Crown Point edges South Bend East Side 1-0 in Cal Ripken 12s to capture Northern State Baseball Title

A USA-365.com Special Report by Mark Smith

(7-22-2010)

Cal Ripken 12s Northern State Title Game
Team (Record) / Inning	1	2	3	4	5	6	R	H	E
South Bend East Side (7-2)	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	5	1
CROWN POINT (8-0)	0	0	0	0	0	1	1	6	2

Monday, July 19, 2008 - Cal Ripken 12s Northern Championship Game One at Optimist Park in HAMMOND, IN

WP - Jacob O'Donnell (1-0) 0K 0 walks (1 inn.)
(starter) Alex Ruiz (CP) 5K, 3 walks (3 inn.)
LP - Austin Chapman (2-1) 1K, 1 walk (2.7 in.)
(starter) Murphy O'Brien (SBE) 4K, 3 walks (3 inn.)

South Bend East Side (7-2)
Brett Fine (C) 1-for-3, walk
Brandan Chappell (CF) 0-for-4
Austin Chapman (SS) 0-for-4
Keiji Parkhuirst (RF) 1-for-4
Evan Drinkall (LF) 2-for-4, double
Matt Lougran (1B) 1-for-4
Carlos Matovna (2B) 0-for-2, walk
Murphy O'Brien (P) 0-for-0, walk
Will Neuklis (3B) 0-for-1, 2 walks

CROWN POINT (8-0)
Alex Ruiz (P-!B) 1-for-3, walk
Jaciob Sobek (SS) 0-for-4
Morgan Kral (1B) 2-for-4, double, RBI
Jacob Hites (LF) 0-for-2, walk
Jacob Smercansky (RF) 0-for-2
Alec Takacs (C) 1-for-3
Evan Frank (2B) 1-for-3
Zach Perez (CF) 0-for-2, walk
Riley Akers (3B) 0-for-2

Ohio Valley Regional
Friday, July 23 - (all times are EDT)
Eastern Kentucky winner vs. Marshall, Illinois - 10:00 a.m.
Zanesville, Ohio vs. Central Indiana runner-up - 12:00 noon
Campellsburg, Indiana vs. Western Kentucky champion - 2:00 p.m.
Edgewood, Indiana vs. Wisconsin state champ - 4:00 p.m.
South Bend East Side vs. CROWN POINT - 6:00 p.m.
Central Indiana champ vs. (host) Vincennes - 8:00 p.m.

Saturday, July 24
Campellsburg, Indiana vs. South Bend East Side - 10:00 a.m.
Zanesville, Ohio vs. Wisconsin state champ - 12:00 noon
Eastern Kentucky champ vs. Central Indiana champ - 2:00 p.m.
Western Kentucky champ vs. CROWN POINT - 4:00 p.m.
Edgewood, Indiana vs. Central Indiana runner-up - 6:00 p.m.
Marshall, Illinois vs. Vincennes - 8:00 p.m.

Sunday, July 25
Zanesville, Ohio vs. Edgewood, Indiana - 10:00 a.m.
Campellsburg, Indiana vs. CROWN POINT - 12:00 noon
Central Indiana champion vs. Marshall, Illinois - 2:00 p.m.
Central Indiana runner-up vs. Wisconsin state champ - 4:00 p.m.
Western Kentucky state champ vs. South Bend East Side - 6:00 p.m.
Eastern Kentucky state champ vs. (host) Incenses - 8:00 p.m.

Monday, July 26
PLAY-IN game (seeds 8 & 9) 11 a.m.
Quarterfinals
Seeds 4 & 5 - 1:00 p.m.
Seeds 3 & 6 - 3:00 p.m.
Seeds 2 & 7 - 5:00 p.m.
Seeds 1 & (8 vs. 9 winner) 7:00 p.m.

Tuesday, July 27
SEMIFINAL GAME 1 - 3:00 p.m.
SEMIFINAL GAME 2 - 5:00 p.m.
Ohio Valley Championship - 8:00 p.m.

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HAMMOND (7-19-2010) I don't know if, after five days of the double-elimination Cal Ripken State finals in 90-degree heat, that anyone really wanted to come back to the Hammond Optimist Little League Monday night for the rain-delayed championship round of the state tournament. It's a good thing we all did.

After a worthy battle between two quality teams, Crown Point 12-year-old all-stars got a line drive, two-out seventh-inning double from Morgan Kral to beat South Bend East Side 1-0 and take the Cal Ripken Northern State championship.

The CP 12s will open play in the 12-team pool play Ohio Valley Regional Friday evening at 6:00 p.m. EDT against (wait for the drum roll). South Bend East Side.

What?

As the two teams stood in the artificial light at 9:00 p.m. Monday to receive their medals after Kral's hit won the tournament for CP, the public address announcer informed everyone that since the Michigan state champion was unable to travel to Vincennes this weekend, that the runner up from the Northern state finals would be invited to fill out the 12-team bracket.

As weird at this development is, it felt good. CP's victory over East Side (7-2) was the second 1-0 game between those two teams in the tournament. CP topped SBE 1-0 in the championship game of the winner's bracket Saturday afternoon.

The CP 12s, who are 8-0 since the start of the post-season, won the tournament with three consecutive 1-0 shutouts in their final three games. Manager Jason Akers was pleased and relieved.

"East Side had beaten us the last couple of times they had played us," said Akers standing in the outfield after the game. "They beat us 7-5 and 14-1. Then we come back and beat them 1-0 twice."

I'm glad no one told the players that both winner and loser Monday were going to the Ohio Valley playoffs. The game would not have been as interesting. You almost never see consecutive 1-0 games in 12-year-old boys baseball because most teams aren't that good defensively and the ballparks are so small that somebody hits a home run. Three consecutive 1-0 wins in a state tournament is unheard of.

East Side, which like Crown Point dropped out of the Little League and joined Cal Ripken baseball two years ago, had 12 base runners in seven innings against three CP pitchers and they left all 12 of them on base. Kral, the 6-foot right-hander who pitched the fourth, fifth and sixth innings, also had the defensive highlight of the game.

East Side, which had a seven game winning streak broken by CP last Saturday, filled the bases on two walks and an infield error with one out in the fourth inning. But after Akers went to the mound to talk to his infield, Kral struck out SBE's Brendan Chappell and Austin Chapman on six pitches to keep the game scoreless.

Akers and coaches Mike Sobek and George Frank came up with a pitching plan to work within Babe Ruth rules, which say that you get six innings every two games. The CP 12s pitched left-hander Alex Ruiz and Kral, the big righty three innings in every game. Staying in the winners bracket and getting an occasional day off, the CP 12s rolled through the district and state playoffs allowing just 19 runs in eight games and no run in the final 21 innings.

The drama came late Monday when Kral and Ruiz had used up their three innings and Akers went to his 'third starter' Jacob O'Donnell, who had not pitched in the state finals. O'Donnell gave up a two out double to East Side's Evan Drunkall, but he got Matt Lougran on a soft line drive to first base to end the seventh inning and set up the win.

"I kept telling Jacob to hang in there and your time will come," said Akers. "And it did. We needed him and he did a great job to help us win. They (Ruiz and Kral) both had three innings eligible tonight. I couldn't have gone any further with Morgan."

In the seventh inning, O'Donnell reached base on an error with one out and he moved up on a single by good-looking left-handed leadoff man Alex Ruiz. East Side's Austin Chapman, who played shortstop for the first four innings, got Jacob Sobek to pop up to first base. But Kral, the younger brother of CP junior wrestling star Tyler Kral, lined the ball to the right center field fence to score O'Donnell and win the game.

As long as CP can get rest for Ruiz and Kral, they should do well. To use two pitchers for three innings each day works until you have to play more than one game in the same day.

"I was somewhat forced into that early in the tournament," Akers said of his tag-team pitching plan. "You've got to go with your big guns. But three 1-0 games? They were a very good team. I'm just happy. You always hope when the tournament starts that you're going to win. But we didn't know. I knew that we were going to work hard. I've got two great coaches in George and Mike. George has had this team for years. I just wanted to light a little fire. Be a cheerleader. This game was a big relief. I'm just happy."

RIPKEN NOTES: Of the five games the CP 12s have played so far in state tourney play, they have won five of them by one run. CP defeated Hammond three times by one run, twice at the district level and once in the state finals last Thursday.

All three 1-0 games were played on the main field at Hammond's Optimist Park and that field is larger than the average Little League field. It's 230 feet to the center field fence. In truth, CP's Riley Akers hit a long drive with two on and two out in the fourth inning that would have been out of most Little League fields. SBE center fielder Brandan Chappell caught the ball on the warning track.

If the original plans hold true, Crown Point will stay in the Hampton Inn in Princeton, which is at least 30 miles south of Vincennes. Many other hotels in Vincennes are booked and Vincennes Babe Ruth apparently cut a deal with the Princeton Hampton Inn.

Vincennes, the oldest town in Indiana (founded in 1732), is almost 200 miles from Crown Point so there isn't going to be any commuting back and forth for parents this weekend. Vincennes is 50 miles north of Evansville which is on the Kentucky state line. Hopefully, the visitors from CP like it hot this weekend because the predicted high temperature for Friday afternoon in Vincennes is 95 degrees. It will almost certainly be 90 degrees every day of the Ohio Valley Regional.

Tyler Kral was 32-3 at 189 pounds last year for coach Scott Vlink's Crown Point Bulldogs. Tyler will be pushing for playing time at tight end and defensive end this season on the football field.

In the 1-0 win over Hammond Optimist Friday night, Alex Ruiz and Morgan Kral pitched a six-inning no-hitter, striking out 12 and walking three. Jason Sobek scored the game's only run on a wild pitch.

Crown Points' 11-year-old all-star team, coached by former CPHS stars TJ and Chad Pruzin, also won their Northern state tournament and will head to the Ohio Valley Playoffs in Logansport beginning on July 29.

When you win your state championship, you are invited to the Ohio Valley Regional, but obviously, some leagues cannot afford to send their team to a five day tourney in another state. CP Little League president Dave Hanaway explained that when teams drop out of the Ohio Valley tournament, usually Indiana state runner-ups are invited possibly because they are closer and more likely to attend. The Central Indiana runner-up was also invited. There are more Babe Ruth Leagues in Indiana (Cal Ripken is the 12 and under version of Babe Ruth baseball) than any other state in the midwest.

CP faces SB East Side in the first pool play game of the Ohio Valley Regional because that was the spot that was reserved for the Michigan state champion. Crown Point faces East Side Friday at 6:00 p.m. (EDT). They'll face the Western Kentucky champion Saturday at 4:00 p.m. and the southern Indiana champ Campellsburg, Indiana Sunday at 12:00 noon. Crown Point almost certainly will advance to the quarterfinal round Monday because almost everybody does. In a format designed to keep everybody in town four days, three of the four teams in each of three four-team pools advances. You can go 1-2 in pool play and advance to the quarterfinals. If CP wins five games in a row, they would reach the Ohio Valley Championship game, which will be Tuesday, July 27 at 8:00 p.m., EDT.

Host Vincennes drew three 7:00 p.m. games in pool play, a significant advantage with weather forecasts in the mid-90s.

Cal Ripken (12s) State Tournament
Double-elimination @ the Optimist Little League - Hammond

July 14
Taylor Southeast 23, (Chesterton) Liberty Rec 1
South Bend East Side 6, Kokomo Southside 3
Hammond Optimist 11, North Judson 1
Northwestern 7, Hammond Optimist (B) 0

July 15
CROWN POINT 10, Taylor Southeast 8
South Bend East Side 3, Logansport 1
Kokomo Southside 21. North Judson 1
(Chesterton) Liberty Rec 10, Hammond Optimist (B) 6

July 16
Taylor Southeast 6, Kokomo Southside 2
Logansport 12, (Chesterton) Liberty Rec 2 (5 inn.)
South Bend East Side 10, Northwestern 0 (5 inn.)
CROWN POINT 1, Hammond Optimist 0

July 17
Logansport 5, Hammond Optimist 4
Northwestern 7, Taylor 6
CROWN POINT 1, South Bend East Side 00
Northwestern 8, Logansport 5

July 18 (Sunday)
South Bend East Side 6, Northwestern 2.

July 19 (Monday)
CROWN POINT 1, South Bend EastSide 0 (7 innings) Northern state title