Indians hand Bulldogs first loss of season, 12-5 at Lake Central
	A USA-365.com Special Report by Mark Smith 4-14-2012

CP's Jake Lindeman (12) rounds third base after his third inning two-run homer cut the Lake Central lead to 3-2. (All photos by Mark Smith)

LC's Chase Fieldhouse (5), looks for a sign with runners on base in the third inning. Fieldhouse batted .451 with 10 home runs and 38 RBIs last season.

David Kepshire (6) pitches in relief for Crown Point at Lake Central. Kepshire gave up three earned runs in three innings against the top-ranked Indians.

Austin Waggoner (2) lays down a sacrifice bunt in the sixth inning leading to four LC runs. Wagoner moved from third base to shortstop this season to fill in for 2011 graduate Cody Dykema.

Brett Bayer (7) congratulates CP's Kevin Brunski (11) after he scored a fifth inning run on a single by Bobby Morgan. CP left the bases loaded in the fifth.

LC's 6-foot-4 right-hander Taylor Lehnert (19) gave up 10 hits, but he struck out six in six innings to get his third win of the season.

CP third baseman Zach Plesac, above, charges this ball to make a play in the third inning.

A larger than usual crowd saw CP get a lot of hits, but LC scored a lot of runs as No. 1 Lake Central won 12-5.

 

Team (Record) / Inning	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	R	H	E
CROWN POINT (7-1)	0	0	2	0	1	1	1	5	13	2
LAKE CENTRAL (9-0)	0	3	2	3	0	4	-	12	10	3

Thursday, 4-12-2012  -  57 degrees at ST. JOHN, IN

WP - Taylor Lehnert (3-0) 6K 1 walk (6 inn.)
LP - Jake Lindeman (2-1) 2K, 2 walks (2 inn.)

CROWN POINT (7-1)
Zach Plesac (3B) 0-for-4
Kevin Brunski (CF) 2-for-4
Jake Lindeman (P-1B) 4-for-4, HR, double 3 RBIs
Ronnie Plesac (DH) 1-for-3, walk, RBI
Bobby Morgan (C) 1-for-4
Alex Nickla (2B) 2-for-3, walk, double
Brett Bayer (SS) 2-for-3, double, walk
Johnny Lynk (1B) 0-for-1
Joe Hopman (LF) 2-for-4, RBI

LAKE CENTRAL (8-1)
Nick Kellums (RF) 0-for-3, walk
Ryan Burvan (2B) 1-for-4
Chase Fieldhouse (CF) 2-for-3, walk
Austin Waggoner (SS) 0-for-1, HBP, sac bunt, walk
Ryan Pachowicz (1B) 2-for-2, double, walk, 2 RBIs
Jimmy McNamara (DH) 1-for-3, 2 RBI, walk
Adam Fulk (LF) 3-for-3, walk, 4 RBIs
Zach Mantel (C) 1-for-4, RBI
Anthony Fishi (3B) 0-for-2, sac bunt

St. JOHN (04-12-2012) Lake Central didn't play as well as they could have and Crown Point didn't play as well as they should have. But Lake Central is the better team right now and that's why the first big showdown of Duneland Athletic Conference (DAC) neighbors Lake Central and Crown Point went to the Indians 12-5 in the sunny St. John sunset late last Thursday afternoon.

Crown Point rolled up 13 base hits and scored single runs inn the fifth, sixth and seventh. But LC, rated No. 1 since the start of the young season made the most of their scoring chances while 4A No. 4 CP made a little bit out of a lot of base runners.

"We haven't been playing great baseball," said CP coach Steve Strayer. "I know this is our first loss. But we weren't sharp today. It showed in our pitching. Everybody says we're 7-0 but we've been making adjustments during the 7-0. We have to shore up some things and when you play a good team like Lake Central, those mistakes are going to be magnified. We have a lot of good teams to play."

Lake Central scored three runs in the second inning when Zach Mantel's RBI single hopped past charging left fielder Joe Hopman, allowing two more runs to score.

CP starting pitcher Jake Lindeman lined a third inning two-run homer to left center to cut the lead to 3-2, but Adam Fulks' two-out, two-run double in the bottom of the third inning off relief pitcher David Kepshire upped the LC lead to 5-2.

Lake Central, which shut out four of its first eight opponents, increased its lead to 8-2 in the third on two walks, a hit batter, an error and a two run single from Ryan Pachowicz.

The difference in the game was pitching, even though LC starter Taylor Lehnert (3-0) was not at his best. CP's trio of Lindeman, David Kepshire and Markus Kessler got favorable bounces on a good hitters' day.

"I'm proud of our kids," said LC coach Jeff Sandor. "We got three quick runs and then we let them get two back. Taylor left a slider up and their kid hit it. But then we came back with two more. Every time they scored, we came back with some more."

"For us to have the success we want to have this year, we need to have a big inning and then put a zero up (defensively) in the next inning."

LC starter Taylor Lehnert, who is committed to play at Central Michigan starting next season, threw an unofficial 107 pitches and gave up 10 hits, but he kept CP away from big innings.

"They made some plays," Lehnert said of his defense. "They got me out of some tough jams. We're a good hitting team. I think a lot of people know that. But we have to keep proving it."

Lehnert is proud of LC's No.1 ranking and he says that his teammates don't want to hide that fact.

"Its a big deal to us," he said. "We want to keep it and we want to keep showing we are number one."

Meanwhile Strayer didn't really buy into his team's top-10 ranking because they hadn't been dominating much of anyone.

"Jake wasn't quite sharp today," said Strayer of Lindeman, who he pulled after two batters in the third inning. This was probably his weakest start. It was partly that and we wanted to see what David (Kepshire) and Markus (Kessler) could do against a team like this. We haven't seen a team like Lake Central. They have to get the ball where they want it or a team like this makes you pay for it. They're not going to be able to blow the fastball past Lake Central. So if they want to compete against this kind of team, they have to locate their pitches better."


DOG NOTES: There were two key strategy moments in the game. Trailing 8-2, Crown Point got four hits in a row to lead off the sixth inning, cutting the lead to 8-3 and filling the bases. But the next two CP batters, Alex Nickla and Brett Bayer made infield outs on the first pitch to them from Lehnert, who was over 100 pitches at that point. Lehnert struck out Adam Kutemeier to end the inning.

"You don't want to take the bat out of their hands there," said CP coach Steve Strayer about the first pitch swinging. "We have to find out some things about our hitters. He (LC pitcher Taylor Lehnert) was throwing strikes. It wasn't like he was walking guys and wasn't throwing strikes. I don't know if you want to take the bat out of their hands there."

The other strategy highlight came with LC leading 8-4 in the sixth. Ryan Burvan and Chase Fiedlhouse singled, bringing up cleanup hitter Austin Waggoner against CP varsity rookie Markus Kessler.

Surprisingly, LC coach Jeff Sandor chose to have Waggoner bunt the runners to second and third. CP then walked No. 5 hitter Ryan Pachowicz to fill there bases and bring up designated hitter Jimmy McNamara. McNamara hit a hard smash that took a bad hop over CP second baseman Alex Nickla, scoring two runs. Adam Fulk then smacked another two-run hit to make the score 12-4.

Sandor didn't think it was unusual to sacrifice both his fourth and fifth place hitters to try to get that extra run to third base.

"I was just thinking about making it 9-4," he said. "In case they filled the bases in the last inning. I think we're pretty deep in our (batting) order."

"But we were playing the count a little there. When it was 1-0, we let him swing and he swung through one. The plan was that when it got to a pitchers' count, we'd lay down a bunt. But when the count was 1-0, we did let him swing."

Sometimes middle of the order hitters don't want to bunt with men in scoring position and don't do it well.

"This is a different group of kids," said Sandor. The only thing they're concerned about is winning. I hope that pays dividends. We actually tried to bunt with Chase (Fieldhouse) before that and he batted .460 with 10 home runs last year."

Most have said that the new 'safety' bats regulated for play in Indiana high schools this year will decrease home runs. Sandor isn't so sure.

"It seems like the ball is still jumping. Lindeman's ball didn't have any problems getting out of here. The ball still jumps out of here on a warm day."

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