Lake Central wins Class 4A LaPorte Regional

By Steve Krah
PBR Indiana Corrrespondent

LAPORTE — Lake Central had its naysayers in 2014. But the Indians refused to buy into the negativity and went on a run.

When Lake Central fell behind 4-1 to Hobart Saturday, June 7, in the championship game of the Class 4A LaPorte Regional, the Indians found a way to pull out a 5-4 victory.

Lake Central 5, Hobart 4

"This is huge," said Lake Central coach Jeff Sandor after his team improved to 23-10 and earned a berth in the June 14 northern semistate at either Kokomo or Plymouth. "We were doubted by everybody in Northwest Indiana this year. At 10-9, maybe they were right. I'm so proud of this group of kids. They faced an adverse situation and they are better people for it and a better team for it and we're not done yet."

Lake Central scored one run in the second inning, three in the fifth and one in the seventh and senior Chuck Alexa was involved in all three as the Indians won the program's seventh regional title, including the first since 2012.

In the LC second, Alexa was hit by a pitch from Hobart senior right-handed starter Brandon Barnes and scored when junior Jorey Dimopoulos socked a two-out single. The rally ended with the bases loaded.

In the LC fifth, Alexa smacked a two-run single off Barnes, who was then replaced on the mound for Hobart by sophomore right-hander Andrew Niksich. Senior Johnny Gbur's two-out single plated the Indians' fourth run to tie the game.

In the LC seventh, Alexa lashed a double to the left-field wall that drove in senior Brenden Seren with the go-ahead run. Seren was on base after drawing a one-out walk from Niksich.

"Boy, was he huge today?," said Sandor. "He was nails today. Big players make big plays."

Indians junior Alex Nisle had extra bases taken away in the sixth when Hobart sophomore third baseman Tyler Kenjic snagged his hot shot to end the inning.

Winning pitcher Seren (7-2) struck out seven, walked one and hit a batter.

Hobart (26-6) scored four runs in the bottom of the third inning — all before the second out was recorded.
No. 9 hitter Kenjic scored the first Brickie tally. Leading off the frame, he was hit by a pitch from right-hander Seren and later scored from third on a throwing error.

Senior Nick Bokun clubbed a two-run single and sophomore Alex Batistatos added an RBI single for the Hobart.

Batistatos wound up with three hits for the Brickies, which were hoping to earn the school's first regional crown since 1989.

Lake Central 5, Concord 2
The Indians topped the Minutemen after trailing 2-1 three innings.

Lake Central broke on top at 1-0 with the first of senior Alec Olund's three hits and an a bases-loaded walk by Gbur.

In the Concord first, senior Stephen Pinarski doubled and scored the tying run on a single by senior Nick DeFreese.

The Minutemen went up 2-1 in the third inning when senior Duncan Boone reached base on a fielder's choice and later scored on junior Zack Stauffer's single.

Stauffer entered the game at second base when Concord junior starting pitcher Brenden Curry — in a pain with back injury — was pulled with one out in the second inning for senior Matt Williams (who had started at second).

"We hung right with them," said Concord Jim Treadway. "Matt Williams is my 138-pound secret weapon. He gives it everything he's got at the plate or in the field. He thinks he's 6-2."

Lake Central's last four runs came on a pair of two-out, two-run singles by Brenden Seren in the fourth inning and Olund in the fifth.

The Indians left eight runners on base, including three in the first inning.

Senior Christian Sullivan spelled senior starter John Milaszewski and pitched four innings of hitless relief to pick up the victory. Sullivan fanned six batters.

Several diving catches were made by the Minutemen, including those by Boone in center field, Stauffer at second base, junior Brett Austin in left field and junior Jarrod Beverly in right field.

Concord, which won three games to take the Elkhart Sectional, finished the season at 15-16.

Hobart 8, Penn 3
The Brickies beat the Kingsmen after falling behind 3-0 through two innings.

In a game with 10 unearned runs, Hobart scored seven unearned in the fourth inning thanks to three Penn error, two Brickie sacrifices and two-run single by Luke Budzielek.

"We certainly didn't expect it to blow up like that," said Hobart coach Bob Glover. "The (bunts) we did get down were very big. We made something happen and put a little pressure on the defense."

Hobart senior Brandon Murray, a University of South Carolina recruit who was also drafted in the 30th round Saturday by the Philadelphia Phillies, pitched a two-hitter (both singles to No. 8 batter and sophomore Brandon Stesiak) with six strikeouts, six walks and two hit batsmen.

"He was effectively wild," said Penn coach Greg Dikos. "It was hard to know where the ball was going.
"We worked on a short stroke (against the fireballing Murray). We were putting the ball in play."

The Kingsmen had runners on base in all fourth and seventh innings and stranded six for the game.

The 6-foot-4, 200-pound Murray (10-1 after the game) gave up three unearned runs. A groundout by senior Elliott Lares in the Penn first a two-run single to Stesiak in the Kingsmen second came after Brickie errors.

"The least we could do was find a way to pick (Murray) up on a day when he didn't have it from the start," said Glover.

Penn (27-5), the Northern Indiana Conference and Plymouth Sectional champions, were cruising with sophomore right-hander Skylar Szynski (7-2) on the mound until the wheels began to fall off in the fourth.

"Skylar's rolling along and — all of a sudden — it's gone," said Dikos, who has more than 600 career victories and three state championships to his credit. "He'll come back."