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Lowell 14s beat Hessville
8-3,
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A
USA-365.com Special Report by Mark Smith
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District II Junior (age 14-and-under) Little League
at the Creek Side Little League - Lowell (winners bracket -
double-elimination)
7-8-2007: Wheatfield 9, Hebron 5; CEDAR 10, Roselawn 0
7-9-2007:
Hessville
13, Wheatfield 5; LOWELL 5, CEDAR LAKE 2
7-10-2007: LOWELL 12, Hessville 2
7-12-2007:
Hessville
10, Wheatfield 3
7-13-2007:
Hessville 15,
LOWELL 6
7-14-2007: LOWELL 8, Hessville 3 (title)
*Lowell faces Merrillville in the best-of-3 sectional playoffs beginning
Saturday at the (District I host) Portage Little League,
with the winner advancing to the 8-team state finals on July 26.
| Team (Record) / Inning | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | R | H | E |
| HESSVILLE (3-2) | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 3 | 9 | 4 |
| LOWELL (3-1) | 4 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | - | 8 | 13 | 5 |
Saturday,
July 14, 2007 -
District II Junior Little League championship game two - double elimination,
87-degrees & sunny at Creek Side Little League, LOWELL, IN
WP - Jordan Juarez (1-0) CG (78 pitches), 5K, 0 walks
LP - Jake Scarborough (1-1) 5K, 0 walks (4-2/3 innings - 98 pitches)
Hessville (3-2)
Chris McCormack (C) 2 singles
Jake Scarborough (P-SS) Double, single, RBI
Cameron Copeland (C) Single, RBI
LOWELL (3-1)
Matt Hillbrich (CF) 3 singles, walk
Josh Henshilwood (C) Double, 2 RBIs
Jordan Juarez (P) Double, single, RBI
Tyler Myers (SS) 2 singles
| Team (Record) / Inning | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | R | H | E |
| HESSVILLE (3-1) | 0 | 0 | 11 | 0 | 1 | 3 | 0 | 15 | 12 | 2 |
| LOWELL (2-1) | 0 | 5 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 6 | 7 | 6 |
Friday,
July 13, 2007 -
District II Junior Little League championship game one - double elimination,
75-degrees & sunny at Creek Side Little League, LOWELL, IN
WP - Mike Vitkus (2-0) 5K, 5 walks (4 2/3 inn - 95 pitches)
Robert House (Save) 1K, 1 walk (2 1/3 inn.)
LP - Tyler Myers (1-1) 4K, 4 walks, 7 ERs ( 2 2/3 innings)
Hessville (3-1)
Chris McCormack (C) 3 singles, RBI
Jake Scarborough (SS) 2 singles, HBP, 3 RBIs
Shane Scarborough (LF) 2 singles, RBI
Mike Vitkus (P-SS) Double, 2 singles, walk, 5 RBIs
Robert House (3B-P) Single, walk, 3 runs scored
Jake Santos (LF) 2 walks, 2 runs scored
Nick Bogucki (1B) Single, 2 walks
Jake Santos (CF) 2 walks, 2 runs scored
LOWELL (3-1)
Matt Hillbrich (CF) Single, 2 walks, RBI
Jordan Juarez (SS) Triple, 2 singles, 3 RBIs
Austin Magley (3B) HBP, single
LOWELL (7-14-2007) -
It's no leap of faith. Lowell is supposed to win the junior (age
14-and-under) and senior (age 16 and under) Little League playoffs on the
Lowell Little League's home field, the Creek Side Little League on the north
side of town. So when the Lowell 14s took a 5-0 lead in the second inning
of game one of the District II championship round game one late Friday
night, no one was surprised. But the Hessville all-stars just wouldn't
let it go. Hessville rallied with an 11-run third inning and the finals had
truly begun.
The Morton high incoming freshmen dominated the rest of the game, which lasted well past 11:00 p.m., and the finals series was even. But Lowell responded with four runs in the first inning of Saturday's winner-take all final game and the 14s regained the District II title with an 8-3 win late Saturday afternoon.
Lowell will now take on Merrillville, a 6-5 winner over Portage in the
District I championship round Friday night, in the best-of-3 game sectional
championship set to begin tentatively on Friday, July 20 at the Portage
Little League.
But I don't know if Merrillville will be any tougher than Hessville (3-2),
which nagged Lowell with speedy base runners up until right-handed pitcher
Jordan Juarez got the final out with two on in the 5:00 p.m. sunshine
Saturday. Juarez went out in the late afternoon warmth and completed seven
innings in just 78 pitches, beating the heat and restrictive new Little
League pitch count rules.
"We had Jordan and Josh (Henshilwood)," said 14s manager Eric Henshilwood, who used up three pitchers (anyone who throws more than 20 pitches cannot come back the next game) in the 15-6 loss late Friday night. "I think either one of them could have done the job today. It's just that I've never seen Justin have two bad games in a row. Justin just did what we asked him to do today. They all did."
Josh Henshilwood, who doubled in two runs in the first inning, said that he and his teammates didn't go home crying over blowing a five run lead and getting beat by nine on their home field.
"We just had to get past that," he said after the final game. "It's just a tough game. We just had to come in today and play our game."
Henshilwood said that when Lowell led 6-1 Saturday, they did notice that was the same lead (five runs) they held Friday before Hessville smoked them.
"I definitely noticed," said his dad and manager. "I kept saying we need
more runs."
Lowell led 6-1 after two innings. An RBI double by Juarez and a
run-scoring single from Kevin Conners were wrapped around Henshilwood's two
run double against Hessville right-hander Jake Scarborough. Singles by
Mike Bafia, Matt Hilbrich and Austin Magley produced three runs in the
second inning.
That lead held until Hessville pushed across a run on a double steal in the
fifth inning. Juarez struck out only five, but he didn't walk anyone
and Hessville swung early in the count. Matt Hilbrich was solid in
center field for the Lowell 14s and the defense made a couple of outstanding
plays. But Lowell did make 11 errors in the final two games and they
have to clean that up before the sectional playoff series.
Lowell coach Scott Rosenbaum suggested that the week off will make then
better defensively.
"During the season, these guys are in different teams," he explained, after
Lowell messed up a couple of rundowns in Friday's loss. "And some of the
guys aren't really that into it. So when we get them (the all-stars)
together and start to work on things, they wonder why we have to work on
that. Then we show them some things and they see, 'Oh yeah, we do need to
work on that.'"
Lowell was not good at all in the 15-6 Hessville win and that's probably
being kind. Three Lowell pitchers gave up 12 hits and eight walks
while Hessville, coached by John Kudlo, stole four bases.
"We just held together after they scored five," said Kudlo, "and then we got it going and they made some mistakes."
Henshilwood said, "We just made so many physical and mental mistakes it's hard to believe."
But the Lowell coaching staff didn't keep the boys on the field for a double practice after the late night loss.
Rosenbaum said, "We just talked about some of the mistakes and we said, 'Let's go home' because there's nothing we can do about them now'."
The strategy appeared to work when Lowell scored four times in the first
inning Saturday.
"I was just hoping our attitudes were there today," said Harris Rosenbaum,
who was asked if his coaches reminded the team just how embarrassing it
would be to be eliminated on your own home field.
"Well, yeah," he laughed. "They said something like that."
Truthfully, this is where Lowell teams falter because the difference in talent from the district play to the sectional sometimes is very large. In that respect, Hessville helped Lowell because the Merrillville 14s probably won't be much better than Hessville was.
"I was worried right down to the end," coach Rosenbaum said. "When they had runners on at the end, I kept telling them don't worry about the runners, just get an out. But they're still young players."
"Merrillville was here scouting us tonight us. But I'm good friends
with the Merrillville coach. We'll know all about them."
JUNIOR NOTES: Lowell's 14s pitcher/shortstop Jordan Juarez's
brother Justin is Lowell's Senior Little League catcher, not to mention the
defensive end on the Lowell football team. After Jordan's complete game
victory and going 2-for-4 at the plate, Justin joked, "He takes after me."
In all seriousness, if you are a pitcher, it can't possibly hurt you to have an older brother who is a catcher.
"I came out about noon to work on his curve ball, but he didn't need even go today. He had some good defense behind him."
Hessville won four games and dominated the District II finals in 2006.
They beat Lowell 7-6 and 6-3.
Hessville
beat DeMotte 12-2 for the title and outscored four foes 42-11.
Hessville
reached the state finals in Monticello in 2006.
It's a good baseball summer for Hammond. The 14s advanced to the final game
in District II Little League play and the Babe Ruth 15-year-old Hammond
all-stars are 2-0 after wins over LaPorte 5-2 and Marion 8-1 in the State
Babe Ruth finals in LaPorte. Many Morton high players play for Cedar Lake
Post 261 (9-7) in 19-and-under American Legion ball.
Lowell's 14-and under all-stars posed for pictures with the district championship banner and then took the banner over to the Cedar Lake Little League where the Lowell 10s were battling Munster in the District II semifinals.
"They don't understand how much the little guys look up to them," said manager Eric Henshilwood. "When you're 14, you don't understand that. But when you're 10, the older guys in the Little League are guys you want to be like."
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Revised: July 17, 2007.