Lowell settles for LAC Tourney runner-up after falling 10-0 to Andrean in final

LAC semifinal  -  5-22-2003   -  53 degrees, sunny in LOWELL
WP  -    Justin Bales (5-0)  3Ks, 1 walk,  CG No. 2
LP  -   Sean Sexton (4-3)  0K, 4 walks (4.3 inn.)

Griffith (5 singles, 0-2 stolen bases)
Ben Bartley (G) 2 singles
Jordan Buzea (G) 3 singles

LOWELL  (2 doubles, 8 singles 1-1 stolen bases)
CJ Hall (LOWELL) Double, single, 4 RBIs
Matt Roberts (LOWELL) Double, single, RBI
Ryan Basham (LOWELL) Single, 2 walks
Ed Overdorf (LOWELL) Single, bunt sac, RBI
Jason Corns (LOWELL) Single, RBI

LAC championship  -  5-24-2003   -  56 degrees, clear in Munster
WP  -    Mike Ryan (9-0)  CG,  7Ks, 3 walks
LP  -   Brian Stamper (6-3)  3Ks, 2 walks (3.3 innings)

ANDREAN (12 singles, 1 double, 1-2 stolen bases
Ben Bartley (G) 2 singles
Jordan Buzea (G) 3 singles

LOWELL  (3 singles, 1-2 stolen bases)
Mike Stoner (LOWELL) Single, walk, stolen base
Ryan Basham (LOWELL) Single
Nate Oaf (LOWELL) Single

On May 3, Andrean was beaten 11-2 in West Lafayette in the Saturday night finals of the Harrison Invitational. On May 10, they got beat twice, 3-1 by Penn and 8-4 by Carroll at Plymouth's Bill Nixon Field. Lowell had not played in any tournaments and had not played any night games.

If you don't think the road tournament competition (and the Red Devils' lack of same) led to the 59ers' 10-0 win over Lowell in the finals of the Lake Athletic Conference (LAC) championship last Saturday night, you might not understand what's going on.

The 59ers (21-5) were efficient and potent while Lowell made a week's worth of mistakes as Andrean won the LAC tournament title game for the fourth consecutive season.

"This was for all the seniors," said senior Jeff Mojzik. "A lot of us didn't play as a freshman. But still it's our class that's never lost."

Lowell coach Kent Hess said his team needed to play in Munster, the site of next month's Munster Class 4A sectional.

"This is a tough field to play," said Lowell coach Kent Hess. "It's a tough field to play, with the dusk-dark thing.  It was a big advantage to get here and play in a pressure situation. Winner-take-all situation.  Hopefully we've got our best baseball still ahead of us."

Against undefeated right-hander Mike Ryan (9-0), Lowell did not resemble the team that averaged 10 runs a game all year or the team that got nine hits in the May 12 Red Devil 4-2 victory at Andrean.

With a runner at third and one out in the first inning, Ryan got Lowell all-stater Ryan Basham (.602, 12 HRs, 40 RBIs) on a pop-up to short center field and clean-up batter Ed Overdorf on a ground ball to third base.

The 59ers struck first in the second inning when Jeff Mojzik walked and Lou Grugel reached base on an infield hit with one out. Junior Ryne Pishkur then lined an RBI base hit to right field and Nick Stockwell made it 2-0 with another infield hit to deep short.

The 59ers moved out to a 3-0 lead in the top of the third when Red Devil right fielder Danny Baietto missed Jim Jaworski's slicing line drive down the right field line. Mike Staehle scored on the play to make it 3-0.

Lowell had two runners on base on a single and an error in the third inning but Overdorf grounded out to first.  Andrean scored two more in the fourth inning on singles by Pishkur and Stockwell.  On a short wild pitch, Pishkur raced to third and CJ Hall's throw tipped and bounced off Pishkur's helmet, allowing the 4-0 run to score.  Andrean catcher Mike Staehle followed with a single to make it 5-0.

Lowell misfired on another chance in the fourth inning, after leadoff walks by Justin Bales and CJ Hall.  A short wild pitch got away from Staehle, but the 59ers catcher recovered the ball and threw out Bales going to third base. Pinch hitter Nate Oaf followed with a single but Lowell could not score.

"Sometimes, you are a little too aggressive," said Hess, on Bales play.  "We had runners on base in almost every inning. We just didn't hit the ball when we needed to. Against Griffith (in the semifinals), it was scoreless and Danny (Baietto) got a little infield hit and then the floodgates opened."

"That didn't happen for us tonight. We really haven't had a game where we were out of it all year long.  We were talking about that this week.  How would we respond?  We threw the ball off a runner's head at third base when we didn't need it.  Tried to take an extra base when we didn't need it."

"Credit goes to them. They made a lot of things happen. But we were faced with some adversity and we didn't handle it well."

Coach Dave Pishkur thought about evening the score after the Red Devils had won at Andrean in early May but he didn't call that a factor.

"That's a nice thing.  Back in my day, if you lose to a team you're supposed to want to come back and get them.  I don't know if kids today know that.  But, we played well.  Mike threw strikes and he's pretty overpowering for a high school kid.  A lot of kids stepped up and hit.  Ryne (Pishkur) took over at first and we put Jeff (Mojzik) out there in left field.  I know what Ryne can do but, being the coach's son and all, he's always had a lot of pressure on him.  Tonight he hit the ball hard.  3-for-3 and a home run that the wind blew foul."

Andrean lost outfielder Roco Marcinak for the season with a separated shoulder that he suffered horsing around with teammate Lou Grugel at school during the week but Pishkur moved catcher Jeff Mojzik to left field and put junior Mike Staehle behind the plate.

"We have 17 guys," Mojzik said, "And we have a lot of confidence in whoever we put out there.  It's not about one guy.  We have a lot of guys who can play."

Pishkur added. "Jeff's versatility is the key. And that's part of the unselfishness of this team. Jeff could be complaining about why he's not catching. He could be saying, "I should be catching." And you know what? He should be catching. He's a two-time all conference player. But for the sake of the team., we needed to put somebody else in there. It worked for the best."

Since high school baseball seasons are not anywhere near long enough to find out who the best team truly is, the secret is to be playing the best at the end of the season.  Andrean faces rival Griffith (16-10) in the 3A Sectional quarterfinals on June 2.  Lowell is almost certain to be in the Munster Sectional championship game the night of June 7 against either Lake Central or Munster.
The 59ers' second Saturday night title game turned out a lot better than their first. After their first blowout loss of the season, Lowell and Hess can hope for the same.

"We're a lot better than we showed tonight, he said."

DEVIL NOTES:   Andrean has four boys who played on the Dyer Little League all-star team that advanced to the World Series in 1997. Lake Central also has players on that squad and, while LC and Andrean have not scheduled each other the last couple of years, the 59ers have reached out to LC in hopes of creating a game to be played this week.

"We might be playing them next week," said Mojzik of Lake Central. "We've called them. Coach (Dave Pishkur) was trying to give us another incentive to win and he said he'd call if we won the tournament.  It's not for him, it would be for us. We've never played on the varsity level."

"Bill Mueller (Andrean's athletic director) called," said Pishkur, who explained that the series had broken down over a couple of disputes in the past. "I asked him to. It would be for them. So many of the boys played together in Dyer."

"It would be nice to play them with Mike (Ryan) pitching but Mike's next start will be against Griffith (in the 3A Sectional quarterfinals on June 2.). But the kids want to play the game."

Lowell rolled over Griffith in the LAC semifinals Thursday (May 22) behind the strongest pitching performance of the year by Justin Bales (5-0). The 6-3 left-hander, who was plagued by wildness early in the season, walked only one batter in a seven-inning, five-hit complete game. Catcher CJ Hall threw out potential Panther base-stealers in the first and fourth innings with the game still scoreless. Hall's bases-loaded single gave the Red Devils a 2-0 lead and his two-run double capped a five-run fifth inning that put the game out of reach.

Stamper could not get the ball down in the strike zone Saturday night and he gave up eight hits in less than four innings.  Matt Roberts came on in relief with one out in the fourth and Justin Bales came in to pitch with one out in the fifth.  Hess wanted to make sure that his three senior starting pitchers all got to throw off the Munster mound.

"We'd hoped to get Brian to throw the fourth inning but we couldn't so we had to go with Matt Roberts out there without him warming up (other than the 8 allowed pitches). Then, we'd hoped to get Matt Roberts throw the fifth inning. But he didn't make it so we had to put Justin Bales in there. Justin threw well (2 strikeouts) after the first batter."

It would figure that Stamper, Bales and Roberts will pitch in the three Munster Sectional tournament games. To get them on the mound was a small plus.

"When you have a game that's a negative, you try to make a positive out of it. That's probably how we'll go."

LOWELL (21-5, 11-2  LAC)
Head Coach Kent Hess (16th year,  219-230-1)  2002: 21-11  -   LAC Games in CAPS

4-3:    5-4 at Wheeler (14-9)
4-5:   8-1 Boone Grove (18-6) at RailCats Stadium - Gary
4-8:    3-5 Lake Central (17-4)
4-10:  0-1 Rensselaer (14-7)
4-11:  12-2 (5 innings) Hanover Central (16-8)
4-12:  29-8 (5 innings) at East Chicago (3-20)
4-15: 12-11 MUNSTER (18-7)
4-16:  7-8 at CLARK (17-6)
4-17:  11-1 (5 innings) at South Newton (8-14)
4-21:  21-1 (5 innings) at GAVIT (9-12)
4-22:  6-4 GRIFFITH (16-10)
4-25:  8-3 BISHOP NOLL (16-9)
4-28:  26-1 (5 innings) HAMMOND (2-20)
5-2:   21-3 (5 innings) WHITING  (12-11)
5-3:  14-3 (5 innings) Merrillville (6-16)
5-5: 8-1 at CALUMET (7-15)
5-6: 3-0 LAKE STATION (3-22)
5-7:  1-2 at HIGHLAND (21-5)
5-9:  (forfeit) MORTON (6-15)
5-10:  (rain) Gary West Side (0-6)
5-12: 4-2 at ANDREAN (21-5)
5-13: 18-1 (5 innings) Gary West Side (0-6)
5-14: 7-3  Kankakee Valley (12-15)
5-15: 5-0 Hebron (6-16)

LAC Tournament  (finals at Munster)
5-20:  5-0 Kankakee Valley  (12-15) quarterfinals
5-22:  8-0 Griffith  (16-10)  semifinals
5-24:  0-10 (5) Andrean (21-5)  championship

5-27 (Tu) at Crown Point (16-8-1)
5-30 (F) at LaPorte (17-7-1)

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