Lowell takes 2 of 3 from East Chicago in Little League Seniors Sectional (Age 15-16)

July 26, 2004 - 60 degrees Sectional game three

LOWELL (7-26-2004) - Little League is a fantasy. A small boys game played on a small boys field. A make believe beginning and a story book ending. It rarely works out that way. But it did for Lowell Monday night.

Trailing 4-0 and seemingly down and out of the deciding game of the best-of-three sectional championship series in what would be the final game for the 16 years old on their hometown Little League field, Lowell's not-so-small boys created their storybook ending.

No matter what happens in this week's Senior Little League state finals, which begin with a 'pool play' game at 5 p.m. Friday at Terre Haute's West Vigo high school, Monday night's game will be their final Little League game.

It will be hard to have a better memory than scoring four runs in the final two innings to beat East Chicago 5-4 at the old, Creek Side Little League.

“I'm too old for this,” said coach Roger Hughes, who was manager of the last three Lowell teams that reached the state finals in 1998, 1999 and 2001. “I can't keep doing this.”

“They never gave up,” said present manager Dan Butor, who pulled the right strings on player decisions all night, including allowing substitute Jerry Hughes to bat with the winning run at second base in a tie game in the final inning.

“He's been with me a long time.” said Butor. “I knew he had it in him.”

It didn't look like Lowell had very much in them in the early going. East Chicago, which had not reached the state Little League finals at any level since 1974, took advantage of a nervous and shaky looking Lowell squad. Lowell starter Ryan King (3-0) gave up just two base hits but EC (5-3) scored three unearned runs on infield errors to build a 4-0 lead after 3 1/2 innings.

Lowell scored when relief pitcher Brian Gerlach walked with the bases loaded and two out in the fourth inning. But John Cap, the next batter, flied out on the first pitch and EC still had a three-run edge.

EC, which includes seven boys who are freshmen or sophomores at East Chicago high and five from state 2A baseball champion Bishop Noll, left the bases loaded in the fourth and the sixth. Gerlach, who allowed just three hits in four innings, struck out Jason Flores with three men on in the fourth. In the sixth inning, the Lowell right-hander got a strikeout and two ground outs after EC had filled the bases in the sixth.

“That was the turning point,” said EC manager Carlos Pena. “I blame myself there. We should have done something differently there.”

Lowell pitchers walked nine batters but that's a deceptive figure. Butor ordered East Chicago cleanup hitter Josh Rivera, who has three home runs in the first two games of the sectional series, intentionally walked every time at bat.

Under orders, Gerlach walked Rivera with runners at first and third and nobody out in the sixth. The move paid off when the last two EC batters of the inning hit into force plays, something that would not have been possible in a second and third scenario, which is what Lowell would have faced after EC stole second, a play Lowell could not defend at that point.

“We just decided that we were going to walk him every time up no matter what,” said Butor. “Sure, it was tough. There seemed to be two men on every time he came up. But we kept saying, if we let him hit, he's going to hit a three-run homer. We saw what he could do.”

“Josh had been carrying our offense,” said Pena. “They definitely took that away from us. But we should have scored more. We had the chances.”

This game was filled with drama. In the Lowell sixth inning, Gerlach batted with runners at first and third and hit a line drive to the left center field fence. One run scored but EC's David Alvarez fielded the ball cleanly and threw Gerlach out at second base by 15 feet to keep the score at 4-2.

In the seventh inning, Cap, who had flied out with the bases loaded in the fourth, drilled a 340-foot home run over the left center field fence.

Pena pulled Jason Flores, EC's curveballing starting pitcher and replaced him with shortstop Jon Cardenas. Cardenas walked Josh Kuiper on a 3-2 pitch and ran the count to 3-0 on Zach Voss. Pena then pulled Cardenas for Ryan Rodriguez, the starting pitcher two days earlier in EC's 7-4 loss to Lowell.

Rodriguez ran the count to 3-2 on Brendan Langen, who had six hits in the three-game series. Langen's line drive double to right center made the score 4-3. You could tell that a Lowell win was inevitable at that point.

“The slow-baller (Flores) was tough,” said infielder John Butor later. “We're used to faster pitchers. We could hit the guy who threw hard.'

Finally Jerry Hughes, the 16-year-old fourth son of his coach, slapped a 1-2 pitch past a pulled-in infield for the game and series-winning hit, setting off a wild celebration on the floor of Lowell's low-lying Little League diamond the traditional launching pad for the town's ballplayers.

“He'll remember that one forever,” said his dad, who managed a 16-and-under team with Matt Roberts, Tim Simmons, Justin Bales, Ed Overdorf and Nate Oaf to the state finals in 2001 in Danville. “He'll tell his children about that one."

Manager Butor had a night he'll tell his grandchildren about. The four intentional walks to Rivera, a Bishop Noll sophomore, all worked. None were followed by base hits. Butor also shunned a tiresome major league baseball trend and did not ask Langen to bunt in the final inning with the tying and winning runs at first and second and nobody out.

“He's too good a hitter,” Butor explained. “I knew he'd hit the ball.”

Lowell batters had been frustrating their home crowd of about 150 on a chilly July night by swinging at the first pitch and getting themselves out. Seven Lowell batters either grounded out or popped up on the first or second pitch against Jason Flores, a Whiting high sophomore who baffled the home batters with a soft curveball.

“We tried to do some things,” said manager Butor. “We had the boys move up in the batters' box. We were making contact. We just weren't hitting the ball hard."

Whether EC or Lowell are top teams (and there are hints that both are) is yet to be determined. But this was a great series. Lowell built an early 5-0 lead and survived two homers by Rivera to win 7-4 late Saturday night before ace EC left-hander Jimmy Flores struck out 12 in a two-hit complete game 3-2 win late Sunday.

Flores (4-0) finished his 2004 all-star campaign undefeated but, because of Little League rules, he could not throw as much as one pitch Monday night.

“Us losing to Merrillville (in the District I championship round) was big,” admitted Pena. “If we'd have won that game, we'd have had Jimmy for the first game and maybe the third. He did a pretty good job on two days rest.”

“These boys have been together since they were 12 years old and we thought this was the year we'd get to the finals. That (Monday's game) was the best game I ever saw Flores pitch. I just pulled him one batter too late.”

I'm not sure Lowell thought they were going to the state finals this year, but they are. And with three solid pitchers (King, Gerlach and Cap) the 16s have a chance to move beyond pool play, which requires three games played in three days.

The format requires offense because the semifinals and finals are on the same day (Monday, Aug. 2) and nobody is going to get five complete game pitching performances in four days. But it almost doesn't matter. The realistic goal is to reach the state finals. Especially in your final year.

Butor looked back at the still-lit playing field and said, “For the 16 year olds, this was quite a last game.'

LOWELL NOTES: Lowell's 16s will play Friday at 5 p.m., Saturday at one p.m. and Sunday night at 7:30 p.m. at West Vigo high school, near the Illinois state line. Terre Haute is in Vigo County. If they finish in the top two of their pool (they need to win two out of three) they will play a semifinal game Monday at 10 a.m. or 12 noon. The state championship game is a 7 p.m. start Monday night.

Lowell will discover immediately that while it is cool and fall like in Lake County, it will not be that way in Terre Haute. Temperatures are predicted to be in the 85-90 degree range every day this weekend and only occasional rain is predicted.

Lowell Little League dads prepared the field for Monday night's deciding game despite two or three hours of light rain Monday afternoon. The field was in good condition and had absolutely no bearing on the outcome of the game.

Lowell protested a substitution by East Chicago where EC put in a substitute for a previously inserted substitute. There was formerly a rule that said you could not do that. That rule has been changed. A call to Little League headquarters in Williamsport Pa. confirmed that and EC's substitution was ruled legal.

Lowell used the 'hidden ball' trick to ended the EC fifth inning. After Obed Perez had singled, Lowell pretended to throw the ball back to the pitcher. When Perez took his foot off the bag he was tagged out by first baseman Jerry Hughes.

Four of the top five boys in the EC batting order, Perez, Jon Cardenas, Josh Rivera and Jimmy Flores, are Bishop Noll students and will play for coach Dave Griffin next year. All of Lowell's players are students at Lowell high school, a pleasant prospect for new coach Tom Stoner, who was in attendance at the sectional playoff series.

East Chicago (5-3)

Double elimination (ages 15-16) at Longfellow Little League

East Chicago 7, Indiana Harbor 0

East Chicago 13, MERRILLVILLE 5

East Chicago 1, South Haven 0

MERRILLVILLE 14, East Chicago 11

East Chicago 8, MERRILLVILLE 0 (title)

SECTIONAL PLAYOFF SERIES

JULY 24 - LOWELL 7, East Chicago 4

JULY 25 - East Chicago 3, LOWELL 2

JULY 26 - LOWELL 5, East Chicago 4 (title)

Lowell (5-2)

Double elimination (ages 15-16) at Lowell Little League

LOWELL 8, Roselawn 0

LOWELL 10, DeMotte 6

DeMotte 3, LOWELL 2

LOWELL 18, DeMotte 0 (5 inn.) title

SECTIONAL PLAYOFF SERIES

JULY 24 - LOWELL 7, East Chicago 4

JULY 25 - East Chicago 3, LOWELL 2

JULY 26 - LOWELL 5, East Chicago 4 (title)

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Revised: July 29, 2004.