Crown Point Babe Ruth (age 15) shuts out Griffith 11-0 in state tourney opener

A USA-365.com Special Report By Mark Smith

Team (Record) / Inning	1	2	3	4	5	6	R	H	E
Crown Point (4-0)	0	0	5	2	4	-	11	12	0
GRIFFITH (4-2)	0	0	0	0	0	-	0	1	4

Babe Ruth age-15 state tournament opener, 7-7-2003
91 degrees, sunny at Dyer Babe Ruth
WP- Tommy Wise (2-0) 3Ks, 0 walks (3 innings - 36 pitches)
Chris Sarhoff (CP) 0Ks, 0 walks (4 innings - 88 innings)
,
LP - Mike White (1-1) 1K, 3 walks (4 innings - 106 pitches)

GRIFFITH
One single
Mike White (G) Single

CROWN POINT
8 singles, double, triple, HR. 3-4 stolen bases
Anthony Pulver (CP) HR, single, 2 RBIs
Matt Dobin (CP) HR, triple, single, 3 RBIs
Adam Kennedy (CP) 2 singles, walk, RBI

DYER (7-7-2003) - Crown Point completed the sweep Monday night, rolling over Griffith 11-0 in five innings but they did leave Dyer as happy as they could have been. Due to some messed-up bracket seeding by the area Babe Ruth people, Griffith actually received a first round bye in next weekend's area tournament in LaPorte by finishing in second place in the district playoffs. Crown Point, by sweeping four games, got some nice looking, shiny imitation gold trophies plus a schedule that will require them to play four games in four days (starting Thursday night at 5:30 p.m.) if they keep winning.

The reason, lame though it may have been, was that the winner of the first round tournament in Lake County is declared the District I champion while the second place team is declared the District II champ. Someone decided that the two 'district champions' should alternate with the first round bye year-to-year in the seven-team area finals even though the top two teams aren't actually both winners.

Dyer officials agreed that the formats made about as much sense as US foreign policy but that they couldn't change it without calling District III. The folks in LaPorte couldn't or wouldn't change the format for this weekend's finals which will produce the northern representative in the Indiana state finals later this month.

"There's no way that should happen," said Mark Wise, manager of the CP 15s and the Crown Point Babe Ruth League president. "If you're going to have two districts at one site, then the winner should be whatever district champ they want to be. We just got totally screwed here. If I'd have seen this (the bracket) before the game, we wouldn't have shown up."

"Last year we did the same thing in the 14-year-old bracket and we got the bye. We should have gotten the bye here, too."

The revelation of a brutal path to the state finals dimmed an overwhelming performance by CP again. For the first time in four games, CP didn't fall behind in the first inning. After right-hander Tommy Wise pitched two shutout innings, CP broke through against some shaky Griffith defenses in the third inning. Matt Dobin singled and stole second base and then scored on a bizarre play.

Anthony Pulver smacked a sharp single to left field but because the ground ball was in front of him, Dobin stopped in the base paths until he was sure the ball would get past Griffith shortstop Matt Nelleman. When it did, left fielder Aaron Descamp thought he could throw out Dobin at third base. Descamp didn't get a good grip on the ball and his throw sailed into the third base dugout, allowing the game's first run to score.

Adam Kennedy then singled to make it 2-0 and immediately stole second. One out later, Ryan Alberson's ground ball got through the legs of third baseman Jarrod Macak, allowing the 3-0 run to score.

Tommy Wise singled Alberson to third base before two more errors padded the lead. Wise broke off first base and when the throw went to second base, Alberson score from third. Griffith actually failed to execute a rundown and Wise was able to slide back into first safely. After Tommy Isailovich walked, Griffith catcher Drew Rogalski attempted to pick him off first base and threw the ball down the right field line, allowing Wise to score the 5-0 run.

Dobin had a two run double in the fourth inning and a run scoring triple in the fifth before Pulver's 350-foot solo home run ended the scoring.

"We can play ahead and we can play behind," said Manager Mark Wise. "We have the offense and we have the pitching. This 11-0 score does not surprise me."

"We were down in the first game against Griffith (a come-from-behind 7-6 win) and we got behind. This game, we weren't going to let that happen."

Crown Point was clearly the best team of the 10 entries at Dyer but they also swept the district tournament as 14-year-olds and they know that, while it's an accomplishment, it isn't any kind of goal.

"In no way was this easy," said Pulver. "We were down 6-0 against Griffith the first time we played them. We just kept going."

Sunday's 8-5 win over St. John came after Ryan Davis hit his fourth home run of the tournament to give St. John a 2-1 first inning lead. Dobin's two run single to center gave CP a 3-2 lead in the third inning. John Sertich got the save in relief of Dave Hoffman in the seventh inning.

In the opening game, Crown Point stole 11 bases to bury the Junedale all-stars from Gary 15-3. Gary Roosevelt freshman Michael Lunn hit a three-run homer off Tommy Wise in the first inning but CP roared back to bury Junedale as Wise shut them out the rest of the way.

In game two, CP fell behind 6-0 against Griffith Saturday but Matt Dobin's home run sparked a rally that climaxed when Adam Kennedy broke a 6-6 tie with a sacrifice fly.

After Monday night's game, the celebration was subdued. Party because the boys were worn out after playing in midsummer heat. And partly because they'd done this before."

"We lost the first game at the area tournament last year," recalled Pulver of the CP 14-year-old all-star run in 2002. "Then we came all the way back to the finals and we lost to Harris Township. But we're not looking for them. We're just playing one game at a time."

Trouble is, they may have to play one game at a time for four days in a row.

RUTH NOTES: Usually a two-time district Babe Ruth champ signals a good baseball class coming to Crown Point high school. That may yet be the case but the class of 2006 won't be as good as it could have been had geography been CP's residence luck been kinder.

CP's number three hitter Anthony Pulver is in the Lowell school district and he played in the Lowell Little League but he does not go to Lowell high school. "I'm at Andrean," he said. "I actually live in Hebron. I have a Hebron address but I'm in the area of Hebron that goes to Lowell. I'm close to the Hebron district. I'm close to the Crown Point district."
"My brother played football and baseball at Andrean. My sister went to Andrean. There was never really a chance that I was going to Lowell."

Pulver played in both the Babe Ruth all-star state tournament and Lowell junior Little League all-star playoffs but that just didn't work very well because of game conflicts. This year, the strong right-handed hitter made a choice.

"The competition in the Babe Ruth tournament is a little better.".

CP's number two hitter Matt Dobin actually lives in Hebron (Hebron has no Babe Ruth baseball and many of their boys have played for CP) but he won't for long.

"I'm going to be going to Kankakee Valley," he said, "because we're moving. I haven't talked to coach (Doug) Greenlee, but I will be going there."

"Coach Greenlee knows he's coming," Matt's mom chipped in.

If you tell Tommy Wise that he's got a good chance to make the CPHS varsity in 2004 as a pitcher, he'll tell you that he actually made it in 2003.

"I got to pitch in a game in Lafayette," he said of a late-season, Friday night double-header at Harrison high school. Wise pitched an inning of a 15-6 CP loss to the Raiders. "I was on the state tournament roster," he says.

More than one observer says that with four senior pitchers graduating last month, CPHS coach Steve Strayer could have work for players like 2003 freshmen Wise and left-hander Matt Jansen.

Anthony Pulver's home run cleared the screen which Dyer Babe Ruth has erected about 25 feet in the air behind the left field fence to keep home run balls out of the yards of neighbors.

The great downside of Crown Point's area finals' draw is that if they lose the opening game, they must win six consecutive games to take the title, eliminating five of the other six teams. No one got a worse draw.

BABE RUTH (15s) All-Stars
double-elimination in LaPorte (Ron Reed Field)

7-9-3 (Wed.) District II runner-up (Dyer) vs. LaPorte - 5:30 p.m.
District I runner-up (St. John) vs. District III champ (probably Harris Twp.) 8 p.m.

7-10-3 (Thurs) District I champion (CROWN POINT) vs. District III runner up - 5:30 p.m.
District II champion (Griffith) vs. Dyer or LaPorte - 8 p.m.

The winner advances to the Best-of-3 state championship series.