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July 30, 2012

LITTLE LEAGUE: Silver Creek 13s fall to St. Joe in state final

By GREG MENGELT greg.mengelt@newstribune.com

WABASH — Silver Creek assistant coach Kipp Campbell’s Facebook post said it all: “Headed home with broken hearts. 7-3”

After dominating the state finals field at Wabash through the semifinals, Silver Creek’s 13-year-olds fell a game short of a state championship with a 7-3 loss to Fort Wayne St. Joe on Sunday.

“It’s been great,” Creek manager Jeff Hawn said of his team’s 8-1 run. “Like I told the boys, they’ve done so much for Silver Creek Little League. Everyone’s been so excited. Hopefully, this will trickle down into younger generations, knowing now that we can compete with the big Little Leagues in our district and across the state.”

St. Joe jumped out to a 4-0 lead after one inning, scored another runs in the second and led 7-0 midway through the third inning.

“We just had some unlucky plays and they strung together some hits,” Hawn said of St. Joe’s fast start. “We didn’t get off to a good start today.”

Silver Creek scored all three of its runs in the third inning. Cody McAfee and Brian Campbell opened the frame with back-to-back singles and Derek Hall drove both of them in with a single to the left-center fence. Jacob Balz later reached on a fielder’s choice and Chris Phillips doubled him home.

The Silver Creek batters, which had produced 75 runs in four state finals games, hit the ball hard all day and only struck one time, but they stranded several runners and left the bases loaded twice.

“(St. Joe) played excellent defense,” Hawn said. “They didn’t give us any extra outs. I didn’t think seven runs would be us but it did.”

Brian Campbell pitched the final six innings and gave up just three runs.

“Brian Campbell came in and pitched unbelievable,” Hawn said. “He really shut them down. It would have been perfect if we could have had our bats going.”



SATURDAY’S SEMIFINAL

Silver Creek moved into the state championship game after Saturday’s 15-4 semifinal win over host Wabash.

Wabash took a 1-0 lead in the bottom of the first inning before Creek took its first lead with a two-run second inning.

Derek Hall led off the second with a single and later scored on a Jacob Balz RBI single. Balz then scored the go-ahead run on a Ryan Wisdom RBI.

Creek then broke the game open with a six-run third inning. Back-to-back RBI doubles by Derek Hall and Mason Hall set the tone for the frame.

Silver Creek had 20 hits for the game, giving it 39 over its last two victories. Thirty-six of those hits have been singles.

“It’s been unbelievable how well our offense has been hitting,” Hawn said.

Derek Hall and Balz each went 4-for-5 Saturday. Balz scored a pair of runs and knocked in two more runs.  Hall, who was the winning pitcher and had 11 strikeouts on the mound, had three RBIs, scored two runs.

Mason Hall went 3-for-3 with two walks, two runs and an RBI.

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