Crown Point Little League all stars Majors (age 12 and under) drop games to Dyer, Highland by identical 4-1 scores

A USA-365.com Special Report By Mark Smith 

(7-8-2004)

July 8, 2004, at DYER Little League

July 7, 2004, at DYER Little League

DYER (7-8-2003) - Judging by the 2004 Little League teams, varsity baseball at Crown Point, Lake Central, Andrean and Highland high schools will be very strong in the years 2009 and 2010. That was small consolation to Crown Point's 12-and-under all-stars last

week. While they did not play a bad game, CP was eliminated from the state all-star tournament with consecutive losses to Highland and Dyer, both by the score of 4-1.

When you lose in the Little League, most times it's ugly. Large scores. Lots of errors. Wild games. Last week's District II play in Dyer was nothing like that. Dyer's 4-1 victory, the game where CP was eliminated, was decided largely in the first inning. Kurtis Mardirosian walked and Mike Targos bounced a hard hit double down the first base line. Kevin Heinrich then got a high strike and drove it far over the center field fence at the 190-foot sign at the old Dyer little League, giving the hosts a 3-0 lead.

After that, CP right-hander Eli Kvachkoff and lefty Josh Negele held the hard-hitting Dyer stars to just one run and six hits. But Heinrich, a 5-9 left-hander, with a tricky off speed pitch, held CP to just one run and four hits for the game.

"That's a drop ball," said manager Wally Targos of his left-hander's off speed pitch. "It was difficult. Our catcher called the entire game. He kept shaking us off (refusing the pitch called by the bench) so we said, Let him go. He knows the kids. Those two did a masterful job out there. He (Heinrich) shut them down and they've got some good hitters in their lineup."

CP manager Tom Patrick was disappointed at the early exit and he also thought that Heinrich was to blame. 

"We knew coming in here, they were going to throw another slow pitcher. We worked on it. In practice, we were hitting it hard. But in the game, we got some runners on and we couldn't come through," said Patrick. "I give their pitching a lot of credit. He threw some slow stuff but he threw it for strikes. We just didn't get the hits when we needed them. The kid who hit the home run. We knew we had to keep the ball inside on him. Eli just got the ball out over the plate."

The rest of the game saw unusually good Little League pitching and defense on both sides. Crown Point's second inning rally was cut short when Cody Stovall hit a one out flyball to deep center. When the throw back to the infield got away, Dyer catcher Mike Targos backed up the play and threw out CP's Corbin Bish at third base. Dyer led 4-0 in the fourth inning with runners at second and third and

nobody out. But CP first baseman Jonothan Waspi grabbed Mardirosian's line drive and shortstop Beau LaSalle moved quickly to his left to snatch Targos' line drive.

With the left-handed hitting Heinrich scheduled to bat, manager Patrick called for the intentional walk and then pulled Kvachkoff for the lefty Negele, who struck out pinch hitter Matt Jansma on three pitches.

"I did consider starting Negele," admitted Patrick later. "But when we watched them warm up, Eli was sharper. It's a guessing game. Eli just started slow. We knew where we couldn't pitch some of their kids and he made that one mistake."

Dyer was very confident about this team, which hit over 60 home runs during the league season and that confidence was not shaken despite a 3-2 opening night loss to Highland fireballer Mike Bremer (12 strikeouts). The Dyer 12s made just two errors in the first three games and none against arch-rival Crown Point, which also showed a solid defense in the final game.

"We could have scored more but I thought they played over their heads defensively. We knew they would bring their 'A' game into this matchup." Crown Point's only truly bad inning of the tournament came in the 4-1 loss to Highland, the only team at Dyer to go 3-0 in pool play.

In a scoreless game, pitcher Beau LaSalle hit Highland's Mike Bremer with a pitch and allowed a one-out single to Ken Mahala.

Then, four consecutive errors allowed four Highland runs to score. LaSalle shut out the Highland star for the rest of the game, but CP could not break out against Austin Evanhouse, another off speed pitcher. The only Crown Point run was a home run from Negele, who hit two homers in the first game of the tournament, a 10-2 win over Cedar Lake.

Though their all-star run was very short, the CP 12s showed a powerful core. Negele, a sweet swinging pitcher-outfielder, shortstop LaSalle and Michael (Spike) Albrecht, a slick fielding double play combination, Kvachkoff, a small, but hard-throwing pitcher and multi position player plus Casey, an already strong looking catcher, could solidify this class up the middle if they all can adjust when youth baseball goes to regulation distances at age 13. Stovall and Bish showed good bats for a team that, with better luck, might have gone much further in their final year at the Little level.

"Spike is very, very good," said Patrick. "Josh is a very coachable young man. His father works with him all the time and he's going to get much bigger. I've had these boys since they were eight years old and obviously, they're not mature physically yet. But when they are, these guys could be super ballplayers. I've been coaching them since they were eight. They're all excellent students. They'll be back."

"This was a very good tournament," said Dyer manager Targos. "Three of the best five teams in the (14-team) district were here in this four team site. It was unfortunate for Cedar Lake because they were not as bad as they looked. We just wanted to get out of our pool. We knew it would be very tough and we just wanted to get out and take our chances."

LITTLE NOTES:  Dyer advanced to play Munster in Dyer at 4 p.m. Saturday. DeMotte was to meet Whiting at 6 p.m. while Highland faced Griffith at 8 p.m.  Lowell got a bye due to the lowest amount of runs allowed (two) and they play a 6 p.m. Sunday semifinal against the Munster-Dyer winner.

This is the 50th anniversary of the Dyer Little League, which has always been on the site next to Kahler Middle School on Route 30.

Dyer had to go without infielder Frank Pluskota against Crown Point because the third baseman came down with the flu.

Dyer league president Phil Gerbick said that the new local Little League format, which featured pool play for the first round but single elimination for the district finals, is not locked in for future years.

"The league presidents voted to do it this way," he said, "but let's see what the reaction is."

Pool play, a format where teams are broken into groups where everybody plays everybody else, got a mixed reception and almost nobody liked the single-elimination district finals.

"Everybody gets at least three games in pool play," Gerbick said. "While that's going to mean 0-3 for some teams instead of 0-2, at least they had the opportunity.  And the whole thing is over in 10 days. It used to take two weeks. The bad thing is, you can go 3-0 in your pool, lose one game and be out."

There was also the problem of unequal pools. Dyer had four teams while Munster had a six team pool. Munster and Lowell both went 3-0 in pool play because they didn't play each other. That's what helped Lowell get the number one seed (decided by runs allowed) and a first round bye in the seven team district finals.

"In the single-elimination at the district finals," said Gerbick "you do need three pitchers. Lowell only needed two. Ideally, you'd like to have 16 teams and four pools with the top two advancing from each site. We didn't want to have two five-team pools so we

had one six and two fours. We're going to talk about it again after it's over."

Dyer manager Targos thought he'd see the left-hander Negele from Crown Point because of Dyer's three left-handed hitters in the batting order.

"They used him at the end and he did stop us," noted Targos. "Munster has one real good pitcher and I'm sure we'll see him. But we've

2004 Little League  All-Star Playoffs

MAJORS (ages 11-12)  Pool play

District II Finals

MAJORS (ages 11-12) at DYER

Single-elimination

July 22-26  - pool play -  (at Southport Little League - Indianapolis)

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Revised: July 10, 2004.