By Michael Moreci

LAPORTE - The eary part of the game had all the makings of a pitcher's duel. Both Hernandez and Hobart's starting pitcher, junior right-handed pitcher Cory Talian, went eye for eye in the first, striking out the first two batters they faced.

Both hurlers had no-hitters heading into the fourth inning. Hernandez's bid was broken up with two outs on a single by senior Nathan Pope. Pope ended up stranded on first when Hernandez induced senior Jacob Plesac into an inning-ending fly out. The end of Talian's no-hitter proved to be much more crucial. 

Leading off the bottom of the fourth, Mike Kozlowski drilled an outside breaking pitch from Talian over the right field fence for a solo blast, his 11th of the season. 

"To win championships, you've got to be able to hit to the opposite field," Crown Point coach Steve Strayer said, "You have a pitcher like today who's hitting his spots, you've got to be able to go the opposite way."  

"He was throwing mainly curveballs on the corner the whole game," Kozlowski said. "I crowded the plate more and tried to take it the other way."

After that, the floodgates opened on Hobart. Talian was able to retire the following two batters after Kozlowski, but senior Blake Mascarello doubled and was followed by another home run, this time from senior Jim Donley.

The Brickies were able to get two runs back in the sixth on RBIs from Talian and senior Jeremy Coons, but the Bulldogs proved to be too much. Yet cCach Tom Martin was encouraged by his team's resilience, an attribute they been in no short supply of as of late.

"We just wanted to give ourselves a chance to win, and maybe catch them late," Martin said. "Our kids kept battling all the way until the last pitch."

Crown Point will face Chesterton in the sectional championship game on Friday.