CEDAR LAKE (7-15-2007) -  The Cubs are in contention to finish first.  The Chicago Bears just came back from the Super Bowl a few months ago where the Indianapolis Colts, of all teams, won it.  Purdue is recruiting all the good basketball players from Indiana and somebody's old lady is the leading candidate for president.  All those things can happen.

But Lowell against Cedar Lake for the District II Little League championship?  I guess it's not yet time for the apocalypse.  The world isn't ending just yet.

Coming into 2007, neither Lowell nor Cedar Lake's Little Leagues had ever had a baseball all-star team win the District II title.  With District II loaded with powers like Crown Point, Dyer, Munster, Highland and all the tradition rich north Lake County leagues of the past, neither had ever even reached the championship game.  Not surprisingly, the two leagues had never met at the District finals.  It almost happened last weekend.

Late Saturday night, Munster beat Lowell 10-0 and Highland stopped Cedar Lake 8-1 in the District II semifinals or the Little League's two perennial Lake County underdogs would have played one game against each other Sunday night in Cedar Lake for the right to go to the eight team age 10-and-under Little League state championships.

Lowell (5-1) left seven runners on base, six in the first three innings before Munster, which won all seven district games by 10 runs, scored six runs total in the fourth and fifth to end the game.

"We had our chances," said Lowell manager Tim Griesmer.  "We just couldn't get a hit when we needed it.  I thought our guys lost a lot of energy after they scored those three runs in the fourth (to make it 7-0).  But we were 5-1 in the post-season.  Our 12-year-olds were 5-1."

Lowell had won five games in a row, but they could manage just two hits off Munster pitchers Brandon Tepper and Drew Hackett.

"We've been very good," said Munster manager Cory Williams, who noted that the Munster 12s were also undefeated when they got blown out 12-2 by Dyer in the 12 District championship game at Munster on Friday.  "We've got to play well every night.  That's just the way it is."

The difference in perspective was striking.  Munster's post-season was a total loss if they didn't win the district title, while Lowell would have been happy just to reach the title game.

"The hardest thing to do," said Griesmer, "is to get them to the point where when you make a mistake, you don't make another one on top of it.  But they are very young and that's hard to do that, even when you're older."

In the 8:00 p.m. Saturday night semifinal in 75-degree weather, Cedar Lake actually held Highland scoreless until the third inning.  But in truth, they were probably not as close to beating Highland as Lowell was to upsetting Munster.

Highland right-hander Shane Peisker struck out eight of the first 10 Cedar Lake batters while Highland took control with a four-run third inning bankrolled on doubles by Peisker and Alex Khandivar.

"He was, by far, the best pitcher we have seen all year," said Cedar Lake manager Chris York, the former Hanover Central girls basketball coach.  "In this tournament and in any games we've played against anyone else, the better team won and it's no shame to lose to a better team."

Cedar Lake got two hits from Danny Balich, but all the hits came after the CL 10s had fallen behind.  Highland was bigger and stronger and they were never threatened in what could have been a difficult semifinal game against the host team.  But Cedar Lake, which beat both Dyer squads (in 10-and-under Little League, you are allowed to field two all-star teams) to reach the semifinals, had to consider the state playoff run a success.

"We made such huge strides this year," said York.  "Maybe next year we'll be playing for the District title.  If you can make strides every year, it's possible.  This team has made strides every year."

You can't predict the future in the Little League.  It's not like high school.  There are too many variables.  But 10-and-under all-stars is the ground floor for amateur baseball.  It's the first time you seriously take on the best from other towns.  And you don't need a crystal ball to see that, with the population shifts in the country and a spark of success, the winds of change are blowing in the Little League in Lake County.

Griesmer may have spoken for both Lowell and Cedar Lake when he said, "We just want the teams up north to know that there are some teams down in Lowell that are on the rise."

LITTLE NOTES:  Munster's Drew Hackett is the 10-year-old son of Munster boys varsity basketball coach Mike Hackett.  Highland 10-year-old pitcher Shane Peisker plays on a traveling team coached by Boone Grove softball coach Andrew Niksich.

Lowell's junior Little League (age 14-and-under) all-stars won the District II title with an 8-3 victory over Hessville Saturday in a game that started at 3:00 p.m.  When the game ended, many of the Lowell boys brought the championship banner north to the Cedar Lake Little League to show support for the 10-year-olds in their semifinal against the favored Munster team.

"Our boys were a little awestruck by that," said 10s manager Tim Griesmer.  "They didn't know that was going to happen.  I'm really glad they did that.  The little guys really look up to the older guys in the league and sometimes, the older ones forget that."

One of the features of the old Cedar Lake Little League for out-of-towners is the dairy farm directly to the south of the boys baseball fields.  Often, even after dark, the cows wander up to the Little League fence to see what's going on.

If the Cedar Lake Little League is ever to expand its present location, it might be onto that dairy farm.  It is believed that the farm owners would not sell to anyone but the Little League, if the League could ever raise the money for the purchase.

There were nine nights of state tournament baseball at Cedar Lake this month with the five pool play double-headers and the four nights of the district finals.  Despite some brief rainstorms, the pool play and district finals at the Cedar Lake Little League began and ended on time.  Parking, which was thought to be a possible problem, simply was not.  Other than the usual complaining from teams that lost, a good time appeared to be had by all.

Copyright © 2007 USA-365.com and Meyer Multimedia Services, a division of Meyer Broadcasting Corp.  All rights reserved.
Revised: July 17, 2007.