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Cedar Lake 10s beat Dyer
16-8,
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A
USA-365.com Special Report by Mark Smith
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| Team (Record) / Inning | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | R | H | E |
| CEDAR LAKE (3-1) | 2 | 6 | 5 | 3 | - | - | - | 16 | 5 | 3 |
| DYER (1-3) | 0 | 8 | 0 | 0 | - | - | - | 8 | 7 | 3 |
Tuesday, July 10, 2007 - 10-and-under all-stars - pool play at CEDAR LAKE, IN
WP - Alec Hammons
(1-0) 3K, 2 walks (2 innings)
LP - Elliott Mechanche (0-1) 3K, 6
walks
DYER (1-3)
Jeremy Malchumek (1B) Double, 2 RBIs
Tyler Matlock (CF) 2 singles
CEDAR LAKE (3-1)
Alec Hammons (OF) 4 walks, RBI
Cody Johnson (RF) Single, sac. Fly, 2 walks,
3 RBIs
Mike York (C) Single, walk, 2 runs scored
Bobby McClelland (2B) 4 walks
10-Year-Old All-Stars (10s)
Pool A at CEDAR LAKE
Little League - pool play
7-6 (Fri) LOWELL 14, CROWN POINT 4
7-6 (Fri) DYER 2, Highland 1
7-7 (Sat) CEDAR LAKE 13, CROWN POINT 8
7-7 (Sat) LOWELL 14, DYER 1 (4 innings)
7-8 (Sun) Highland 9, CROWN POINT 3
7-8 (Sun) LOWELL 9, CEDAR LAKE 7
7-9 (Mon) CEDAR LAKE 7, Highland 0
7-9 (Mon) CROWN POINT 18, DYER 3
7-10 (Tues) Highland 6, LOWELL 5
7-10 (Tues) CEDAR LAKE 16, DYER 8
10-Year-Old
All-Stars (10s)
District II finals at the CEDAR LAKE
Little League - pool play
7-12 (Thu) LOWELL (3-1) vs. Pool B
runner-up - 6:00 p.m.
7-12 (Thu) Munster (4-0) vs. Pool D
runner-up - 8:00 p.m.
7-13 (Fri) DYER (4-0) vs. CEDAR LAKE (3-1)
- 6:00 p.m.
7-13 (Fri) Munster or Highland vs. Pool C
runner-up - 8:00 p.m.
7-14 (Sa) Semifinal game one - 6:00 p.m.
7-14 (Sa) Semifinal game two - 8:00 p.m.
7-15 (Su) District championship - 6:00 p.m.*
*Winner advances to the state finals in
Jeffersonville, IN on Thursday, July 19.
CEDAR
LAKE (7-10-2007) -
It's 10-year-old Little League baseball. That's the only explanation
for a winner-take-all pool play game that starts at 9:30 at night that sees
one team lead by eight runs, lose the entire lead and then win by eight.
Wild is the name of the game and Cedar Lake lived to tell about it after a
curfew-shortened 16-8 game in the final pool play game of the first round of
10-and-under District II baseball play at the Cedar Lake Little League.
The win by the Cedar Lake 10s, their second in two nights over a much larger league, gave Cedar Lake the final spot in the eight team, single-elimination District II finals which begin Friday at 6:00 p.m. And while Crown Point, Highland, Dyer split their squads (you are allowed to enter two teams in the Little League in the 10-year-old bracket) while Cedar Lake does not, that fact had not helped Cedar Lake win in the past.
This team, based on speed and pitching, can consider the berth in the
District II Finals an achievement unto itself, even before they face Dyer's
undefeated 10-and-under squad in the quarterfinals Friday night at 6:00 p.m.
"Two years ago," recalled 10s head coach Chris York, "we reached the
championship game of our tournament and Lowell. Last year as nine year
olds, we advanced to Highland and lost to Dyer. So now we just hope to go a
step further and win a game at the District Finals."
Tuesday night's decisive win was not a pretty game in any way. Dyer pitchers walked 15 batters and Cedar Lake simply took advantage, first building an eight-run lead, keyed by two-run second inning singles from Cody Johnson and Travis Jones.
But Dyer got five hits off Cedar Lake starting pitcher Danny Balich and tied the game with the help of a two-run double by Jeremy Malchermek and a two-run throwing error by Cedar Lake catcher Mike York. Five Dyer walks led to five tie-breaking runs in the third inning and the game was called after four complete innings by an 11:00 p.m. curfew. The curfew came into play after the next-to-last pool play game, Highland's 6-5 win over Lowell, was delayed 90 minutes by an early evening rainstorm.
Both teams agreed before the 9:30 p.m. start that whatever inning was in play at 11 p.m. would be the last inning and there would be no suspended game.
The new Little League pitch count rules did not come into play. At the
10-and-under level, any pitcher who throws more than 20 pitches must sit out
a day and a game. Any who throws more than 45 must wait a game and two days
before pitching again and the limit under any circumstances is 85 pitches.
"It never came back to haunt us here," said York. "We didn't use one
kid who had thrown more than 20, but that wasn't a problem."
There is some difference of opinion as to whether the break between pool play and the district finals clears all pitching records or if those who pitch in the final pool play game will be limited in the quarterfinals. Cedar Lake officials said that pitching records carry over from pool play to the finals while Munster officials at the 12-and-under district finals said that all records start fresh at the finals.
"I hope it's the latter," said York. "Otherwise we really only have one pitcher (Justin Mascarella) who has pitched so far. We do have a couple of other guys that we haven't used yet, but I'd hoped to get them in tonight. It just wasn't possible."
Dyer ran out of pitching and the four-game pool play format and pitch count rules got them.
"They didn't have a lot of pitching," said York. "One of their parents
told me that the other 10-year-old team (the one Cedar Lake will see Friday)
got most of the pitching. And that's the way it should be. If you
have two teams, why would you split the talent evenly? If you do that,
they're both going to lose."
Alec Hammons, one of three 9-year-olds on the Cedar Lake squad, pitched two
shutout innings to get the win. The three eight-run swings of the game
was classic Little League and it was a little hard on the Cedar Lake
coaching staff going through all the changes.
If the new pitching rules carry over from pool play to the district finals,
Cedar Lake is also out of pitching. They could see undefeated teams in the
semifinals and finals.
"I wanted to get some other pitchers in for an inning," said York, who wanted to save pitches with either Balich or Hammons.
"But it just got too scary," said York, who was Hanover Central high school's girls varsity basketball coach for five years from 2001-2006. "It was intense. I was worried if we were going to get the game in. We were going good for a while and then, the wheels fell off. It was like being on the bench (in basketball). You see that on the court, too. You just want to press the 'stop' button because you can't control things."
"You have to win the games," York said. "The last two nights, we had to win. If we just make the plays we normally make, we'll be okay. If we don't make the mistakes you see a lot in 10-year-old Little League, we'll be okay."
Actually Cedar Lake is already OK. In a year when they did not field a 12-year-old state tournament team or a 16-year-old state tourney squad, they needed to show that the league can play. But it was Little League. When a light rain started to fall in the second inning of the game, Cedar Lake first baseman Travis Jones could be seen trying to catch raindrops in his mouth. In a picturesque sunset setting where cows from the next door dairy farm drifted up near the left field fence, winning was definitely in perspective.
"I've got to pinch myself all the time," said York. "And say, it's just 10-year-olds. Roll with it. It's hard because you want to make them competitive and you want to be competitive. You can't let things roll immediately, but you let them roll eventually."
LITTLE LEAGUE NOTES: It isn't certain if the 11:00 p.m. curfew was a Little League rule or a town rule. It was said that the limit was a Little League rule but two Cedar Lake policemen did show up at 11:00 p.m. to make sure the game ended.
Past Lake County District all-star playoff games at other cities had gone past 11:00 p.m. but the Cedar Lake Little League is in a residential area. Had Dyer won they would have faced the other Dyer squad in the quarterfinals. Little Leagues are allowed to field two teams in any level below the 12-and-under bracket.
Hanover Central's girls softball pitcher Jessica Toth was at the Little League to watch her nephew Danny Balich.
There is no sectional level in the 10-and-under playoffs. The winner of the Sunday night District championship at the Cedar Lake Little League goes directly to the eight-team state finals in Jeffersonville next Thursday, July 19. There is no national tourney for 10-year-olds.
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Revised: July 13, 2007.