Crown Point 12s beat Kokomo 11-5, capture Cal Ripken Baseball State Championship
A USA-365.com Special Report by Mark Smith  (7-18-2007)

Monday, July 16, 2007 - Cal Ripken (age 12) state championship game at Kokomo Southside Little League - KOKOMO, IN

WP - Chris Dietrich - 4K, 0 walks (5 innings)
LP - Andrew Schten - 6K, 3 walks (4 innings)

Crown Point (9-1)
Ron Plesac - HR, 3 RBIs
Zach Plesac - HR, 2 RBIs


Ohio Valley Cal Ripken (12s) Midwest Finals

 (12s) state finals double-elimination at Crain Field (Fairview Park), Kokomo, IN (10 teams- winners bracket)
7-19 (Th)  Newburgh, Indiana vs. Benton Harbor, Michigan - 6:00 p.m.
7-19 (Th)  Logansport, Indiana vs. Henderson, Kentucky
7-20 (F) South East Lexington, Kentucky vs. Youngstown, Ohio - 11:30 a.m.
7-20 (F) Kokomo (UCT) vs. CROWN POINT - 2:00 p.m.
7-20 (F) Superior, Wisconsin vs. Newburgh/Benton Harbor - 4:30 p.m.
7-20 (F)  Galesburg, Ill, vs. Logansport/Henderson - 7:00 p.m.

7-22 (Sun) Winner's bracket semifinal - 12:00 noon
7-22 (Sun) Winner's bracket semifinal - 2:30 p.m.
7-23 (Mon) Winner's bracket championship - 2:30 p.m.
7-24 (Tues) Championship round game one - 5:00 p.m.*
7-24 (Tues) Championship round game two - 8:00 p.m.*
* Winner advances to the Cal Ripken World Series on Aug. 9-14 at the Field of Dreams Complex in Van Buren, Arkansas.


Cal Ripken (12s) State Finals

(12s) state finals double-elimination  at Southside Park - Kokomo (12 teams)
7-11 (W)  CROWN POINT 16, Russiaville 6
7-11 (W)  Harris Township 9, Knox 0
7-11 (W)  Kokomo Southside 2, Logansport 1
7-11 (W) Griffith 10, Oak Hill 2
7-12 (Th)  CROWN POINT 4, Morgan Township 0
7-12 (Th)  Harris 7, Lapel 6
7-12 (Th)  Kokomo South 6, Taylor Southeast 0
7-12 (TH) (Kokomo) UCT 6, Griffith 0
7-12 (F) Morgan Township 9, Logansport 0
7-12 (F) Lapel 2, Oak Hill 1
7-13 (F) Morgan Township 9, Lapel 4
7-13 (F) Griffith 10, Russiaville 4
7-14 (Sat) CROWN POINT 14, Harris Township 0
 7-14 (Sat) Kokomo UCT 9, Kokomo Southside 6
7-14 (Sat) Griffith 5, Harris Township 0
7-14 (Sat) Morgan Township 7, Kokomo Southside 6
7-15 (Sun) Kokomo UCT 6, CROWN POINT 2
7-15 (Sun) Griffith 8, Morgan Township 7 (8 innings)
7-15 (Sun) CROWN POINT 9, Griffith 0
7-16 (Mon)  CROWN POINT  8, Kokomo UCT 7*
7-16 (Mon) CROWN POINT  11. Kokomo UCT 5*

Both teams advance to the Ohio Valley Regional in Logansport beginning Friday.

KOKOMO (7-16-2007) -  When Crown Point pulled its best 12-year-old team out of the Little League state tournament, opting for the Cal Ripken 12-and-under championships, the  goal was to win the state title.  Truthfully, while Cal Ripken, which is the Babe Ruth baseball version of Little League, has quality teams state wide, the Ripken bracket locally is nowhere near as tough as the Little League with powerhouses Munster and Dyer.  In NW Indiana Little League, the District title is the largest hurdle.  In Cal Ripken ball, CP had to win it all.

Late Monday night, they did.

Trailing 3-0 and 4-1 in a scenario where they had to win twice to take the championship, Crown Point's 12-and-under boys baseball all-stars rallied to beat Kokomo 8-7 and 11-5 to win the Northern State championship Monday night at the Kokomo Southside Little League in a double-header that ended at 10:30 p.m., local time.

CP (9-1) found out they have advanced to the 10-team Ohio Valley regional, which begins Thursday at the Logansport Babe Ruth League and, actually, Kokomo did, too.  To fill out the state tournament bracket, it was decided Sunday that both of the final two teams at Kokomo would advance to the Ohio Valley Regional.
 
Crown Point, which lost 6-2 to Kokomo early Sunday, actually advanced to the regional with a 9-0 win over Griffith late Sunday night.  The CP 12s reportedly did not know that the game against Griffith was actually the one that would determine whether they would advance until after the fact.  Not only does CP advance to the double-elimination Cal Ripken Ohio Valley Regional in Logansport but they face Kokomo again at 2:00 p.m. Friday afternoon.

But the CP 12s came from behind to win the title even though they didn't need to.  In the first game Monday evening, Zach Plesac struck out nine and walked six as the CP 12s overcame a 6-3 Kokomo lead.  The second of Danny Aultman's two hits came in a three-run fifth inning that put the visitors over the top and evened up the double-elimination tournament.

Zach Plesac, who had hit a home run earlier in a 14-0 third round win over Harris Township Saturday, hit another in Monday's second game as did his brother Ron.  Chris Dietrich was the winning pitcher, going five innings and allowing just four hits and no walks.

In the deciding game, the CP 12s smoked out 10 hits and scored eight runs in the final three innings.

CP was dominant in the early rounds, outscoring three foes 34-6, but the 6-2 loss in an early afternoon game Sunday required the boys to play four games in two days.  The margin of victory over Griffith allowed CP to save pitchers for Monday night's double-header.

There was a northern and a southern Indiana Cal Ripken all-star state tournament and there are normally two Indiana representatives in Ohio Valley play.  There are two Indiana state champions in all Babe Ruth/Cal Ripken baseball tourneys because of the large number of Babe Ruth programs in Indiana.

RIPKEN NOTES:  The Ohio Valley Regional will be played at Crain Field in Fairview Park in Logansport.  The opening game will actually be Thursday night featuring Benton Harbor, Michigan and Newburgh, Indiana at 6:00 p.m., EDT.  The second game will match the host team Logansport against Henderson, Kentucky, the Western Kentucky champion.

Crown Point plays Kokomo UCT at 2:00 p.m. EDT, Friday immediately following an 11:30 a.m. game between Ohio champ Youngstown and Eastern Kentucky champion South Lexington.  If CP wins, they can come home because they don't play against until Sunday at 2:30 p.m.  If the CP 12s lose, they must come back Friday at 1:30 p.m.  Four consecutive wins takes the Ohio Valley title.  If you lose the opener, you'll need to win seven consecutive games to take the big trophy.

South Lexington beat Lexington Northern 10-7 Sunday to win the Northern Kentucky state championship.  Galesburg came back to beat Mattoon 7-6 Monday to win the Illinois state champion.  Mattoon had beaten Galesburg earlier in the day.  Galesburg was the 11-and-under Illinois state Cal Ripken champion in 2006.

Benton Harbor beat Howard Township 9-1 Monday night to win the Michigan state championship.  The Cal Ripken age-12 World Series looks like quite a road trip.  It's set to begin on Aug. 9 in Van Buren, Arkansas.

Cal Ripken (11s) all-stars
(11s) state finals double-elimination  at Optimist Park - Hammond (12 teams)
7-11 (W)  St. John (Red) 6, Russiaville 5
7-11 (W) St. John (Blue) 13, Logansport (II) 2
7-11 (W) Logansport (I) 7, (Hammond) Optimist 4
7-11 (W) Liberty Recreation 6 (Kokomo) UCT 0 (forfeit)
7-12 (Th) CROWN POINT 12, St. John (Red) 1
7-12 (Th) Kokomo (South)  3, St. John (Blue) 6
7-12 (Th) Schererville 1, Logandport (I) 2
7-12 (Th) Taylor SE 4, Liberty Recreation (Chesterton) 3
7-13 (F) St. John 10, (Hammond) Optimist (4 inn.)
7-13 (F) Kokomo South 6, (Kokomo) UCT 0 - forfeit
7-14 (Sat)  St. John (Blue) 7, CROWN POINT 4
7-14 (Sat)  Logansport 18, Taylor SE 8
7-14 (Sat) CROWN POINT 12, Schererville 1
7-14 (Sat) Kokomo South 17, Tayler SE - 10
7-15 (Sun) St. John 4, Kokomo South 3
7-15 (Sun) CROWN POINT 9, Kokomo South 1
7-15 (Sun) Logansport 10, CROWN POINT 5
7-16 (M) Logansport 2, St. John  1 (8 innings)
7-16 (M) Logansort 6,  St. John 2  (title)

Winner advances to the Ohio Valley Regional  in Vincennes beginning Friday, July 19.