Crown Point takes down Lake Central

Updated: May 3, 2011 11:15PM

CROWN POINT — Down the left-field line, Crown Point’s players mobbed each other, laughed and exchanged high-fives, handed out a shaving-cream pie to hero Brett Bayer — it was a group that was suddenly happy, suddenly confident, suddenly dangerous.

Down the right-field line, Lake Central’s players meandered about, hands on their hips, mostly silent — it was a group that was suddenly humbled, suddenly concerned, suddenly vulnerable.

A lot can change in two days in the Duneland Conference.

Crown Point’s stunning come-from-behind 5-4 victory in eight innings against rival and top-ranked Lake Central and its ace, Jimmy McNamara, on Tuesday was as clear a sign as any that early season preconceptions are often misconceptions.

In the last two days, Crown Point — an afterthought after struggling early — has pulled off back-to-back comeback walk-off wins against Valparaiso and Lake Central to get back to the .500 mark at 7-7, 3-4.

“It feels good to win,” coach Steve Strayer said. “Especially when we haven’t been winning much.”

And in the last two days, Lake Central — an unstoppable, undefeated juggernaut bent on world domination, or at least a state championship — has suffered its first two losses of the season, to LaPorte and Crown Point.

“We’ve just been absolutely awful the last two days, and it starts with me and goes down through these guys,” LC coach Jeff Sandor said. “What’d we have, four hits? That’s 11 hits in the last 15 innings. That’s not going to get us anywhere.”

And there’s no time to sulk, no time to recover. LC (14-2, 5-2) has a game at Chesterton today, then Michigan City and Valparaiso on Thursday and Friday.

And Sandor — who doesn’t subscribe to the coachspeak cliché that losses and adversity can be beneficial in the long run — is worried.

“Yesterday, I felt completely confident,” Sandor said. “But the look I see in their eyes right now? I’m a little scared.”

Not Crown Point. Not after pulling off two wins in such fashion. A day after breaking a nearly four-game scoreless streak with a three-run seventh inning and a ninth-inning home run by Aaron Orosz, the Bulldogs pulled off some more magic on Tuesday.

Trailing 4-1 after four innings — thanks largely to dreadful defense (four errors), the Bulldogs were in danger of letting this one slip away in the top of the fifth. After starter Steve Lowe allowed a single to Chase Fieldhouse and then watched as Eddie Moldenhauer’s liner to left was misplayed into a two-base error, Strayer went to the bullpen, bringing in Alex Doppler.

He entered with runners at second and third and nobody out. A groundout, a fielder’s choice at home and a fly-out later, Crown Point was still in the game — and suddenly had some spring in its step.

“I just hoped to get a ground ball and I got two,” Doppler said. “Thankfully I have a great defense behind me. They made the plays.”

CP capitalized in the bottom of the fifth, getting to McNamara for three runs to tie the game. Zach Plesac’s two-run single scored Joe Hopman and Kevin Brunski. And after Plesac was thrown out at second trying to stretch it into a double, Jose Andrade tied the game with a solo home run to right field, sending the Bulldogs spilling out on to the field in celebration.

Doppler allowed just one baserunner in the next three innings, and the Bulldogs turned him into a winner in the bottom of the eighth. Andrade drew a walk from reliever Jordan Polito and was sacrificed to second by Jake Negele. Andrade isn’t the fastest runner around, and had Strayer had any pinch-runners available, Orosz’s ensuing double to right field would have given him two straight game-winning hits. Instead, it put runners at second and third wth one out for Bayer, who drilled a liner into center field to score Andrade with the winning run.

It was Bayer’s first-ever walk-off hit, and it earned him a face full of shaving cream after the game.

For Strayer, it’s particularly rewarding to see his players happy and confident. The Bulldogs have faced a brutal run of top pitchers — including Highland’s Jordan Minch (who they beat) to LaPorte’s Connor Podkul, Valparaiso’s Jerrick Suiter and the top two pitchers from second-ranked Cathedral in a doubleheader sweep on Saturday.

So seeing LC’s superb lefty McNamara (nine strikeouts, one walk in seven innings) was nothing new.

“We have good ballplayers, but I don’t think they thought they were good ballplayers after seeing the pitching we saw,” Strayer said. “We’re starting to realize that, ‘Hey, we’re actually pretty good.’ I think we’re starting to get some confidence, and that’s huge.”

Of course, the Bulldogs wouldn’t mind an easy win every now and then.

“I’d rather it not have to come down to this,” Bayer said. “I’d rather we blow some teams out. But we’ll take it. We’ll take any win we can get.”

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