Crown Point 14s advance to Babe Ruth Ohio Valley Regional Finals before falling 11-6 to Eau Claire, WI in Munster

Crown Point PowerDogs pitched Steven Mack fires away against Evergreen Park. Mack cane out of the bullpen in the third inning and finished the semifinal win. (All photos by Mark Smith)

Crown Point 14s third base man Mick Vagner reached base six times in the final two games against Evergreen Park and Eau Claire.

Crown Point first baseman Jake Biederstadt is happy to tag out Evergreen Park base-runner Grady Elwood (3) early in the Ohio Valley semifinals.

Eau Claire's Kellen Smith (33) leads off third base while Crown Point's Aslyn Farinelli keeps him close. The PowerDogs led 2-0 but Eau Claire came back strong.

Crown Point's Andrew Wallen heads up the third base line to score against Evergreen Park in the Ohio Valley semifinals. Wallen scored third runs in the 19-4 CP win.

PowerDogs catcher Drew Croell eyes his teams' defense. Croell drove in three runs in the semifinal win over Evergreen Park.

Crown Point's Jake Biederstadt pitched the first two innings of the PowerDogs' 19-4 victory over undefeated Evergreen Park, Illinois in the Ohio Valley semifinals.

Crown Point left-hander Grant Anderson (0) came out of the bullpen to try to stop undefeated Eau Claire in the championship game of the Ohio Valley age-14 all-star playoffs.

Crown Point right-hander Zane Biernat (0) slowed down the unbeaten Eau Claire A's in the middle of the Ohio Valley age-14 all-star championship game.

Crown Point's Andrew Wallen (23) welcomes Mick Vagner to home plate in the semifinals against Evergreen Park. Vagner went 4-for-5 in the Ohio Valley semifinals.

Crown Point's Aslyn Farinelli (13) likes the way things are going against Evergreen Park. Farinelli reached base five times in the Ohio Valley semifinals.

Crown Point PowerDog Ryan Finley takes a high one against Evergreen Park in the Ohio Valley semifinals. Finley 's RBI double capped a five-run Crown Point first inning.

The 11 a.m. Sunday morning start was way too early for some little folks at the Ohio Valley championship game in Munster.

CP PowerDog Jake Biederstadt heads up the third base line in Crown Point's three-run sixth inning against Eau Claire in the Ohio Valley age-14 championship game.

'Dusty.' 'Dirt Harry.' 'The Dark Knight.' Crown Point's Mick Vagner was offered many new nicknames after diving head first into home plate again in the Ohio Valley age-14 all-star tournament.

Eau Claire's A's shortstop Cooper Jesperson (23) was named the Most Valuable Player of the championship game. Jesperson drove in three runs and scored three times in the 11-6 victory over Crown Point.

The Crown Point PowerDogs took the final loss well. Aslyn Farinelli (right) and a cleaned-up Mick Vagner are all smiles in the post-game sunshine.

CP's Ryan Head wears his second place medal on the first base line after the final game of the Ohio Valley age-14 Babe Ruth all-star finals in Munster. The PowerDogs won five games and lost two in the Ohio Valley playoffs. (All photos by Mark Smith)

Copyright © 2021 USA-365.com and Meyer Multimedia Services, a division of Meyer Broadcasting Corp.  All rights reserved. Revised: October 02, 2021.

Team (Record) / Inning	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	R	H	E
CROWN POINT PowerDogs (5-2)	2	0	0	1	0	3	0	6	7	2
Eau Claire, Wisconsin A's (6-0)	3	4	0	0	0	4	-	11	13	2

Sunday, 08-01-2021, 75 degrees & sunny, Babe Ruth age 14 all-star Ohio Valley tournament final game in Munster, IN

CROWN POINT (5-2)
Ryan Head (2B) 0-for-4
Steven Mack (1B) 1-for-3, 2 walks, HBP
Jake Biederstadt (CF) 1-for-3, double, walk
Mick Vagner (3B) 1-for-2, RBI, RBI
Drew Croell (C) 1-for-3, RBI
Andrew Wallen (P) 1-for-2, double, RBI
Aslyn Farinelli (SS) 1-for-1, Sac Fly, RBI
Ryan Finley (RF) 0-for-2, walk
Sam Head (LF) 2-for-2, Sac. Bunt
Grant Anderson (extra hitter) 0-for-1
Zane Biernat (P) 0-for-2

Eau Claire, Wisconsin, As (6-0)
Kellen Smith (2B) 2-for-2, Sac. Bunt, walk, 2 stolen bases
Cooper Jesperson (SS) 2-for-3, double, 2 RBIs
Hunter Sandberg (3B) 1-for-3, walk, stolen base
Warren Bowe (P) 2-for-2, 2 walks, stolen base
Jack Gorman (C) 1-for-3, walk, HBP, stolen base
Cashton Leslin (RF) 1-for-3, 2 RBIs, stolen base
Jake Bjerke (extra hitter) 0-for-2, walk
Ty Schauf (LF) 0-for-3
Caleb Moss (1B) 2-for-3
Kamron Diermeier (CVFG) 1-for-2, walk

PITCHING
WP (starter) Warren Bowe (EC) 2K, 3 walks, one earned run
SAVE – Jacob Bjerke (EC) 3K, 4 walk (3 innings)
LP (starter) Andrew Wallen (CP) 2K, 4 walks (one inning)

Saturday, 07-31-2021, 81 degrees, sunny, Babe Ruth age 14-and-under Ohio Valley semifinal in Munster, IN

Evergreen Park, Ill. (4-1)
Brendan Doren (SS) 1-for-2, HBP, walk
Rowan Smyth (P) 1-for-2, RBI, walk
Caleb Keyser (C) 1-for-4, RBI
Vinnie Burchett (LF) 1-for-2, double, walk, 2 RBIs
Billy Duffner (CF) 0-for-3
Michael Rodriguez (extra hitter) 0-for-03
Noah Rosas (2B-P) 0-for-2, walk
Grady Elwood (1B) 0-for-3
Jacob Rubitz (P) 0-for-2, walk
Danny Reynolds (3B) 0-for-1, 2 walks

CROWN POINT (5-1)
Ryan Head (3B) 1-fo-4, walk
Steven Mack (1B)-P) 1-for-2, 2 walks, HBP
Jake Biederstadt P) 2-for-3, 2 walks
Mick Vagner (3B) 4-for-5, 2 RBIs
Drew Croell (C) 1-for-4, Sac Fly, 3 RBIs
Andrew Wallen (RF) 1-for-2, Sac. Fly. 2 walks
Aslyn Farinelli (SS) 4-for-4, walk double, 2 RBIs
Ryan Finley CF) 2-for-4, double, RBI
Sam Head (LF) 0-for-3, 2 walks

PITCHING
WP – Steven Mack (CP) 3Ks, 4 walks (5 inn.)
SP – Jake Biederstadt (CP) 2K, 3 walks (2 inn.)
LP – Jacob Rubitz (EP) 0K, 3 walks (2/3 inning)

CROWN POINT (08-01-2021) After the Eau Claire A’s won the Ohio Valley age-14 all-star championship I asked the Eau Claire, Wisconsin A’s manager Matt Schoen if they had the money to make the trip to Iowa for the Babe Ruth age-14 World Series later in the month. He answered quickly.

“Oh yeah,” he said. “We’re good. We planned on going.”

Eau Claire was confident and with good reason. In short multiple team summer baseball tournaments like (the) Ohio Valley Babe Ruth playoffs, most of the all-star squads eventually run out of pitching and the team with the best offense usually wins.

On the two Munster Babe Ruth League fields over the final weekend in July, that is pretty much what happened.

Jumping on most opponents early, the sweet-swinging Eau Claire, Wisconsin A’s scored 70 runs in six games and headed back north with an undefeated Ohio Valley age-14 all-star championship, topping the battling Crown Point PowerDogs 11-6 in a Sunday afternoon championship game. Crown Point put up a good fight, but 13 Eau Claire base hits and seven stolen bases in six innings kept the PowerDogs chasing the Wisconsin boys on a near-perfect sunny Sunday afternoon.

In the title game, Crown Point took a 2-0 lead on RBI singles from Mick Vagner and Drew Croell, but Eau Claire wasn’t shaken. The A’s scored three times in the bottom of the first as Dogs’ starting pitcher Andrew Wallen walked four batters. The Eau Claire A’s, from a city in west central Wisconsin, took a 7-2 lead in the second inning. Cooper Jesperson smacked an RBI single and Cashton Leslin blooped a two-run double to right field.

Down five runs, CP went to a third pitcher, smallish right-hander Zack Biernat, who pitched three shutout innings, allowing Crown Point to rally, putting the outcome in serious doubt.

Aslyn Farinelli’s sacrifice fly cut the Eau Claire lead to 7-3 in the fourth inning. Wallen drove a double over the head of Eau Claire centerfielder Kamron Diermeier to make it 7-4 in the top of the sixth. A wild pitch made it 7-5 and Wallen scored on the front end of a double steal to make it 7-6.

But Eau Claire put the game away in the bottom of the sixth as five consecutive hits after one out scored four more runs. Jesperson had the big hit, a two-run double to deep right field. It was the fourth consecutive game in which the A’s had scored 10 or more runs.

“When we fell down (2-0), we were ready to come back,” said Eau Claire manager Matt Schoen, “We’ve been hitting all weekend. We knew we’d come back. We had all our pitchers ready to go today. We were in pretty good shape.”

Eau Claire had four left-handed hitters in the batting order and two of them - third baseman Hunter Sandberg and pitcher Warren Bowe - batted 3-4 in the order. Most youth baseball teams are dominated by right-handed pitching and the overload of lefty batters made the As tough to pitch to.

“We used to do that (spread the lefty hitters throughout) the batting order,” said Schoen. “But our lineup's just been ripping balls everywhere. I love this place,” he said of the Munster Babe Ruth complex. “This is a great place to play.”

Schoen wouldn't say that Crown Point was the second best team in the eight-team Ohio Valley field, but he did say he wasn’t surprised to see Crown Point in the final game.

“When they won that game (a 7-6 quarterfinal win over the South Bend Eastside all-stars), I knew we’d see them in the finals. They were running on adrenalin in that next game.”

The Crown Point folks didn’t seem devastated by the final game loss. The highlight of their tournament came against East Side. The PowerDogs trailed 6-2 going to the seventh inning before they scored five times to steal the win. CP was flying high in the semifinals, smashing undefeated Evergreen Park 19-4. Manager Tom Mack was proud of his teams’ tournament run.

“We kept battling all the time,” he said. “We got it to 7-6 in this game. Number one (Zane Biernat) went in and did a great, great job. We battled all season and made every game close. That South Bend game was our story. We were down 6-1 and we never stopped battling. A bunch of great kids. Parents and everything. I’d do it all over again. It's been awesome.”

POWER DOG NOTES: The Eau Claire A’s baseball organization fields 11 Babe Ruth all-star teams and they sent two squads to Munster. The ‘red’ team went 1-3 in pool play. The team that went 6-0 in Munster was the ‘blue’ team.

The A’s are no joke. A’s teams play weekend spring and summer tournaments in Wisconsin and Minnesota and, according to their web site, they are a travel baseball program that is the equivalent of Eau Claire Babe Ruth baseball for the city and about 10 surrounding communities.

There is a ‘house league’ in Eau Claire but A’s boys begin indoor workouts in January and outdoor practice in April. The 13 boys on the championship team that won in Munster represent eight different high schools, but four attend Eau Claire North high. The Eau Claire North Huskies won Wisconsin state baseball titles in 2011 and 2019, when they were 25-4.

The A’s headed to the World Series after posting a 6-0 record in Munster, but they were not undefeated in the summer season.

“We were 28-8-1,” said Schoen of his teams’ overall record. But some of those games were against 15s (age-15 all-star) teams. Eau Claire is a city of about 60,000 and we have a great baseball tradition.”

The 2021 Ohio Valley World Series begins on August 14 in Ottumwa, Iowa, which is about five hours (320) miles east of Crown Point. Ottumwa is about 6-½ hours south of Eau Claire. Eau Claire, which is 5-½ hours north of Crown Point, is reportedly the host for the 2022 Babe Ruth age-15 Ohio Valley Regional.

Some of the Crown Point boys stood out in different ways. First baseman Steven Mack, a 6-foot-2, 205 pound first baseman and pitcher, looks like he has a solid high school future. Mack and Powerdog teammate Jake Biederstadt will attend Andrean. PowerDogs’ catcher Drew Croell, who is headed back to Crown Point high school, went to war against the Eau Claire base-runners, throwing out two stealers at second base and picking a runner off first base.

But no PowerDog got everybody’s attention in the Ohio Valley playoffs more than slick fielding third baseman Mick Vagner, who had a habit of diving head first into bases and coming up covered with brown Munster Babe Ruth dust.

Vagner, who was 4-for-5 against Evergreen Park in the semifinals, headed home with more dirt on his uniform than most of the rest of the infield.

“Yeah, we call him ‘Dusty’ now,” said CP manager Tom Mack.

The PowerDogs will all be in high school this month and the age-15 all-stars will look much different in 2022.

“We have three boys, Drew (Croell), Grant (Anderson) and Chandler (Govert) who are already in (Crown Point) high school,” Mack explained.
 
“The rest will be freshmen this year. This was our last ‘hurrah’ for this team. You can only have five boys from the same high school (by Indiana High School Athletic Association rules) team on a summer team. So it will be too hard to keep this group together. But it's a great ending for us. Nobody thought we’d get this far. It was really fun.”

2021 Ohio Valley Babe Ruth 14s
July 29 – Aug. 1, 2021 at Munster Babe Ruth
July 29 - pool play
Evergreen Park, Ill. 8, Eau Claire Wis (Red) 6
MUNSTER 18, Butler County, Alabama 2
CROWN POINT 8, (South Bend) EastSide 3
Jasper 2, Jimtown 0
Eau Claire (Red) 15, SE Lexington, Kentucky 0
Eau Claire A’s 6, MUNSTER 5
Evergreen Park, Ill. 4, CROWN POINT 1
Jimtown 16, Butler County, Alabama 2
(South Bend) EastSide 7, SE Lexington, Kentucky 0
Eau Claire A’s 9, Jasper 0

July 30 - pool play
Jimtown 5, MUNSTER 3
CROWN POINT 8, Eau Claire (Red) 5
Jasper 15, Butler County, Alabama 5
Evergreen Park 8, (South Bend) Eastside 5
Eau Claire A’s 12, Jimtown 0
CROWN POINT 4, SE Lexington 1
MUNSTER 2, Jasper 0
(South Bend) Eastside 10, Eau Claire (Red) 9
Eau Claire A’s 19, Butler County, Alabama 4
Evergreen Park 10, SE Lexington, Kentucky 8

July 31 – Quarterfinals
CROWN POINT PowerDogs 7, (South Bend) EastSide 6
Jasper 7, MUNSTER 4

July 31 - Semifinals
CROWN POINT PowerDogs 19, Evergreen Park, Ill. 4
Eau Claire (Wisc.) A’s – 13, Jasper 1 (5 inn.)

Aug. 1 - Championship
Eau Claire (Wisc.) A’s – 11, CROWN POINT PowerDogs– 6

*The Eau Claire As advanced to the Babe Ruth age-14 World Series in Ottumwa, Iowa Aug 14-21.