Crown Point defeats Munster 6-4, Dyer 7-0 at Munster, advances to Babe Ruth State Tourney (age 15 and under)

A USA-365.com Special Report by Mark Smith

(7-11-2007)

Team (Record) / Inning	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	R	H	E
CROWN POINT (2-0)	2	2	0	0	2	0	0	6	11	2
Munster (0-1)	0	0	0	2	0	2	0	4	7	1

Thursday, July 5, 2007 - 88 degrees, sunny, Age 15, double-elimination at Munster Babe Ruth

WP - Beau LaSalle (1-0) 5K, 3 walks, (60- pitches)
SAVE - Eli Kvachkoff (CP) 1K, 0 walks
LP - Mike Erwin (0-1) 1k, 0 walks (2 innings)
Kevin Heinrich (M) 3K, 1 walk, 1 ER (5 innings)

CROWN PONT (2-0)
Kevin Demuese (C) Double, walk, 2 RBIs
Spencer Rapchak (1B-P) Double, single, HBP
Josh Negele (CF) Double, Sac. Fly, RBI
Beau LaSalle (P-SS) Double, 2 singles, RBI

Munster (0-1)
Matt Farrell (1B) Double, walk
Simon Webb (2B) Single, RBI

Team (Record) / Inning	1	2	3	4	5	6	R	H	E
CROWN POINT (1-0)	0	1	1	4	0	1	7	10	0
DYER (0-1)	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0

Thursday, July 5, 2007 - 91 degrees, sunny, Age 15, double-elimination at Munster Babe Ruth

WP - Josh Negele (1-0)  7K, 2 walks (6 innings)
LP - Josh Hunter (0-1) 0K, 2 walks (5 innings)

2007 CROWN POINT Babe Ruth baseball all-stars
Babe Ruth 15-year-old all-stars (15s)
Beau LaSalle; Kyle Naughton; Dino Grantsaris
Colin Casey; Eli Kvachkoff; Tim Pruim
Josh Negele; Kevin Demeuse; Tom Renn
Nate Haase; Scott Donley; Spencer Rapchak
Mike Kessler
(15s) Manager - Rich Negele
Coach - Aaron Mullins; Coach - Mike Kessler

Babe Ruth 14-year-old all-stars (14s)
Brandon Tomko; Matt Heiligstedt; Grant Clement
Ryan Jurczka; Alex Melvin; Kevin Kuhlman
Jake Negele; Kevin Vahst; Nick Nauracy
Andy Koval; Brad Ervin; Mike Fallon; Clay Emory
(14s) Manager - Craig Tomaszewski
Coach - Art Ervin; Coach - Wayne Jurczak

Babe Ruth 13-year-old all-stars (13s)
Drew Breuckman; Nick Brun; Kyle Gagliardi
Mike Loya; Allen Krause; Seth Allen
Brett Bayer; Casey Rapchak; Nick James
Damon Wallace; Andrew Budgin; Aaron Orosz
Kevin Brunski
(13s) Coach - Doug Allen; Coach - Ralph Gagliardi
Manager - Rich James

BABE RUTH all-stars (13s) at CP Babe Ruth
7-5-7: St. John 4, Hammond 1
7-5-7: Munster 7, Dyer 2
7-6-7: St. John 5, CP 2; Hammond 5, DYER 2
7-7-7: CP 4, Hammond 2
7-7-7: Munster 15, St, John 8
7-7-7: St. John 10, CROWN POINT 5
7-8-7: Munster 00, St, John 00 (title)

BABE RUTH all-stars (14s) at CP Babe Ruth
7-5 (Th) Valparaiso 5, CROWN POINT 2
7-5 (Th) Hammond 24, Gary 6
7-6 (F) Munster 5, Valparaiso 0
7-6 (F) CROWN POINT - Gary - forfeit
7-7 (Sa) Munster 6, Hammond 4
7-7 (Sa) CROWN POINT 11, Valparaiso 4
7-7 (Sa) Hammond 9, CROWN POINT 4
7-8 (Sun) Munster 00, Hammond 00 (title)

* Winner advances to state finals on Thursday July 12 in St. John

BABE RUTH all-stars (15) at Munster Babe Ruth
7-5-7: CP 7, DYER 0;     Hammond 10, St, John 0
7-6-7:   CP 6, Munster (Red) 4; DYER 10, St. John 0
7-7-7: Munster 10, DYER 4
7-7-7: CP 4,   Hammond 0
7-7-7: Hammond 15, DYER 10
7-8-7: CP 10, Hammond 1 (title)

Winner advances to the 15-team Babe Ruth age 15 state finals
beginning Saturday, July 14 at 12 noon at Ron Reed Field in LaPorte.

MUNSTER (7-8-2007) - When your Babe Ruth all-star team is largely the freshman baseball team at the high school which finished the season ranked No. 1 state wide, you really can't be eliminated in the opening round of the Babe Ruth playoffs. You can't let that happen.

Crown Point's all-star 15-year-olds didn't want to say that after they swept first round play with a 10-1 victory Sunday against the Hammond all-stars, but they played like it was true.

The No. 1 all-star team from the CP Babe Ruth league dominated four games by a combined score of 27-5, advancing to defend the league's 2006 age-15 state title. Crown Point opens play in the 2007 Babe Ruth age-15 state finals Saturday, July 14 at 12 noon at Ron Reed Field on LaPorte's west side.

"The team we really wanted to beat was Dyer," said left-handed pitcher Josh Negele, who pitched two shutouts. "That was our motivation. It goes back to the last two years at state when they beat us.:"

"We have four or five kids who didn't play in high school," said Rich Negele, the 15s manager. "But after seeing the rest of them play in high school, I thought they were a very special team."

"When they get things set in their minds about needing to score, I don't even have to talk to them. They're a pretty confident bunch of boys. Their kid (Hammond pitcher Chris Jefferson) had some good movement on the ball. But once our guys got a bead on him, we hit pretty well."

It did take some time, but that may have been the situation. In the Babe Ruth area tournaments, the teams that finish first and second BOTH advance to the state final, so after CP defeated Dyer 7-0, Munster 6-4 and Hammond 4-0, they knew they had advanced to the finals even before they took the field on Sunday at the Munster Babe Ruth Complex.

Hammond fell into the loser's bracket after a 4-0 loss to Negele and CP Saturday. But when they beat Dyer 15-10 late Saturday night, they knew they'd go to the state finals as well before they met CP again in 95-degree heat late Sunday.

Jefferson pitched a no-hitter for four innings, while Hammond, made up of freshmen players from Morton, Clark and Hammond high, took a 1-0 lead on a single by Micah Rouke and a double by Jimmy McCormack in front of a ground out by catcher Steve Miller.

CP immediately rallied in the fifth inning. Spencer Rapchak walked with one out and Colin Casey lined a base hit to left. The ball got past Hammond left fielder Johnny Wilson, putting runners at second and third.

After Mike Kessler walked on five pitches to fill the bases, Tim Pruim's drive into deep right center got past the diving Hammond center fielder Kevin Mullaney. two runs scored on that double and two more scored seconds later when Eli Kvachkoff hit the first pitch into left field for a two-run single.

Hammond seemed to tire after that. CP scored in the fifth on a throwing error and they tallied five more times in the top of the seventh on four hits and four more Hammond errors.

Josh Negele will almost certainly open the state finals after winning both starts at Munster. Negele, the top pitcher on the 14-year-old all-stars last year who went 7-2 in the state tourney, pitched six no-hit innings against Dyer before pitching a one-hit, seven-inning shutout against Hammond.

"He was the best pitcher here," said Munster Babe Ruth League president Jim Poulos. "He was absolutely outstanding. Nobody was going to beat him here."

Negele, who was 7-0 for the Crown Point high school freshman team this spring, pitched twice in three days because his dad didn't want to take anything for granted. The CP 15s pitched four days in a row and Negele pitched the first (6 innings) and third (7 innings) games.

"A lot of people asked me why I brought him back yesterday," Rich Negele said Sunday. "I didn't want to take any chances on us getting to the finals. The 15s used three pitchers, Beau LaSalle, Spencer Rapchak and Eli Kvachkoff to get past a tough Munster squad 6-4 and Sunday, Manager Negele turned the ball over to Scott Donley, who was strong on a very hot day. Donley walked three and gave up five hits, throwing 101 pitches and striking out seven.

You did not really find out how good the CP 15s were at Munster because they only trailed 1-0 for 1/2 inning. But the 15s don't look like an all-star team. They seem used to playing with each other and they are noticeably confident on fly balls and on infield defense. You can tell they play in one of the state's top high school baseball programs.

"These guys are very determined about what they want," said manager Negele. "The pressure's off me now. We got to the finals. Fifteen teams. You don't know what's going to happen."

RUTH NOTES: There is no margin for error in a 15-team double-elimination tournament. It will take five consecutive wins to take the state championship. Truthfully, if you lose the opening game, you are going home empty-handed. You just don't know when. If you lose the opening game, you would need eight consecutive victories to take the title and the final two wins would have to be over a team that won its first four games.

Tom Renn was injured and unable to play for the CP 15s in any of the four games in Munster. It is not known whether he can play in the finals or whether CP can replace him on the roster.

Josh Negele, who will be a sophomore during the next high school baseball season, might be in the pitching rotation on the varsity of most high school teams in 2008. But at Crown Point, seniors Blake Mascarello, Eric Clayton and Michael Hernandez and junior Mike Kozlowski are all ahead of him. Negele's best chance to play on the Bulldog varsity in 2008 may come in the outfield, which was virtually cleaned out by graduation.

It should be noted that the 2006 age-15 state title team went 10-2 and looked good doing it, but none of those players made the 2007 CPHS varsity.

Shortstop Beau LaSalle, who made several solid defensive plays over the weekend, was named to the North-South babe Ruth all-star team along with Josh Negele and Hammond's Micah Rouke and Ricky Vasquez.