1B) 1-for-2, walk
Dylan Layman (C) 0-for-3
Zach Schmidt (3B) 2-for-3
Dominic Stella (2B) 1-for-1, HBP, walk
Sean Danner (LF) 1-for-2, 2 RBIs
Jacob O'Brien (PH) 0-for-1
Justin Butterworth (RF) 0-for-2
Austin Layman (PH) 0-for-0, walk

CROWN POINT (7-5)
Billy Bernhardt (CF) 1-for-4
Mitch Kooi (SS) 2-for-3, HR, 2 RBIs
Donnie Ernst (C) 2-for-4, RBI
Freddy Newman (LF) 2-for-4, HR, 2 RBIs
Ryan Prodoehl (3B) 3-for-4, HR, RBI
Troy Grady (SS) 1-for-3, double, walk
Wes Lewis (RF) 0-for-1, 2 walks
Cameron Djukic (2B) 0-for-1, walk
Kevin Cunningham (1B) 2-for-3, double
Jacob Balko (2B) 1-for-2, walk
Cameron Djukic (PH) 1-for-1

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Cal Ripken 12s Ohio Valley Regional
at Riley Youth Baseball Center, Indiana (5 miles east of Terre Haute) pool play
Pool A -- South Lexington, KY (3-0); East Muskingum, OH (2-1); Escanaba (WI) Bears, (1-2); Marshall, IL (0-3).
Pool B -- South Bend (IN) East Side (3-0); Vincennes, IN (1-2); Homewood, IL (2-1); Riley, IN (0-3).
Pool C -- Floyds Knobs, IN (3-0); CROWN POINT (2-1); Henderson County, KY (1-2), (Niles, MI) Brandywine (0-3).

*Marshall, Riley and Brandywine were eliminated in pool play.


FRIDAY (7-24-2009)
South Lexington (KY) 6, East Muskingum (OH) 4
Escanaba (WI) Bears 8, Marshall 0
South Bend East Side 6 Homewood (IL) 3
Vincennes 10, Riley 2
Henderson County (KY) 14, (Niles, MI) Brandywine 0
Floyds Knobs 8, CROWN POINT 5
East Muskingum (OH) 5, Escanaba (WI) Bears 2
South Lexington (KY) 15, Marshall (IL) 0

SATURDAY (7-25-2009)
South Bend East Side 5, Riley 1
Homewood 12, Vincennes 4
CROWN POINT 10, Brandywine 2
Floyds Knobs 9, Henderson County 8
East Muskingum 11, Marshall 0
Floyds Knobs 12, Brandywine 2
South Lexington 6, Escanaba Bears 5
CROWN POINT 11, Henderson County 3

SUNDAY (7-26-2009)
7-26 - South Bend East Side 6, vs. Vincennes 2
7-26 - Homewood 4, vs. Riley 2

Single-Elimination
2 p.m. -- Floyd Knobs vs. CROWN POINT
2 p.m. - Escanaba vs. South Lexington
4 p.m. -- Homewood vs. East Muskigum

MONDAY (7-27-2009) Single-Elimination
2 p.m. South Bend East Side vs. Vincennes
4 p.m. -- Semfinal game; 6 p.m. -- Semifinal game

TUESDAY (7-28-2009)
6 p.m. -- Championship game .

Note: Top three teams in each pool advance to single-elimination round.  The home team in elimination play will be the better seed.

RILEY (7-26-2009) The question of whether Crown Point could play with the 12-team field in the Cal Ripken 12-and-under Ohio Valley Regional was answered Saturday.  Crown Point dominated Michigan state champ Brandywine 10-2 and then routed Western Kentucky state champ Henderson County 11-3 in the rain-delayed second day of the pool play tournament.

Brandywine, which was 0-3 in pool play games, was not expected to be strong.  Henderson County, a perennial power, was.  Only one team could survive the 12-team, five day series of showdowns, but midway through the mission, Crown Point had, at the very least, proven they belong in the field and that was something they had reason to doubt after committing seven errors in the Friday loss to Floyds Knobs.

"I'm very happy with this." said coach Mark Kooi after a surprisingly easy win over Henderson County.  "I'm very happy just to be here.  Are we ready to go to Boston (the site of the Cal Ripken World Series)?  No.  Not really.  We can only think about one game at a time.  You can't expand your focus.  Just play every day."

This was the second of two CP wins Saturday as they qualified for the final 8 at the Ohio Valley Regional just east of Terre Haute.  Right-hander Donnie Ernst retired the last six batters in order in a game that did not begin until 10:10 a.m. (EDT) as the CP 12s pulled away in their best game of the tourney to date.  Ryan Prodoehl, who was 3-for-4 with a home run Saturday afternoon against Brandywine, was 3-for-4 again with a game-clinching fourth inning three-run homer against a Henderson County team that looked like a title contender in its first two games.

The victory Saturday was over the situation.  The CP 12s were scheduled to play at 12:00 noon and at 6:00 p.m.  But a solid inch of rain Saturday morning pushed the games back to 4:00 p.m. and eventually 10:00 p.m.  The Crown Point boys handled the delays well and scored two runaway victories as if they were used to traveling and playing as a group.

"No," said Kooi.  "They don't (play on a traveling team).  Ryan did a little.  Not much.  Donnie did too, with his dad.  We really only played one tournament this year.  Between baseball and everybody's family life, we were home a lot."

Another game two hero was lead off man Billy Bernhardt, who singled four times and scored three runs.

He's a hustler," said Kooi.  "He's just very fast.  He starts it off for us."

Brandywine, a Niles, Michigan league, was overmatched against everyone at Riley and Crown Point was no exception.

Prodoehl and Freddy Newman hit back-to-back home runs in the third inning to give the CP 12s a 5-0 lead.  Mitch Kooi had a home run and pitched three shutout innings for the win.  Crown Point seemed very comfortable at the small town youth baseball complex, which resembles the country-style Little League complexes in Roselawn and Cedar Lake.

Crown Point lost three times to South Bend East Side at two different levels of state play, but they looked at that a little differently after the first two days of the tournament.

"The boys didn't want to play East Side again," Kooi said.  "But when they saw them winning here too, I think they felt that, hey, we're not so bad.  The Kentucky teams here seem really good.  South Lexington won this tournament last year."

The Ohio Valley level of the Cal Ripken playoffs seems to be almost a goal instead of another step.  Almost no one spoke of winning the championship and going to Boston.  There are moms and dads and sons and frankly, a lot of them in many ways don't want to go to Massachusetts in two weeks.  They seemed satisfied with just doing well in Riley.

"The travel and bonding here," said Kooi, "you cant beat it.  We had two boys in a room.  The coaches split a room.  We've been here since Thursday, but everybody seems to be having a good time."

OHIO VALLEY NOTES:  Crown Point is in the Cal Ripken baseball organization for the third year.  South Bend East Side, another former Little League power, is making their Cal Ripken baseball debut.  Eastside left the Little League after an ID controversy forced them to drop two players from the roster at the Little League 11-and-under state finals in Terre Haute in 2008.  East Side officials most definitely blamed the misplaced IDs on their Little League district organization and apparently that was the 'last straw' in a series of grievances.

East Side (10-0) swept first round play in St. John and also swept the Northern state tournament in Logansport with basically the same team that reached the Little League 11s state finals last year.

South Bend East Side (10-0), the Indiana Northern State champion and Floyds Knobs, the Southern Indiana state champ from the Floyd County area near Jefferson, were undefeated going to the quarterfinals, as is Southeast Lexington (Kentucky), the defending Ohio Valley Regional champion.

With the opening ceremonies on Thursday, July 23 and the title game on Tuesday, July 28, two teams were going to stay six days in Terre Haute.  While the tourney was well-run and hospitality was excellent, there were cash concerns in terms of $85 per room per night.  That was reportedly a discount rate acquired by the Riley Youth League.

The 800-plus boys in the Riley Youth league come largely from the east side of Terre Haute.  The town of Riley is a very small rural place about the size of Hebron.  When play dwindled down to one field late Saturday night, Crown Point and Henderson County followers were warned to stay away from an adjacent vacant field where a family of skunks had been sighted.

The 10-team Cal Ripken World Series is in Manchester, Massachusetts, a suburb of Boston, Aug. 13-17.

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Revised: July 29, 2009.