Catch sparks Point 15s 5-1 win over Plover By MIKE KEMMETER of The Gazette It's hard to call a play in the second inning of a baseball game turning point, but that's exactly what Josh Richter's spectacular grab was. The Stevens Point leftfielder made an over-the-shoulder catch to save at least two runs, helping the 15-year-old team top Plover 5-1 and win the Stevens Point Youth Baseball Invitational Tournament. Point led 1-0 and Plover had runners on second and third with only one out when Casey Kedrowski hit a long fly ball to leftfield. Richter ran toward the fence and snatched the ball out of the air, forcing Plover's Tim Schwarz to stay at third and Phil Koback at second. "That turned the momentum of the game. If he doesn't catch the ball, instead of us being up 1-0, they're ahead 2-1 and they would've had a runner on second base with one out," Stevens Point coach Tom Domaszek said. "That was a big boost for our club." Richter may have had the big play of the game, but Stevens Point pitcher Eric Schipferling and the rest of the team's defense held Plover to five hits. "It was a team effort. We played great team defense," Domaszek said. "The pitching was great. Eric pitched the whole game and only allowed two walks. He kept his pitches down in the strike zone so we had a lot of ground-ball outs. There were very few hard hit balls." While Schipferling, who also struck out two, and the defense did its job, Point scored once in the first and again in the fourth before opening a five-run lead with three runs in the fifth. In the first inning, Randy Printz's one-out single plated Eric Linzmeier to give Point a 1-0 lead. Then three innings later, Justin Pezewski had a one-out double to left-centerfield. Following a ground out, Brandon Eckendorf drove in Pezewski with a double to left-centerfield. "We had some clutch hits and we're playing real good baseball right now," Domaszek said. Plover opened the door for Stevens Point in the fifth. Matt Zimmer singled to open the inning and Nate Domaszek and Jeff Herzog both reached on errors. The trio all scored in the inning and Zimmer's hit was the lone base hit for Point in the inning. Besides the second inning, when Schwarz doubled and Koback singled to start Plover's first threat, Plover had another chance to get on the scoreboard in the third inning. Casey Edlebeck walked and Joel Hojnacki singled to put runners on first and second with no outs. But Stevens Point got Edlebeck at third on a fielder's-choice groundout, a pop-up to second baseman Zimmer and a fly out to Domaszek. Plover scored its run in the seventh, when Koback drew a leadoff walk and later scored on an error. Schipferling and Point stopped Plover with one-two-three innings in the first, fourth and fifth. "Their pitching was good and their defense was good and they hit the ball very well," Plover coach Tom Cashin said. * * * Pezewski threw a one-hitter as Stevens Point opened the tournament with a 9-2 win over Appleton. He walked five and struck out seven, allowing only a fourth inning single in gaining the win. Adam Sandstrom and Pezewski led Point's eight-hit attack with two hits apiece as Point scored in every inning but one.