Lowell Senior Little League all-stars battle back for 4-3

District II Championship win over Griffith

A USA-365.com Special Report By Mark Smith

(7-27-2005)

Team (Record) / Inning	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	R	H	E
GRIFFITH (2-2)	0	0	0	1	1	0	1	3	9	1
LOWELL (4-0)	0	0	0	0	3	0	1	4	7	3

Thursday, July 21, 2005 - Senior Little League (age 16 and under) District II Championship

WP - John Harker (1-0) 4K, 0 walks (3 inn.)

(L) Nick Bolda (Starter) 1K, 2 walks (4 innings)

LP - Curt Konopasek (0-2) CG, 3K, 3 walks

GRIFFITH (2-2)

Curt Konopasek (P) Double, single

Aaron Salcynski (3B) 2 singles, walk

Joe Zajak (Catcher) Single, RBI

Tim Cooper (SS) Single,walk

Nate Bryan (CF) Single, walk RBI

LOWELL (4-0)

Jon Stoner (2B) 2 singles, run scored

Zak Hoffman (1B) HR, 2 RBIs, walk

Nate Korth (SS) HR, Sac Fly, 2 RBIs

Matt Kay (CF) 2 singles

2005 District II playoffs - SENIOR LITTLE LEAGUE

LOWELL 8, DeMotte 1; Griffith 13, CEDAR LAKE 2

LOWELL 12, HEBRON 1

DeMotte 27, CEDAR LAKE 1 (5 innings)

LOWELL 12, Griffith 1 (5 innings)

DeMotte 5, HEBRON 3

Griffith 4, DeMotte 3 (11 innings)

LOWELL 4, Griffith 3 (title)

LOWELL (7-21-2005) - In your final home game, win or lose, you want to do something spectacular.

It doesn't hurt to win, too, though.

None of the Lowell boys went away empty-handed as the Lowell Senior Little League all-stars completed a four-game sweep of the 2005 District II finals late Thursday with a memorable 4-3 win over rival Griffith.

Trailing for the first time in the entire tournament and just nine outs away from a winner take all game on Friday, Lowell's 16s broke out the big flies. Zak Hoffman and Nate Korth, two veterans of Lowell's Senior Little League state championship team, drove line drive home runs beyond left field to put the home team ahead 3-2. After Griffith mounted an 11^th hour rally and tied the game on Nate Bryan's two-out single in the top of the seventh, Lowell won the game in the bottom of the last inning.

Jon Stoner singled to left and advanced to second when Griffith left fielder Jeremi O'Brien made a wild throw back to the infield. After a wild pitch by starting pitcher Curt Konopasek, Griffith intentionally walked Kevin Donovan and Hoffman to fill the bases. Korth then hit a mighty pop up into short right field. Griffith second baseman Kyle Najar made the catch with his back to the infield and Stoner tagged up and scored in a cloud of dust to give Lowell a second consecutive district championship.

“This was much better than winning 10-0,” said Lowell manager and Zak's dad, Paul Hoffman. “I never hesitated (sending Stoner). I knew he could make it.”

But the big moment in the game came in the fifth. Jon Cap led off with a single. But Lowell was stunned when Jon Stoner's deep drive, which looked like it would tie the game, was grabbed by Griffith's speedy center field Nate Bryan who actually reached above the left center field fence to grab the potential homer. After Griffith pitcher Curt Konopasek retired Kevin Donovan for the second out, Zak Hoffman, who was 0-for-2 on the night, changed the game with a long drive, far beyond the left field fence to the right of the scoreboard, tying the game 2-2.

“That felt really good,” Zak would say later. “He threw me a low breaking ball. I watched it a little. I ran but I had my head up. But I really didn't see where it landed.”

Paul Hoffman tried not to brag on his son but he almost had to.

“I know he can do that almost any time up,” said the manager. “But I'm in the coach's box saying to myself, 'Okay, Zak, it's getting late. This would be a good time to do it.”

Korth, the most gifted of several 16s who are headed for the Lowell varsity next spring, then hit a low line drive that cleared the fence landing on the embankment that surrounds the sunken Lowell Little League field to make it 3-2.

“Us giving up the tie was one thing,” said Griffith manager Greg O'Donnell, who is head baseball coach at Hammond high. “But giving up the lead right there. That was tough. But that's a very good Lowell team.“

There were many big plays in this game. In the Lowell fourth inning, Kyle O'Keefe was hit by a pitch. But he was quickly doubled off first after Kuiper hit a hard line drive back to the pitcher Konopasek.

Matt Kay followed with a hit, but John Harker's line drive in the gap to right center field was run down by Bryan, a 6-1, 210-pound top shelf outfield prospect. In the sixth inning with Lowell ahead 3-2, Griffith's Tim Cooper singled, stole second and move to third on a wild pitch. With one out, Griffith's Kyle Najar hit a ground ball to Lowell's Jon Stoner at second base. Stoner made a strong throw home and Kuiper slapped the tag on the sliding Cooper in time for the second out, much to the dismay of the Griffith fans and bench.

“I made the tag,” said Kuiper. “Definitely. I blocked the plate and I made the tag. I know it didn't look like it from the Griffith side (of the field). He slid but he slid early because I had it blocked. I'm sure he was out.”

Griffith had an obstacle to overcome before Lowell took the field. The Griffith 16s, who lost 11-0 to Lowell on Monday (7-18-2005), had their loser's bracket game with DeMotte suspended by lightning with the scored tied 3-3 in the eighth inning Wednesday (7-20-2005) night. When they returned to Lowell at 5:30 p.m. Thursday, Griffith and DeMotte battled into the 11^th inning before Konopasek singled in the winning run.

Griffith's 16s had to use tricky relief pitcher Danny Wolosyn, a submarine ball left-hander, to stop DeMotte and he wasn't available against Lowell. But the spirit was willing and the visitors dropped Lowell behind for the first time in four games when Zajac singled home Will Frets with one out in the fourth.

“I didn't think we were in trouble,” said Kuiper, a veteran of Lowell's 2004 state champs, who didn't admit to any extra pressure. “I knew all we needed was one big shot. Yeah, I knew this was our last game here. We all knew it.”

The presence of Griffith in the District II Senior Little League playoffs takes the tournament to another level. The three-way collision of DeMotte, the feeder league for Kankakee Valley high school, Lowell and Griffith, if they field a Senior League team every year, could be something to see annually. Those three high schools are all presently in the Lake Athletic Conference and, after 2006, will all split away into the new Northwest Crossroads Conference.

Kuiper said that nothing short of a repeat state title will be good enough for the Lowell 16s, who begin play Thursday afternoon at 2 p.m. at the Portage Little League.

“That's for sure,” he said. “That's what we're all saying. No sense in giving it back (the state title). We need to keep it.”

DISTRICT NOTES: The addition of Griffith to Senior Little League could help the Lowell high school program because Lowell players will be competing against Griffith, a perennial baseball power and Lowell's high school rival, every summer. But it is not a sure thing that Griffith will field a Senior Little League team in 2006. This was an exceptional 16-year-old class at Griffith. Elite 16-year-old Griffith players Ryan Bridges and Matt Kuna are on traveling teams and not in Senior Little League. There was a desire to keep this particular 16-year-old Griffith team together.

Manager Greg O'Donnell wasn't sure why Griffith started a Senior Little League team this season. Usually, towns that have Babe Ruth baseball do not have Senior and Junior Little League and Griffith had not had Senior Little League in recent years..

“I wasn't involved in that decision,” said O'Donnell, who feels this is a special class of ballplayers. “I did not know these boys before this year. But I think they wanted somebody from outside to coach the boys. They wanted to get away from a situation where you had dads of players coaching.”

O'Donnell thought that Lowell's Creek Side Little League ballpark was a little small.

“It's short,” he said of the fences. “When we play at Griffith (high), the fences are deeper. But DeMotte is short too. A lot of Senior Little League parks are short.”

Lowell's 16s don't have to be hit with a stick to realize that with Lowell head varsity coach Tom Stoner being an assistant coach on the 16s all-star squad, any ability they show won't be forgotten by the guy who could start them 30 times at the high school next spring. Of the 11-man roster, only 15-year-old third baseman Kevin Donovan is not 16 years old.

Stoner hopes that the 16s will stick together on Lowell Post 101's American Legion squad in 2006 much the same way that Valparaiso's entire varsity has played for Valpo American Legion Post 94. Lowell 's Legion team finished at 4-21 last weekend. Valpo's team ended up at 20-10. Something that might be considered would be for Lowell Post 101 to field a 'B' team (age 17 and under) to keep the Senior Little League champs together.