Boone Grove beats Hanover 6-5 to win 2008 PCC Baseball Championship

UNION MILLS (5-21-2008)  - In a championship game, the best team is supposed to win.  Hanover Central's consolation prize after the 2008 Porter County Conference (PCC) championship game late Wednesday was that, when Hanover meets perennial PCC champion Boone Grove, it's become harder to tell who the best team is.  HC (17-6) jumped to a 5-0 lead in the final game of the PCC's annual eight-team single-elimination baseball tournament, but fell victim to superior extra base power and a couple of defensive mistakes in Boone's 6-5 win.

You'll hear some in the PCC talk about the regular season schedule and how they want to finish in first place, but the PCC champion is the tournament winner and Boone was very happy to regain the crown after havING a six-year run of titles broken by Hanover last year.

"My guys know that we take pride in our conference," said Boone coach Rollie Thill.  "I do.  My assistant coaches do.  It's taken until this year for a team to realize how important we feel the conference is.  If we beat LaCrosse, we'll win the (regular season) title outright.  If not, we share with Hanover, and nothing against Jimmy (Nohos) but I don't want to share."

Hanover, the defending PCC tourney champ, used four singles and six stolen bases in the first two innings to build the 5-0 edge, but senior pitcher Dale Sjoerdsma was on his own on the mound after a 10-inning semifinal sapped Hanover's pitching depth.

Nick DiMarco's homerun started a three-run Boone fourth-inning that closed a 5-1 gap to 5-4 in sunny, brisk conditions on the wide open spaces of South Central high school.  Senior Boone relief pitcher Blake Klisurich singled in the tying run in the fifth-inning and Zak Ursitti's RBI double gave Boone the 6-5 lead as Boone (20-3) scored six unanswered runs to erase a 5-0 lead and give the Wolves their seventh PCC title in 8 years.

Hanover coach Jim Nohos knows that HC (16-7) has higher goals than winning the PCC.  But he also knows one of those goals, a regional title, means eventually defeating Boone Grove.

"We executed what we wanted to do early," the HC coach said, "but they shut us down from the third inning on.  Coach Thill does a great job with them.  They're ranked for a reason. I've got nothing but positive things to say about them.  They were able to stand up, figure what was happening and make corrections.  They scratched and fought their way back in this game.  In the second and third inning, they were stunned.  We didn't give them a knockout blow."

Hanover got a two-run single from Cody Howarth and an RBI hit in the first-inning off undefeated Boone left-hander Wayland Roach (8-0) in the first inning.  Hanover took advantage of Roach and sophomore Boone first baseman Sam Kidd.  HC runners would almost intentionally get picked of by Roach and attempt to beat Kidd's throw to second base.  Wildcats runners were successful stealing after getting picked off base three times in the first two innings.

"We saw that Wayland was a little slow to first," said Nohos, who felt the need to defend his teams' stealing ways.  "We took advantage of that.  We've got over 100 stolen bases this year.  It was a combination of both (the first baseman and the pitcher)."

But once Hanover got the 5-0 lead, things began going the other way.  Drew Kidd's sacrifice fly ball cut the lead to 5-1 in the third-inning before three extra base hits signaled a turnaround in the fourth.  Nick DiMarco lifted a long homerun to left center.  Blake Klisurich lined a one-out two-base hit to right center and Zak Ursitti tripled over the head of Howarth, the HC center fielder, to make the score 5-3.  Kyle Ferber's ground ball scored Ursitti and it was a one-run game.

It was at this point where HC ran a little short of pitching.  The Wildcat's two other starting pitchers, juniors Jesse Hernandez and Jordan Rizo, both pitched in HC's 2-1, nine-inning win over Kouts, the day before in the PCC semifinals.  Senior lefty Mark Furman was a possibility, but not a good one against the predominantly right-handed hitting Wolves.  HC's only other varsity pitcher with any experience is freshman Andy Wellwerts.  So Nohos stayed with Sjoerdsma, his senior curve balling right-hander.

"If we'd have gone to anybody," said Nohos, "we'd have gone to Jesse and he pitched yesterday.  But we had a 5-0 lead.  We've played them twice and it's been close twice.  I certainly think we can play with them.  Are we over the hump?  Obviously not.  But maybe we'll see them again."

PCC NOTES:  If HC and Boone win their sectionals, they would met Tuesday, May 3 at Hanover for the regional championship.  Boone, which was 25-6-1 last year, reached the 20-win plateau again.  Boone has lost only to 4As Portage, Merrillville and Crown Point.  Hanover has lost only to CP, Griffith, Beecher, Illinois; Lake Central and Boone twice.

The Boone win denied Hanover a 17th win.  HC was 18-12 in 2004.  No HC team has won more than 18 games since the school first fielded a varsity baseball team in 1969.  Hanover coach Jim Nohos has installed every 'small ball' bunt and steal play imaginable in his second version of the Wildcats.  The first-inning took half an hour Wednesday because Boone was rattled by Hanover's dancing on the bases.

"I don't know if you've seen our batting averages?" Nohos asked.  "If we had guys hitting 20 homers a year, I'd just sit in the dugout and watch.  We try and cause pressure.  Do they (HC's players) like it?  We're 16-7.  They bought into it.  We've got a lot of speed.  We want to use it every time."

"Sometimes the parents must think I'm an idiot.  They have to wonder what I'm doing.  But we said in our meeting, we're going to run.  We run until somebody proves to us that we cannot consistently run."