Post-Tribune’s baseball semistate capsules

Updated: June 10, 2011 8:55PM

Class 4A

Fort Wayne Carroll (30-2) vs. Crown Point (21-1)

When: 2:30 p.m. CDT  Where: Coveleski Stadium, South Bend

How they got here: Carroll beat East Noble, Snider and DeKalb to win the DeKalb Sectional, then beat Huntington North and Richmond to win the Pendleton Heights Regional. Crown Point beat LaPorte, Chesterton and Portage to win the Merrillville Sectional, then beat Penn and Elkhart Central to win the LaPorte Regional.

Skinny: Crown Point will be the underdog here, but the Bulldogs are used to that. They weren’t supposed to beat LaPorte. Or Penn. Or Elkhart Central. Yet they keep winning on the strength of pitchers Nick Nauracy (who two-hit Penn) and Ron Plesac, and a savvy small-ball team that has thrived in close, low-scoring games in the second half of the season and postseason. But Carroll, the top-ranked team in the state, will be the toughest test yet. Carroll snuck past Huntington North 6-5 on a Peyton Lengacher walk-off single in the semistate semifinal before erasing an early 4-0 deficit and slaughter-ruling 13-13 Richmond in the title game. Carroll wins its games with offense, Crown Point with pitching. So if it’s a low-scoring affair, the Bulldogs will be in good shape for their biggest upset yet.

Up next: Winner advances to the Class 4A state championship game at Victory Field in Indianapolis to face either Cathedral (27-2) or Terre Haute South (25-7) at 6 p.m. CDT next Saturday.

Class 2A

Taylor (27-4) vs. Hanover Central (21-5)

When: 5 p.m. CDT today Where: Highland Park, Kokomo

How they got here: Taylor beat Eastern, Madison-Grant and Guerin Catholic to win the Oak Hill Sectional then beat Delphi and Northfield to win the Wabash Regional. Hanover Central beat Bishop Noll and Wheeler to win the Hanover Central Sectional, then beat Westview and Eastside to win the Jimtown Regional.

Skinny: This should be a terrific pitching matchup between Taylor’s Cameron Clark and Hanover’s Andy Wellwerts. Clark tossed a three-hit shutout in a 1-0 win over Northfield in the regional title game. He’s 9-1 with a 1.62 ERA on the season, and has strikeout-artist Matt Brankle backing him up. Wellwerts is 8-0 with a 0.92 ERA and 109 strikeouts in 60 innings, and has Nic Sampognaro behind him. Wellwerts will be facing a formidable Taylor lineup led by Tyler Simmons (.516, 10 home runs, 53 RBI). Spencer McQueary is another big bopper with nine home runs. In all, Taylor has hit 39 homers in 31 games, and did it against a pretty tough schedule that included ranked 3A teams Western (a loss) and Northwestern (a win), and ranked 2A teams Wabash and Wapahani (both wins).

Up next: Winner advances to the Class 2A state championship game at Victory Field in Indianapolis to face either Park Tudor (27-5) or South Spencer (22-6) at a time TBD next Saturday.

Class 1A

Lafayette C.C. (24-9) vs. South Central (15-11)

When: Noon CDT today Where: Highland Park, Kokomo

How they got here: LCC beat Tri-Central, Rossville and Frontier to win the LCC Sectional, then beat Rockville and Seton Catholic to win the LCC Regional. South Central beat Oregon-Davis, Westville and Triton to win the South Central Sectional, then beat Tri-County and Blackhawk to win the Caston Regional.

Skinny: Lafayette Central Catholic — the megapower of Class 1A in seemingly every sport — is the two-time defending state champion in baseball. It’s also the school that knocked out South Central in the football regional this past season. But SC can take solace in knowing this — the Knights haven’t played a game on the road yet this postseason and haven’t been tested yet, having won its two regional games by slaughter rule. In fact, only the sectional title game — a 9-7 win over Frontier — was even remotely close. Of course, the flip side of that is LCC is so good it won those two regional games by a combined score of 33-1. Dan Snyder and Garrett Walter form a stellar one-two pitching punch for the Satellites, but they’ll be hard-pressed to completely stifle a lineup with six guys with 20 or more RBI (led by Austin Munn, who has five homers and 31 RBI). SC might have to win this one by putting up a heck of a lot of runs — something it has been able to do all season.

Up next: Winner advances to the Class 1A state championship game at Victory Field in Indianapolis to face either North Central (Farmersburg) (24-5) or Loogootee (20-10-1) at 6 p.m. CDT next Friday.

— By Sports Editor Mark Lazerus

© 2012 Sun-Times Media, LLC. All rights reserved. This material may not be copied or distributed without permission. For more information about reprints and permissions, visit www.suntimesreprints.com. To order a reprint of this article, click here.