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Crown Point edges LaPorte in sectional
Updated: May 25, 2011 11:01PM
MERRILLVILLE — This time last year Nick Nauracy was pitching for his Babe Ruth team. After multiple years of not making the varsity squad at Crown Point, the senior pitcher’s persistence finally paid off as he made enough of an impression to be recognized, thus making the 2011 squad.
On Wednesday he was the starting pitcher at the Merrillville Sectional and led the Bulldogs to a 3-1 victory over LaPorte in the sectional opener. Crown Point awaits the winner of the Chesterton-Michigan City game that was suspended in the top of the seventh inning due to a thunderstorm that lit up and heavily showered the area. The Trojans were leading 5-2 at the time.
Chesterton and Michigan City are scheduled to resume play at 4 p.m. today.
Nauracy pitched a complete game gem, allowing just one run on five hits while the rest of the Bulldogs provided enough power against LaPorte’s ace and Purdue-bound Connor Podkul.
“I felt really great out there,” Nauracy said. “This being my first year of high school baseball, I just wanted to go out there and show them.”
Nauracy showed his maturity on the mound by not getting satisfied or complacent after a 3-1 lead. Instead he showed that he had more in the tank and a little extra in the fastball.
“I was stoked with the three run lead,” Nauracy said. “I could not have asked for anything more.”
The two teams split during the season as Podkul took the mound in both games for the Slicers.
With Podkul in full control commanding all his pitches and blowing the fastball past the Bulldogs, LaPorte seemed in the good shape in the early going, especially after scoring a run in the second inning to take a 1-0 advantage.
David Eldridge reached on an error and scored as Nicholas Latham doubled him home for the first run of the game.
But Nauracy settled down nicely the rest of the way keeping his team in the game. The Bulldogs’ bats eventually warmed up too.
Zach Plesac was the first to make his mark on Podkul, literally. After leading the game off with a sharp single up the middle, he drilled Podkul with a zipping liner that hit the pitcher just below the waste sending him to the ground in pain.
After a few tense moments as Podkul regrouped, he popped up and staying in the game to pitch. He struck out 12 and walked four. But the damage was done as Crown Point became much more comfortable at the plate and finally broke through on the scoreboard in a big way in the fourth inning scoring three runs on two hits and two walks to take a 3-1 lead.
The game-winning hit came off the bat of Plesac, who’s 2-RBI single scored Aaron Orosz and Joe Hopman as eight batters game to the plate in the inning. He finished the game 3-for-3.
Jake Lindeman led off the inning managing a walk and quickly stole second base to setup Hopman’s game tying RBI single.
The Bulldogs never looked back as Nauracy struck out eight batters from the fourth inning on after no strikeouts prior to that inning.
“It was a big inning for us,” Crown Point coach Steve Strayer said. “Coming in we knew that we weren’t going to score a lot of runs off of him (Podkul). He’s a great pitcher and to do what we did was a good accomplishment. We just wanted to scrap, fight and claw to try to get a victory and we did that today.”
LaPorte made things interesting in the seventh inning by loading the bases with one out. But Nauracy got Ian Price and Jacob Croft to swing at strike three, leaving the bases loaded to end the game.
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