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Crown Point and Hobart Advance; Murray touches 94

May 23, 2013

By Blake Hibler
Director of Scouting, PBR Indiana 

Sectional 2 play opened up last night at Laporte. The host Slicers (10-18) played No. 10 Crown Point in game one, while Hobart matched up with No. 9 Chesterton (20-5) in game two. 

Crown Point jumped on the board early in the first and never looked back.  Alex Nickla led off the inning with a single, stole second and eventually scored on a Ron Plesac single. 

Crown Point would add three more runs in the second on zero hits. Laporte threw three different arms that combined to walk five guys including walking in one run. 

That was all the run support Ron Plesac would need. The senior pitcher, commited to Parkland, would go on to throw 6 innings only allowing one hit. The only inning Laporte really threatened was in the first. Plesac worked around two walks and gave up no runs. On the night, Plesac would walk three and strike out 5 giving the Bulldogs a 6-0 win. 

Game 2 had a different feel to it. There was more energy on the field and in the stands. It became pretty obvious why when Brandon Murray threw the first pitch of the game at 93.  Murray is a junior committed to South Carolina with electric arm speed.  The right-hander would go on to throw every fastball that inning at 93-94, hitting 94 four times. Murray would strike out the side in the first, setting the tone for the game. 

Chesterton came in the favorite on paper, but as we have talked about many times, in sectional baseball it comes down to who is pitching more times than not and in this case the guy throwing for Hobart was clearly the best player on the field. 

Chesterton put their first ball in play in the top of the third, and would not get their first hit until the fourth when Aery Pratt hit a line shot into left field to score Morandini , tying the score at 1-1. 

The bottom of the fourth saw Hobart pull away from Chesterton. Drey Devereaux would start the inning with a bloop single up the middle and would score on a Guy Birchel single to make it 2-1. That is when Chesterton self imploded. Chesterton committed an error followed by a sac bunt, and four walks that would score three runs making the score 5-1 after four innings. 

That was all the run support Brandon Murray would need. The junior eventually lost a little bit of velocity, but you never got the feeling that Chesterton was going to be able to make a run. The closest they would get was 5-2. Murray went on to strike out 12 while walking 5 and giving up 5 hits en route to a, 8-2 Hobart win.

Sectional 2 resumes play tonight at 5:00pm (CT) when Valparaiso and Portage meet up followed by Michigan City and Merrillville. 

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