Crown Point captures 5th straight sectional title with 10-2 win over Chesterton

A USA-365.com Special Report by Mark Smith

6-05-2009

Team (Record) / Inning	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	R	H	E
CROWN POINT (28-2)	2	3	2	0	1	0	2	10	9	1
Chesterton (12-14)	2	0	0	0	0	0	-	2	4	4

Tuesday, 6-02-2009 - 54 degrees, Class 4A, Sectional 2 Championship at CHESTERTON, IN

WP - Josh Negele (8-0) 4K, 3 walks (6 innings)
LP - Kevin Gates (5-5) 4K, 4 walks, 3 earned runs (4 innings)

CROWN POINT (28-2)
Brian Holloway (RF) 1-for-3, double, 2 walks
Scott Donley (SS) 1-for-3, 2 sacrifice flies, 3 RBIs
Mike Kozlowski (3B) 0-for-3 2 walks, stolen base
Jeff Limbaugh (1B) 1-for-3, walk
Josh Negele (P) 1-for-2, 2 walks
Jake Lindeman (RF) 1-for-4
Matt Zurbriggen (C) 2-for-4, 2 runs scored
Miles Atherton (DH) 0-for-3, sac fly, RBI
Beau LaSalle (2B) 2-for-4, 2 runs scored

Chesterton (14-14)
Nick Sharp (RF) 3-for-4, double
Frank Raudry (DH) 0-for-2
Mark Sullivan (PH) 0-for-1
Jack Wilson (1B) 0-for-2, walk
D'Andre Dukes (SS-2B) 1-for-2, walk, RBI
Josh Chase (C) 0-for-3, RBI
Pat Antone (3B) 0-for-3
John Thanos (3B) 0-for-3
David Thornton (CF) 0-for-3

CHESTERTON (6-02-2009) They left no doubt. Well, very little. Crown Point rolled 10-2 over Hobart, 8-3 over Valparaiso and 10-2 over Chesterton on Chesterton's home field. The winning streak is at 11. The sectional winning streak is a five-year total of 14 games. What more do these boys have to do to convince everybody that this is finally THE year for CP baseball?

Well, there's this little thing called the LaPorte Class 4A Regional Saturday, which pits Lake Central (26-3) against surprise qualifier Adams (11-15) at 10:30 a.m. and the Bulldogs (28-2) against Concord (18-10) at 12:30 p.m., with the winners going head-to-head at 7:00 p.m.

But CP dominated the sectional and this is the Bulldogs' new reality. Crown Point is now the five time defending sectional champion and the mood around the team is that they expect to be sectional champ. The Bulldogs' highly successful program has gotten to the level where no season can be considered a success unless they win the sectional. And this year? Well, the state's number one team cannot lose in sectional play. But if you didn't play last year, advancing beyond the first round of the playoffs is still reason to pause.

Senior catcher Matt Zurbriggen, infielder Miles Atherton and 3B-P Mike Kozlowski with the sectional championship trophy.

The entire team surrounded Miles Atherton after CP defeated Chesterton 10-2 for the school's fifth consecutive sectional baseball championship.

"This is very special," said Matt Zurbriggen, who played behind all-state Nick Hladek on last year's regional champs. "When you're out there playing. Being with the guys all the time. It's indescribable. Last year, I'm a junior. Any other year, I'm happy. You see all the other guys and you're happy for them. But you can't describe how different it is when you are a senior and you're the senior leaders."

There are all different kinds of pressure and one of the toughest is when you face a week of games everybody expects you to win.

"You have to play every game like it's your last," Zurbriggen said Tuesday after he and fellow seniors Mike Kozlowski and Miles Atherton accepted the sectional championship trophy at home plate on Chesterton's diamond. "That just makes it more special. You have to play it like that. Each game might be your last game."

"We notice the rankings. We joke with it a lot. But now, everybody can be No. 1. Everybody's playing great. Everybody's on a winning streak. You just have to keep playing a step above everyone else."

It looked like the Bulldogs would be tested by Chesterton, a team that defeated CP 10-9 on May 8. After Scott Donley's 10th home run of the season sparked a two-run CP first inning, the Trojans rallied to tie the game with the help of an error by Donley at short. But CP scored three times in the second inning. An infield error allowed Brian Holloway a chance to smack a bases loaded, two-run double off the glove of David Thornton in deep right center field to break the 2-2 tie. Donley's sacrifice fly ball upped the count to 5-2 against Chesterton right-hander Kevin Gates.

The Bulldogs kept adding runs as Negele, who allowed four hits and three walks, began to limit the balls hit hard by Trojan batters. The CP lefty got 10 ground ball outs, including four outs bounced back to the pitcher.

"I was nervous," Negele said about the first inning. "I just didn't want to let the team down. Coach told me, 'Just pitch your game'. That's what I tried to do."

If the CP rotation holds and Mike Kozlowski pitches (and CP wins) against Concord in the LaPorte Regional semifinals Saturday, Negele will pitch against rival Lake Central Saturday night in the long expected decisive match up of the top two big school teams in Northwest Indiana.

"You've just got to pitch your game," he said. "Under the lights. Coach (Matt) McCaleb keeps saying, 'Just pitch your game'. This is where you want to be."

There isn't a whole lot of doubt that Crown Point is where they want to be this week.

SECTIONAL NOTES: Chesterton rallied with a seventh inning grand slam home run by David Thornton to defeat LaPorte 7-5 in the Chesterton Class 4A semifinals. The game was tied 3-3 Monday when rain stopped play in the sixth inning. After Chesterton won, they were forced to play Crown Point 45 minutes later. There were varying theories on whether the host Trojans were at a momentum advantage or a fatigue and pitching disadvantage having to play again less than an hour after the semifinals. But the prevailing thought was that, with the four team LaPorte Regional set for Saturday, nobody wanted to play on Wednesday.

The mistake may have been not to play the semifinals Saturday, which was left as an open sectional 'rain' date. The concern there might have been that all four semifinal schools could not clear that Saturday from proms and graduations.

CP catcher Matt Zurbriggen dismissed the thought that there are advantages and disadvantages to playing the sectional and regional at Chesterton and LaPorte.

"They're good fields," the CP senior said. "They're DAC fields so we've been there. I don't think it matters where we play now. It's just about who wants it more."

The boys can't totally grasp how CP's success is playing outside of this area. It's hard for players to appreciate how being at the top of the big school poll is giving Crown Point a state wide reputation much like Tom May's girls basketball teams gave CP a lasting reputation in the 1980s and 90s.

"I don't think like that," Zurbriggen said. "But it's like the wrestling team's success (they won the team state title and had three individual state winners) and how everybody reacted to it around here. Everybody's wishing us god luck. Sometimes you have no idea who they are, but they know who you are."

Josh Negele's victory pushed his record to 8-0 on the season. The CP single season win record for a pitcher record isn't very old. Chris Saroff, now at the Division II University of Indianapolis, was 10-0 for the Bulldogs in 2007.

If CP's pitching rotation holds true, Mike Kozlowski (7-1) will start against Concord in Saturday's regional semifinals and Negele would go against Lake Central (26-3) in the regional finals. Right-hander Mike Manion, who pitched the final inning of the sectional championship game, will probably be first out of the bullpen Saturday. Manion (6-1, 2.41 ERA) has 54 strikeouts in 42 innings. The 'wild card' is extra inning games. According to IHSAA rules, no one is allowed to pitch more than 10 innings in the same day.

2009 CROWN POINT (28-2)
Coach Steve Strayer (7th year) 141-51-4 (6 seasons), 29-6-2 (2008), 29-3 (2007)

4-4 (W) 6-1 at Elkhart Memorial (16-14)
4-8 (W) 11-1 (5 innings) Highland (16-10)
4-9 (W) 14-2 (6 innings) Munster (11-16)
4-10 (W) 22-7 at Griffith (15-15)
4-11 (W) 9-0 Lowell (9-18)
4-14 (W) 9-0 MICHIGAN CITY (7-13)
4-16 (W) 11-0 (5 innings) at LaPORTE (21-10)
4-17 (W) 24-0 (5 innings) at Hanover Central (6-20)
4-18 (W) 13-1 (5 innings) Clay (11-12)
4-18 (W) 13-2 (5 innings) Mishawaka (17-9)
4-22 (W) 5-2 at CHESTERTON (12-12)
4-23 (W) 13-3 (6 innings) at VALPARAISO (13-12)
4-24 (W) 14-6 PORTAGE (14-11)
4-28 (W) 12-2 (5 innings) LAKE CENTRAL (26-3)
5-1 (wet grounds) Illiana Christian (22-6)
5-2 (postponed) at Morton (14-8)
5-2 (W) 7-0 at MERRILLVILLE (4-20)
5-4 (W) 6-0 at Michigan City (6-16)
5-6 (W) 9-4 LaPORTE (21-10)
5-8 (L) 9-10 (8 inn.) CHESTERTON (12-12)

Plymouth Invitational (with Penn, CP and Carroll)
5-9 (L) 3-15 Penn (26-4)
5-9 (W) 9-5 Carroll (21-8)

5-12 (W) 11-3 VALPARAISO (13-12) .
5-14 (W) 7-4 at PORTAGE (14-12)
5-16 (postponed) Illiana Christian (22-6)
5-19 (W) 16-5 (5 inn.) at LAKE CENTRAL (26-3)
5-22 (W) 3-1 Boone Grove (22-6)
5-21 (W) 13-3 (5 inn.) MERRILLVILLE (6-20)

Crown Point Classic
5-23 (W) 11-0 (5 inn.) St. Joseph's (15-7).
5-23 (W) 5-2 Northridge (18-9)
5-26 (rain) Washington Township (21-4)

Chesterton (4A) Sectional
5-28 (W) 10-2 Hobart (9-18)
6-1 (W) 8-3 Valparaiso (14-13)
6-1 (W) 10-2 Chesterton (12-13)

LaPorte (4A) Regional
6-6 (S) vs. Concord (18-10) 12:30 p.m.
6-6 (S) vs. LAKE CENTRAL (26-3) 7:00 p.m.

South Bend or Kokomo (4A) Semistate
6-6 (S) vs. #7 Homestead (23-3) TBA