Hanover catcher Katie Klopp throws out an Andrean runner after a ninth inning bunt Saturday. (All photos by Mark Smith)

Andrean second baseman Savannah Kinsella covers first base on a Hanover bunt. Andrean won 6-3 in nine innings

Andrean's new coach Brooke Baker-Runyon checks out her team from the third base coaches' box. The former Lake Central and Purdue star watched her girls win three times at Saturday's Crown Point Invitational.

Andrean's Brenna Boyle gets ready to bat in the sunny, chilly conditions Saturday.

Hanover 's Melissa Balkema gets some 'down time' into third base after going from first to third on a sacrifice bunt in the eighth inning against Andrean.

Andrean's Nicole Steinbach rounds third base after a ninth inning two-run homer against Hanover. The 59ers won 6-3. (All photos by Mark Smith)

Team (Record) / Inning	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	R	H	E
CROWN POINT (10-2)	0	0	0	0	0	0	-	0	1	0
ANDREAN (9-1)	0	2	0	0	0	0	-	2	7	1

Team (Record) / Inning	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	R	H	E
CROWN POINT (10-1)	0	0	1	2	0	0	-	3	5	1
HANOVER CENTRAL (7-7)	0	0	0	0	0	0	-	0	0	4

Team (Record) / Inning	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	R	H	E
ANDREAN (7-1)	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	0	5	6	8	1
HANOVER CENTRAL (7-6)	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	0	2	3	4	0

CROWN POINT (04-21-2012) The big surprise from the playing of Saturday's four-team Crown Point Softball Invitational is, probably, the playing of Saturday's four team Crown Point Invitational.
A competitive entertaining concept that has been buried under rain and mud for three of the last four seasons, played out in cold, windy sunshine Saturday with 3A No. 10 Andrean topping 4A No. 8 Crown Point 2-0 and going 3-0 on the day.

Crown Point (10-2) topped Wheeler 8-1 and Hanover Central 3-0 but the 59ers (9-1) survived a nine-inning 6-3 win over Hanover and eased past Wheeler 9-3 to set up the mid-afternoon match up of two ranked squads.
And despite temperature in the 40s and wind chills in the 30s, all four teams (with the possible exception of 0-3 Hanover went home with a little something.

Andrean, playing the first of four formidable multiple teams Saturday tournaments, squeezed by Hanover, eased by Wheeler and then topped Crown Point on a second inning RBI single by Mary DeBartolo and another strong complete game of pitching from senior star Nicole Steinbach. The 59ers' right-hander, who struck out 21 in the nine-inning win over Hanover, struck out 10 and allowed just one hit by CP's Bailey Mores to top their big public school neighbors.

New coach Brooke (Baker) Runyon, the former Lake Central all-stater, was happy to get through this first all day test.

"I was happy," she said, "because we have just one pitcher. Brenna (Boyle) did a fantastic job today (against Wheeler). That was her first start of the year. But we're not that deep. We brought up some JV players today, but they have no experience. As a team, we all were great today."

Crown Point coach Ginger Britton wasn't discouraged by the loss to Andrean and Steinbach (7-1), who was 22-3 last season.

"It took us a while to adjust to her. We started to adjust, but it was late. She's considerably faster than most of the DAC pitchers. She's got a nice outside curve and a nice rise. She's really good."

Crown Point only collected five hits in six innings against Hanover, so it wasn't a big Bulldog offensive day.

"We couldn't string together a lot of hits," she commented, "so we had to try to squeeze out runs where we could."

"We took one game at a time but the girls definitely wanted to win this one. They're a big opponent. I guess they have a rivalry from years past. I’m not aware of it but they think so."

"The look in their eyes this past game was something I want to see all the time the rest of the season."

Crown Point's Siena Gyure pitched a six-inning no-hitter (all tournament games had a time limit) allowing only one base runner, HC's Taylor Hurst, who reached base on an error by CP third baseman Amanda Rock.

"That's the best I've seen her pitch," said Britton. "She was in control all the way. She was very good."

Crown Point, which swept Portage and Merrillville in Duneland Athletic Conference (DAC) play last week, topped Wheeler behind right-hander Brittany Ard (2-0) before Gyure's no-hitter was backed up by a third inning RBI single from RaeAnna Jenks and Courtney Holm's RBI triple in the fourth inning.

In the 'big picture,' the value of Saturday's three games for Hanover came down to how they did against Andrean. Hanover is a Class 3A school in the upcoming state tournament. Crown Point, which topped the Lady Cats 3-0, is 4A and Wheeler, which rallied to turn back Hanover 6-5, is 2A. Hanover and Andrean will meet in the opening game of the Twin Lakes Invitational on May 5 and they could draw each other in the Class 3A Kankakee Valley Sectional in late May.

In that respect, Hanover did well to take the 10th-ranked 59ers into extra innings. Hanover wasn't very good on offense, scoring only eight runs in 21 innings. HC coach Larry McMillen understood it when his Lady Cats (7-8) got just three runs and four hits off Andrean's Steinbach. But he was less charitable toward his girls when they got no hits off CP. It was HC's first multiple game day this season and they seemed to tire after the nine-inning loss to the 59ers.

"We couldn't even muster a hit," he said. "They seem like that (tired) all the time. Yoways pitched well. Her defense wasn't what it should have been. She gave up a triple to the ninth place hitter (CP's Courtney Holm), too. But if you don't hit the ball, you can't score runs. And if you don't score runs, you can't win. We swung the bat poorly. One girl had a 3-0 count and she took three straight strikes."

Hanover trailed Andrean 1-0 in the seventh inning before Melissa Balkema singled, moved to second base on a bunt by Katie Klopp and scored the tying run when sophomore shortstop Ivy Dawson singled off Steinbach. The game went to the 'international tie-breaker,' a widely used tournament gimmick, which puts a runner at second base with nobody out to start every inning. Hanover missed a chance to win in the eighth and Andrean scored five runs in the ninth inning, including a two-run homer by Steinbach.

Balkema, CP's freshman third baseman, hit a two-run homer in the bottom of the ninth and HC got the tying run to the plate before Steinbach struck out HC's Tina Zychowski to end the game.

Runyon, who graduated Lake Central as the Indiana Player-of-the-Year in 2002, set many pitching records at Purdue and was assistant coach for a short time at Benton Central and Highland, said her first year as a head coach is going well.

"The girls say they're more relaxed and they're swinging the bat better. I guess that was a problem (last year). I want them to be loose and like their softball career."

Andrean sports teams have only one goal: To win the state title. Andrean lost 10-0 in the state championship game last season, leaving the Niners and Runyon little room for improvement.

"I was thinking that last night," she admitted. "I thought that I could have a great year here, but the only way we can top last year is to win at state. A lot of cards have to fall your way to win state. A lot of 2-0 games, 1-0 games. One call. One pitch."

INVITE NOTES: Crown Point lost for the first time under interim coach Ginger Britton. They had won four in a row since four-year veteran softball coach and teacher Brett Crutchfield, who led CP to the 2011 Class 4A Sectional 2 sectional championship, was relieved of his duties and put on administrative leave on April 13.

There was nothing new publicly stated last weekend in that situation which reportedly involved Crutchfield and an unnamed CPHS student. School officials cannot talk publicly about disciplinary action involving a faculty member and everyone in the CPHS athletic program has been instructed not to comment publicly on this situation in any way, shape or form. None did Saturday. There is no indication that what was termed and alleged to be Crutchfield's 'inappropriate contact' with a student had anything to do with anyone in the softball program. There are 2,500 teenagers at Crown Point high school.

It is assumed that Britton, who was the head varsity coach at Lowell last season and an assistant at CP for four years before that, will be CP's softball coach the rest of the 2012 season, but no one has actually said that. Britton, a three-sport starter at Lowell and a four-year softball star at Cedarville University in Ohio, began the year as the junior varsity coach. Russ Serrato, who led Andrean to the 2009 state championship, is in his second year as a CP assistant varsity coach. Both are very familiar with the CP girls. But officially, Britton, a teacher at CPHS (Serrato is not a school teacher), is the head coach for now.

Nicole Steinbach's 21 strikeouts against Hanover Central in the 6-3, nine-inning win Saturday, was not her career high. The Andrean right-hander struck out 26 batters in a game against Hobart last season. She said she paid special notice to Hanover's batters knowing that, for the first time in many years, Andrean could play Hanover in the post-season.

"I did," she confirmed. "I make sure I keep a little handbook in my head. We were getting upset that we couldn't score off them. I don't know if you could tell, but I was getting really mad."

Steinbach, a 23-game winner last season, has a new coach in Brooke Baker Runyon, who won 73 games in four years for Lake Central from 1999-2002 and she had 71 wins and 23 shutouts in four years at Purdue. Baker's four-year career earned run average in high school was 0.23. Not all of her teammates are probably aware of what Baker did in the 'old days,' but Steinbach is aware of what Baker did in high school and college.

"She tells me she wants me to dominate," Nicole said. "She says that they (opposing hitters) shouldn't touch the ball off me. She says I should get my mind set when I'm out there and I should always be one step ahead of them."

Pretty much the only flaw remaining in the 8-year-old Crown Point athletic complex is the junior varsity softball fields. There are no dugouts, no scoreboard and no fences. It's a 'company picnic' setup that's not at the level of the rest of the complex. None of the three visiting teams Saturday were very complimentary.

Temporary fences were constructed at the JV field for the CP Invitational, when Andrean, Hanover Central and Wheeler have to play two of their three games outside CP's softball stadium. Word is that dugouts and real fences are in the planning stage for next year.

Andrean's new coach Brooke Baker Runyon, taking her first head coaching job, had one very big plus.

"I'm very fortunate to have Nicole my first year as a head coach," Runyon said. " I can tell she looks up to me for advice and, with this being my first year, I look to her for a dominant performance."

"She said, "Coach, I wish I had your personality sometimes. I wouldn't want her to have my personality, but she's really becoming an intense pitcher. I'm lucky to have her."

Crown Point 10-2
3-26 (W) 10-3 Hobart
3-29 (W) 9-2 Penn (8-4)
4-3 (W) 12-1 (5 inn.) Michigan City
4-5 (W) 8-0 Valparaiso
4-6 (W) 15-4 Munster (8-8)
4-10 (W) 8-7 (8 inn.) Chesterton (10-6)
4-12 (L) 4-2 Lake Central (13-2)
4-17 (W) 7-0 Portage (8-4)
4-18 (W) 10-0 (5 inn.) Merrillville (0-12)

Crown Point Invitational
4-21 (W) 8-1 Wheeler (7-7)
4-21 (W) 3-0 Hanover Central (7-8)
4-21 (L) 0-2 Andrean (9-1)

Copyright © 2012 USA-365.com and Meyer Multimedia Services, a division of Meyer Broadcasting Corp.  All rights reserved.
Revised: May 02, 2012.