Plesac leads Bulldogs mound turnaround

Updated: June 9, 2011 7:56PM

Ron Plesac was a tad jittery in his first game back after knee surgery. The sophomore left-hander had missed the first 11 games for Crown Point. In his return, he pitched four innings and walked six in a 2-0 loss to Indianapolis Cathedral.

But here’s a key stat: In the 331/3 innings he’s pitched since, Plesac has walked just nine.

And two days after Plesac’s return, the Bulldogs began an epic second-half-of-the-season charge in which they won 16 of their last 20 games to earn themselves a trip to the Class 4A northern semistate Saturday at Coveleski Stadium in South Bend.

“It’s crazy how we keep rolling,” Plesac said. “We’ve been the underdog the entire tournament, but we keep coming out on top.”

Plesac has gone 5-0 since that loss to Cathedral. Boasting a 0.75 ERA, he’s emerged as the team’s No. 2 pitcher behind senior Nick Nauracy, who didn’t even make the team his first three years at Crown Point. Nauracy is 9-2 with a 1.06 ERA entering Saturday’s matchup with top-ranked Fort Wayne Carroll.

Even with those impressive numbers, the first half of the season was nothing if not unimpressive for Crown Point.

The Bulldogs lost their top two pitchers to poor grades. After winning their first four games of the season, they lost seven of their next eight.

Crown Point coach Steve Strayer was left searching. He had arms on his pitching staff, but he was waiting for someone to emerge.

“We had a lot of combinations going through our heads,” Strayer said. “We didn’t know how things would end up. The kids didn’t know, either.”

Guys like catcher Alex Doppler found himself in the mix. Same for Steve Lowe and Jake Lindeman.

“It was definitely tough when we were 5-7 and on a four-game losing streak,” Lindeman said. “We couldn’t really find ourselves.”

But then came the now famous nine-inning win against Valparaiso, followed by an unlikely rally and extra-innings victory over Lake Central.

“We all just decided we needed to step up,” Nauracy said. “We didn’t want to go down without a fight. We took everything seriously, all the coaching.”

Down the stretch, guys like Doppler picked up a couple wins. Lowe and Lindeman each had a victory on the mound. But it was Nauracy and Plesac who rose to the top. And in the postseason, only those two have taken the hill.

Nauracy has tossed three complete games and allowed just two earned runs in the postseason. Plesac pitched a complete-game shutout against Chesterton in the sectional and got the win in the championship game of the regional last Saturday before Nauracy came on to get the final three outs.

“Nick and Ronnie battled,” Strayer said. “And they came out on top.”

But, come Saturday, if either Nauracy or Plesac gets in trouble, the Bulldogs know they’ve got arms that can come in and work out of a jam.

“We always have backup,” Lowe said. “We even have another Plesac, Zach, who is throwing well. We can go deep in our pitching staff. Luckily, we haven’t had to because Nauracy and Ronnie have been throwing so well.”

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