45th
Indiana State Baseball Tournament
Class 4A
6-11-11 (Sat)
No. 2 Cathedral (27-2) vs. Terre Haute South (25-7)
at Jasper - 3:30 p.m. (EDT)
6-11-11 (Sat) No. 1 Carroll (30-2) vs. CROWN POINT (21-11).
at South Bend's Covaleski Stadium - 3:30 EDT (2:30 CDT).
SOUTH
BEND, IN (06-11-2011) It may not be the 11th hour for Crown Point baseball.
But it's certainly the ninth.
For the ninth time in the 45 years of the state tournament, Crown Point baseball
stands one day from the state baseball finals.
CP took the school's ninth regional baseball title with wins 2-1 over Penn and
4-2 over Elkhart Central last week continuing a great run of pitching. In the
sectional, CP tipped LaPorte 3-1, Chesterton 3-0, and Portage 4-1 for a combined
box score of 16-5, an extremely low series of scores for high school baseball.
Right-handed senior Nick Nauracy (9-2) and lefty sophomore Ronnie Plesac (4-2)
have combined to win five games against five winning teams in the post-season.
The Bulldogs are on an extended hot streak. After starting the season with five
wins in 12 games, CP has now won 16 of their last 20 games.
To be honest, I don't know how they've done it. CP lost top starting pitchers
Mike Manion and Brian Holloway to grades before mid-season. They've not only
survived but they've thrived.
Nauracy (9-2) has surprised everyone. The senior was cut from the team in each
of the last three years, but it clearly wasn't for lack of talent.
Nauracy has three wins and a save in the postseason so far and he has to feel
unbeatable. Plesac, the nephew of former major leaguer Dan Plesac, has shown no
lack of confidence in two playoff starts, wins over Chesterton and Elkhart
Central.
Plesac's twin brother Zach has come up from the JV and moved in as CP's third
baseman and leadoff man, getting key hits throughout the playoffs. Senior Jose
Andrade has anchored the lineup while catcher Alex Doppler has back boned the
defense.
What CP has done defies explanation.
What Carroll has done is exactly what was expected of them.
The Chargers are 30-2 with one of the state's top hitting teams.
Carroll topped Cathedral 1-0 in nine innings in the 4A state title game last
year so they aren't afraid of Crown Point.
Third baseman Zach Vanlandingham (.480, 7 HRs, 41 RBIs in 30 games) started on
the state champs in 2010 as did right fielder and leadoff man Jeremy Shalmandine
(.377 9 HRs, 28 RBIs).
Top pitcher Gavin Downs (7-1, 2.47) ERA was not a major factor last season, but
he's teamed with Shelmandine (5-0, 1.18 ERA) and 6-foot-2 righty Peyton
Lengacher (4-0, 2.60 ERA).
Cathedral lefty Dillon Peters struck out 16 Carroll batters in the state title
game last year but Carroll won anyway.
Carroll and CP were both in the Plymouth Invitational on May 7 and they both won
semifinal games before the finals were rained out and never rescheduled. There
will be a significant difference for Carroll playing CP in Plymouth's Bill Nixon
Field, where the center field fence is 350 feet from the plate, as opposed to
Covaleski Stadium in South Bend, where the center field fence is 400 feet from
the plate.
Carroll lost to The Bulldogs 14-4 at the Plymouth Invitational in 2010 but CP is
a much different team now. Crown Point center fielder Kevin Brunski becomes a
key player as he'll have more ground to cover than he has all year.
Carroll has scored 33 runs in five playoff games. Crown Point has allowed five
runs. Something has to give here.
Carroll is trying to become the second Indiana public school (Jasper 1996-1997)
to win back-to-back state championships. LaPorte has won eight titles but none
in successive years.
While CP does have wrestling and tennis team state titles, no Bulldog team has
ever reached the finals in a team sport. The last public school from Lake County
to win the state baseball title was Munster in 2002 and there aren't any before
that.
But after nine regional titles going back to 1974, Crown Point would just like
to appear in the baseball state championship game. It's about time.
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Revised: June 11, 2011.
