Crown Point defeats Merrillville 5-2 to defend 4A Sectional title, will face Munster in Regional

A USA-365.com Special Report by Mark Smith

6-3-2006

Friday, June 2, 2006 - 78 degrees at 4A Valparaiso Sectional Championship game

WP -  Matt Ernest (4-0), 5K, 3 walks (5 inn.) 86 pitches
SAVE - Chris Saroff #4,  4K, 2HBP (2 inn.)
LP - Adam Farag (10-2) 3K, 3 walks, CG, 96 pitches

CROWN POINT (22-8)
Tim Mummery (RF) Triple, single, RBI
Chris Saroff (SS-P) Double, single
Nick Ullman (2B) 2 doubles, walk
Matt Ernest (P-SS) Single, walk, RBI
Jon Sertich (CF) HR, 2 RBIs

MERRILLVILLE (23-8)
Jose Ponce (1B) Single, walk
Alfredo Arredondo (C) Single, walk
Drew Dawson (SS) Single, HBP


1. Highland Sectional
Game 1 – Lowell 5, Highland 0.
Game 2 – Lake Central 12, East Chicago 1 (6 innings).
Game 3 – Lake Central 5, Lowell 2.
Game 4 – Munster 13, Gary West Side 0 (5 innings).
Championship – Munster 6, Lake Central  4
 
2. Valparaiso Sectional
Game 1 – Chesterton 4, Hobart 3.
Game 2 – Merrillville 9, Portage 4.
Game 3 – Merrillville 6, Chesterton 2.
Game 4 – Crown Point. 10, Valparaiso 0 (5 innings).
Championship - Crown Point 5, Merrillville 2
 
3. South Bend Clay Sectional
Game 1 – LaPorte 9, (SB) Washington 5.
Game 2 – South Bend Clay 5, Michigan City 2.
Game 3 – LaPorte 6, (SB) Clay 2.
Game 4 – South Bend Riley 8, South Bend Adams 2.
Championship – LaPorte 11, (SB) Riley 2

 4. Elkhart Memorial Sectional (6 teams) 
Game 1 – Elkhart Central 5, Goshen 2.
Game 2 – Penn 13, Mishawaka 4.
Game 3 – Penn 4, Elkhart Central 2.
Game 4 – Concord 8, Elkhart Memorial 2.
Championship – Penn 11, Concord 7.
 
5. Carroll (Fort Wayne) Sectional
Game 1 – Columbia City 11, DeKalb 4.
Game 2 – Warsaw 3, East Noble 2.
Game 3 – Columbia City 4, (Allen Co.) Carroll  3 (8 innings).
Championship – Warsaw 1, Columbia City 0.
 
6. Fort Wayne Snider Sectional  
Game 1 – (FW) Northrop 16, (FW) South Side 0 (5 innings).
Game 2 – Homestead 2, Huntington North 1.
Game 3 – Homestead 4, (FW) Northrop 1.
Game 4 – (FW) Snider 9, (FW) North Side 1.
Championship – (FW) Snider 3, Homestead 0.

7. Lafayette Jefferson Sectional  
Game 1 – Logansport 2, Lafayette Jefferson 1.
Game 2 – Harrison (West Lafayette) 6, McCutcheon 2.
Game 3 – Harrison (West Lafayette) 11, Logansport 7.
Game 4 – Kokomo 14, Marion 4.
Championship – Harrison (West Lafayette) 8, Kokomo 7.

8. Ben Davis Sectional (6 teams) 
Game 1 – Zionsville 13, Avon 2.
Game 2 – Ben Davis 17, Indianapolis Northwest 6.
Game 3 – Zionsville 7, Ben Davis 6 (9 innings).
Game 4 – Brownsburg 10, Pike 0 (6 innings).
Championship – Zionsville 6, Brownsburg 4.


Class 4A Northern Regionals
6-5 (Mon) CROWN POINT (22-8) at Munster (21-10) Mon, 7 pm CDT
6-6 (Tu) Penn (25-5) at LaPorte (26-6)  4:30 p.m..
6-6 (Tu) Fort Wayne Snider (22-6) at Warsaw (17-10) 4:30 p.m.
6-6 (Tu)  Zionsville (20-8) at (West Lafayette) Harrison (13-17)  TBA

Class 4A Northern Semistate
Saturday, June 10, 2006.  Tickets: $6, $8 (all day)
Home Team: The second-named team in each game is the designated home team.
 
Lafayette Jefferson Semi-State (Loeb Stadium)
6-10 (S) Penn or LaPorte vs. CROWN POINT or Munster (11 am EST)
6-10 (S) Zionsville or Harrison vs. Snider or Warsaw (1 pm  EST)
6-10 (S) Semistate Championship Game (8 pm.  EST)

VALPARAISO  (6-2-2006)  Almost seven months after Merrillville's 13-10 sectional football championship game victory over the undefeated Duneland Athletic Conference (DAC) champion Crown Point Bulldogs, Crown Point stepped in against Merrillville's DAC champion baseball team in the 4A Sectional baseball championship game.  But I'm sure everybody had forgotten about that.

"I haven't forgotten," said Crown Point's Jon Sertich, a football-baseball star for CP.

"We couldn't lose two sectionals to them in the same year," said Matt Ernest, another baseball-softball double duty player.

No matter what happens or where it happened.  When you're talking about two rivals, there's always the day when you even the score.

Late Friday, in the setting sun behind the Valparaiso football stadium, the time had come.  With Ernest pitching the first five innings and Sertich hitting a two-run home run, the Bulldogs stopped Merrillville 5-2 for the 2006 Class 4A Valparaiso Sectional baseball championship.

Crown Point (22-8) will carry a 10-game winning streak in against Munster (21-10), a 6-4 winner over Lake Central late Friday, in the regional championship game, on Monday, June 5th at Munster at 7:00 p.m.  

Crown Point was the better team on this day, getting 10 hits against Merrillville senior left-hander Adam Farag (10-2), who did well to keep the game close, stranding five CP base runners in the last two innings.  But CP's depth in pitching, the supposed strength that had them ranked No. 1 state wide early in the season, showed itself clearly as Bulldogs hurlers controlled the game, without Division I left-hander Matt Jansen ever taking the mound.  There was some surprise that Chris Saroff, CP's No. 2 pitcher most of the year did not start this championship game but Strayer said he'd rather have Saroff finish it.

"Ernie (Ernest) has been hurt a lot of the year and he's just now throwing really good," said Strayer.  "Chris has done a great job for us as a closer (relief pitcher) all season and we thought that's the way we'd go tonight.  We knew Ernie was not going to go all the way.  We had a 90-95 pitch limit on him tonight."

Ernest, a 6-foot-2 Bulldog wide receiver, gave up five singles and three walks in five innings before Chris Saroff struck out four in the final  two innings for his fourth save. The Pirates got home run threat Darryl Evans to the plate with two on and two out in the bottom of the seventh.  But Evans, who grounded out with two runners on base in the fifth, hit a towering fly ball that did not carry deep into left field, allowing CP's Joe Patrick to grab it for the final out.  It's hard to estimate, but Ernest was throwing very well, in the 80-85 mile an hour range.  Saroff, a side-arm right-hander, was not far behind and the Pirates, who start nine right-handed hitters, rarely made good contact.

"They're a good team," said Merrillville coach Zac Wells, who stayed with Farag as he got out of a bases-loaded, nobody out jam in the seventh. "They had a nice plan against Adam.  But he battled them.  Our whole team did.  The final inning was an example of how we battled all season.  We had a great year.  Guys, don't forget the regular season."

Crown Point's regular season was not great, but they have clearly charged in the final three weeks.  Strayer can seemingly put anyone in any role and have it work, the sign of a quality team.

"Chris and I were warming up," Ernest said after the game, "and either one of us could have started.  But I'd have had to do something really bad in warmups not to start. I've never pitched in a championship game like this.  The atmosphere was great."

Merrillville led 1-0 in front of about 150 fans when Nick Ullman doubled and Ernest singled him in with two out in the third inning.  Ernest stolen second and scored on Saroff's single to left.  In the fifth inning, Ullman, batting ninth for the first time all season in the sectional, doubled and scored when Tim Mummery tripled.  The CP senior was an all-area player in 2005, batting .394 with 15 stolen bases.

"I've had a bad arm all season and I've missed the last five game," explained Ullman, who reached base six times in six sectional at bats out of the ninth position in the order.  "Coach wanted me ninth because I'm just coming back.  I don't mind.  Just so I'm playing."

"We didn't know how he'd be," said Strayer.  "He's had trouble swinging the bat.  We put him ninth in case he was hurting.  But when he's feeling good like he was tonight it gives us a threat down there with (lead off man) Tim Mummery batting behind him."

"Give Ullman and Ernest a lot of credit.  They've been hurt all season and they keep playing and doing the job for us.  They've been hurt and they play through it and it says a lot about them."

Merrillville cut the CP lead to 3-2 in the fifth on singes by Alfredo Arredondo and Alex Ponce, plus an RBI ground out by Bo McClendon.  The inning ended with runners at second and third when Evans hit a high bouncer to Saroff at shortstop and was called out on a very close play at first base.  Had Evans been called safe, both runners would have scored for a 4-3 Pirate lead.

"That's baseball," said Wells. "You've got to hand it to CP.  There were some close plays, but they hit the ball."

In the CP sixth, Saroff lined a double to right center and Sertich, who batted seventh most of the season, hit his second home run in two days, a 325 foot line drive over the short Valpo high left field fence, to make it 5-2 for the Bulldogs.

"He (Farag) mixes his pitches well," said Sertich of Farag.  "But he was getting his curve ball up.  He hung one.  You hang it we bang it.  Sertich, who is only about 5-foot-8 and 165 pounds, looked at hitting fourth the same way Ullman viewed batting ninth. "It's just the situation you bat in, not so much the position.  You bat the same way in the same situation."

Saroff struck out the side in the sixth inning, but hit two batters in the seventh. Evans hit a 3-1 pitch for the third out.

"I can breath a little easier now," said Strayer, who was very tense during both sectional games.  "I set a goal for us to get 11 or 12 base runners today and we did that.  I like out approach to the game right now."

Ernest said, "I remember last year's regional.  It was at home against Munster, 2-0.  But we didn't play them this year so we don't know much about them."

NOTES:  This was Crown Point's 10th consecutive win and their second consecutive 4A sectional championship. The Bulldogs have had winning streaks of four, six and 10 games this season.  After a 17-2 start, Merrillville split their last 12 games.  Crown Point (22-8) will play at Munster (21-10) in the 4A regional championship game Monday night at Munster at 7:00 p.m.  (Crown Point's high school graduation is Tuesday night and they cannot play on that date.)  CP defeated Munster 2-0 at Crown Point in the 2005 Sectional championship game.

In a bizarre sequence, both teams popped up a squeeze bunt to the pitcher in the fourth inning.  Merrillville's Farag made a diving catch of Matt Ernest's pop up in the fourth and ran to third base for an unassisted double play on CP's Tim Mummery.  In the seventh inning, CP's Chris Saroff threw two balls and three strikes to Pirate hitter Alex Ponce but the home plate umpire lost track of the count.  After heated protests by CP, the umpires had a conference and agreed that three strikes was indeed enough for Ponce to be out.

American Legion Post 20 manager Tony Samano was in Valparaiso to watch the Bulldogs play Merrillville and he said that Post 20 will include Merrillville pitchers Caleb Douglas and Adam Farag this summer.  The Post 20 team will be highly touted as last year's 17-and-under legion team (called the 'B' team) won state and midwest championships.  Chris Saroff, Adam Kennedy, Joe Patrick and Tommy Wise all played on that team.  Kankakee Valley star Matt Dobin also played on that team.

Wells spoke very highly of Farag, who won 10 of the Pirates' 23 victories. 

"Let's be honest," he said. "We put a saddle on him and we rode him as far as we could.  It didn't help that he threw 108 pitches three days ago (in a 9-4 win over Portage)."

Wells wanted to thank his assistant coaches Mark Cieslielslo and John Kwiatkowski for their work during the season.  Wells says he doesn't know if he will be back to coach baseball in 2007 because he has been named Merrillville's head varsity football coach.

"I've got to talk with my wife about it," he said. "I've only seen my daughter for about five minutes this week."

"It's not easier to be an assistant on my team.  My assistant coaches put in a great amount of time.  More than anybody sees.  I couldn't have done this this year without their help.  My assistants are top notch."