Dyer wins Little League (age 11-12) District II championship with 9-3 victory over Crown Point

A USA-365.com Special Report By Mark Smith

Team (Record) / Inning	1	2	3	4	5	6	R	H	E
DYER (5-1)	1	5	0	1	2	0	9	11	4
CROWN POINT (6-2)	0	1	0	1	1	0	3	8	3

Little League (age 11-12) District II tournament opener, 7-13-2003
76 degrees at Griffith Little League
WP- Danny Manick (3-0) CG, 4Ks, 2 walks
LP - Jeremy Kooi (2-2) 2K, 5 walks (3 innings)
Miles Atherton (CP) 2K, 1 walk (3 innings)

CROWN POINT
8 singles
Josh Wright (CP) Single, RBI
Kyle Qualizza (CP) Single, walk
Nate Svhilik (CP) 2 singles
Josh Nottingham (CP) Single, RBI

DYER
8 singles, 3 doubles
Matt Philbin (DYER) Double, single, walk, 3 RBIs
Tim Shanks (DYER) 2 singles, 2 RBIs
Danny Manick (DYER) double, 3 walks, RBI
Neil Koricanic (DYER) 2 singles, RBI

GRIFFITH (7-13-2003) - One of the trademarks of Little League baseball is that, 15 minutes after the game, you can't tell who won. The players are laughing and clowning around. They've forgotten the outcome.

So asking the Dyer Little League all-stars to forget Crown Point's five-run sixth inning rally in Saturday night's District II finals' opening game was not that farfetched a thought. Sunday night, it was as if it had never happened.

After rallying from a 5-0 deficit to beat Dyer 6-5 one night, Crown Point never led 24 hours later as the Dyer stars won their seventh district championship in 14 years with a 9-3 victory over their arch rivals.

Dyer will continue the drive for their third state championship Friday night at 7 p.m. in game one of a best-of-three game series against the District I champion, which had not been decided as of Monday night.

"It was a tough 24 hours," admitted Dyer manager Jimmy Wanda, who saw his hometown win the district for the first time in four years. "But we got off to a good start tonight. Crown Point never gave up. All the way to the end. We really haven't hit the ball yet."

"We just couldn't get a hit when we needed it," said coach Dave Hanaway, a veteran of most of Crown Point's nine district titles. "We had people on base. We just couldn't get a hit when we needed it."

Dyer led 1-0 when they scored five times in the second inning against left-hander Jeremy Kooi (2-2). The key play was a bunt by Dyer's Joey DiCicco. Kooi's throw to first base hit DiCicco in the back and bounced away down the right field line, putting runners at second and third. After Jimmy Wanda reached base on a fielders choice, Danny Manick walked with the bases full and pitcher Matt Philbin doubled home two runs.

The 2-3-4 hitters in Dyer's lineup, the 6-2 Manick, 5-11 Matt Philbin and 5-9 Neil Koricanic collected five hits and five walks in Sunday's game after getting just one hit in 12 plate appearances in the 6-5 loss Saturday. The physically superior team won.

"We're tight knit group," said manager Wanda, who won District I as a 10-year-old manager in 2001, beating CP twice that year as well. "We tend to feed off each other. It's been a good ride. We ran them out of pitchers. We still had Danny Manick in the hole."

Manick, who pitched the 6-2 victory over Crown Point in the opening game of the district finals, had not pitched since that day. Kooi was making his third start of the finals and he was not as effective as he was in the first game.

Hanaway said, "We didn't have three pitchers tonight (due to Little League rules) so we
stayed with Jeremy a little longer than we might have otherwise. Under last year's rules we could have brought back Nate Svhilik, who pitched a two hit shutout against Munster. But under this year's rules, he's ineligible. Danny Manick kept us off balance with his curve ball. He changed speeds at the right time. He said to me, "I had a hard time throwing the fast ball past your guys."

Little League rules used to say that anyone who sits out a game can come back as a pitcher. The new rules say that anyone who pitches four innings must sit out two days before he can pitch again. With CP in the loser's bracket, that meant than anybody who pitched four innings Friday (Svhilik) or more than one inning Saturday (Kyle Qualizza and Thomas Polus) could not take the mound Saturday.

Dave Wanda believed that his side also had an advantage.

"We had four pitchers left," he said.

Dyer made the score 7-1 on Kyle Scheffel's bases-loaded ground out in the fourth inning and the winners got RBI-hits from Philbin and Koricanic in the fifth. Crown Point got an RBI single from Josh Wright in the fourth inning and a run-scoring ground out from Miles Atherton in the fifth. It was a slowly played game lasting almost two hours under the setting Sunday evening sun with lots of multiple substitutions and scoring chances. Neither team ever went down in order and both sides left eight runners on base.

"That game last night was a memory for a lifetime," said Hanaway. "Those kids will be talking about that all through high school and beyond. We just didn't have any magic left tonight. We came up short."

Wanda didn't think his side hit well in the district finals despite the short distances (less than 185 feet to the fence at any point) of the Griffith Little League.

"Not yet," he said. "We can do a lot of damage from 2-6 in the order. We're getting close but it hasn't happened yet. We knew going in that we were probably the favorite but we didn't let the kids know that."

The physical size of the Dyer team was a difference. CP was very careful pitching to Manick and Philbin, players who towered over the CP boys. That led to a lot of walks and scoring chances for the winners.

"This has been a fun group to work with," said Hanaway. "They're all good ballplayers and they listen to you. They listen. They just need to grow. They're too little. A couple of years when these kids start maturing physically, they're going to be very good players when they get some size and strength. When they get to the high school, they're going to be very good."\

LITTLE NOTES: Manager Eli Kvachkoff took the loss hard after the eight-game playoff run that saw only the two defeats against CP's arch rivals. He thanked everybody for supporting his squad through the two weeks of playoffs.

Dyer shortstop Jimmy Wanda may have changed the direction of the game in the second inning. Dyer led 6-0 but Crown Point's Nick Bruno and Beau LaSalle had reached base with nobody out. Paul Aulwurm hit a ground ball to shortstop and, not only did Wanda tag Bruno as he ran to third, Wanda threw to second to force LaSalle for an unusual double play. Nate Svhilik and Josh Wright followed with singles to the outfield that would have scored three runs had Wanda not made his play.

You can't say the rivalry between Crown Point and Dyer has lessened, especially with Miles Atherton's game-winning three-run home run Saturday. But there was a tad less animosity between the two leagues than there has been.

After three tough games, coaches exchanged real handshakes and coaches had long talks with opposing players.

"I made a lot of friends over the years with Dyer," said Hanaway. "I've gone to parties with some of them and played poker with some of their guys. Dave Wanda and I have become pretty good friends. We had a friendly banter going on between the coaches box and the dugout. I don't know where they get those big kids. I don't know where they come from. Danny's already bigger than all the umpires out here."

MAJORS (ages 11-12)
District II finals at GRIFFITH - July 5
DYER 6, CROWN POINT 2
Munster National 2, Highland National 0

District II finals at GRIFFITH - July 6
Hessville 1, Munster American 0
Griffith 11, CEDAR LAKE 1

District II finals at GRIFFITH - July 7
Hessville 6, Highland National 3
CROWN POINT 8, Griffith 2

District II FINALS in GRIFFITH -   July 8
DYER 2, Munster National 0
CROWN POINT 9, Hessville 5

District II FINALS in GRIFFITH - July 11
CROWN POINT 2, Munster National 0

District II FINALS in GRIFFITH - July 12
CROWN POINT 6, DYER 5

District II FINALS in GRIFFITH - July 13
DYER 9, CROWN POINT 3 title

SECTIONAL ONE Playoff series in GRIFFITH    Friday, July 18
DYER (5-1) vs. District I champ - 7 p.m.

SECTIONAL ONE Playoff series in GRIFFITH Saturday, July 19
DYER vs. District I champ - 7 p.m.

SECTIONAL ONE Playoff series in GRIFFITH    Sunday, July 20
DYER vs. District I champ- TBA
(The Sectional one champion goes to the 56th Indiana state finals and will enter pool play on Thursday, July 24 at the Wabash, Ind. Little League)

District 2 Little League (age 11-12) Champions
2003 - DYER
2002 - Munster American
2001 - CROWN POINT
2000 - Robertsdale
1999 - DYER
1998 - DYER
1997 - DYER (state champion)
1996 - DYER
1995 - CROWN POINT (state champion)
1994 - Highland National
1993 - DYER (state champion)
1992 - CROWN POINT National
1991 - DYER
1990 - DYER
1989 - DYER
1988 - CROWN POINT
1987 - CROWN POINT
1986 - CROWN POINT
1985 - Highland American
1984 - Whiting
1983 - Robertsdale
1982 - Griffith (state champion)
1981 - East Chicago Ki-Yowga
1980 - CROWN POINT
1979 - CROWN POINT
1978 - Hammond Edison
1977 - Hammond Hessville
1976 - Whiting
1975 - Highland American (state champion)
1974 - Griffith American
1973 - Hammond Edison
1972 - Hammond Edison (state champion)
1971 - State Park (Chesterton)
1970 - Highland South (state champion)
1969 - Hammond Hessville
1968 - CROWN POINT
1967 - Hammond Maywood