By Mark Gregory
Sports Editor
@Hear_The_Beard
mark@buglenewspapers.com
In the 17 years that the PONY Zone tournament has been held in Bay Ridge, MI, there has never been a team that has qualified for the tournament three consecutive years – until now.
“This is awesome,” said Crest Hill coach Joe Marshall, who is in his 38th year as coach. “This is something special. There are not too many in-house programs that have the success we have. I really can’t think of any.”
Crest Hill selected its 13-player All-Star roster from a total of 24 13-and-14-year old players, while some programs select from 100 or more players.
To advance to the tournament, Crest Hill needed to defeat the Kankakee All Stars twice in the double elimination tournament.
In the first game, Crest Hill jumped out to a 7-1 lead in the fourth inning until back-to-back home runs cut the lead to 7-4.
Ryan Highland, the fourth Crest Hill pitcher of the game, eventually struck out the final hitter of the game with the tying run on third base giving Crest Hill the 9-8 win, forcing the do-or-die second game.
Sam Novak had four hits, including a home run which turned out to be the winning hit. Josh Cunniff had a pair of hits, while Highland doubled.
After finishing off the first game on the mound, Highland got the ball again for the second game and tossed six shutout innings, striking out nine and walking two, while giving up only two hits in a 7-0 Crest Hill win. Sam Novak came in and pitched the seventh inning – retiring the side in order
Highland did not allow a Kankakee runner past second base the entire game.
In the win, Crest Hill relied on small ball, laying down eight bunts – four of them suicide squeezes. Ethan Adamowski had a double in the title game.
“We laid down a pair of two strike squeeze bunts, one two strike bunt with men on first and second,” Marshall said. “We just bunted them to death and they just couldn’t handle it – nobody was covering or they made bad throws – and we just kept it coming. Everyone on my team can bunt. We work on it every day in practice and the kids are good at it. They have confidence that they can do it and half the battle is thinking they can do it.”
In the Pony Region Tournament, Crest Hill defeated Bradley 7-5 to advance, but lost Edgar Rodriquez for the rest of the season with a broken tibia in his left leg. Rodriquez had a pair of hits before exiting the game. He was Crest Hill’s second leading hitter during the All-Star tournaments and one of its pitchers.
Crest Hill will also head to Zone without Joey Esparza who is moving to Texas. Ezparza was hitting .428.
“Not having those two go to Michigan will sting a lot,” Marshall said. “Esparza had great speed on the bases and Rodriquez was a clutch hitter seeming to always come up with a two out hit.”
The group that will travel to Michigan will be centerfielder Tucker Holmgren, who is the leadoff hitter batting .324. Third baseman Mason Craig (.275), Right fielder Eli Novak (.300), First baseman and outfielder Adamowski (.333), outfielder and middle infielder Stevie Bakalar (.250) outfielder, first baseman Ashton Mutnansky (.278) , pitcher and first baseman Brodie McIntrye (.200) and second baseman Xavier Roman (.346).
Shortstop and pitcher Sam Novak is hitting .429, Highland, who catches when he is not on the mound is batting .400, while Josh Cunniff, who pitches, catches and plays shortstop is hitting .514 during All-Stars and has 15 home runs on the season. Cunniff, who will be a freshman at Plainfield Central this coming school year, broke Crest Hill’s all-time regular season record with a batting average of .635 – the only Crest Hill batting average ever better than .600 for a season.
Crest Hill won the first two tournaments of the campaign in Elgin and Whiteford.
In Elgin, Crest Hill defeated Wasco 18-5 in the title game, while it beat Whiteford 3-2 in eight winnings to win the second invite.
Marshall is assisted by Jason Craig and Erik Bakalar on the coaching staff, while he and his wife Donna have been run Crest Hill Pony Baseball for more than nearly 30 years.