Team (Record) / Inning	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	R	H	E
CROWN POINT (17-6)	0	0	1	3	0	0	0	4	5	0
JEFFERSON (15-9)	0	2	0	1	0	0	0	3	5	0

Team (Record) / Inning	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	R	H	E
CROWN POINT (16-6)	0	1	0	1	0	2	0	4	9	1
WESTERN (10-6)	1	0	0	0	0	1	0	2	4	6

Team (Record) / Inning	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	R	H	E
(West Lafayette) Harrison (10-9)	0	0	0	0	0	1	0	1	2	3
CROWN POINT (15-6)	0	0	2	1	0	0	-	3	4	1

MONTICELLO (5-05-2012) Maybe the level of play on the majority of Crown Point's softball schedule is higher than we think it is. Maybe there's no such thing as momentum from one game to another. Maybe Crown Point, as a quality big school program with a lot of depth, just should win the 16-team Twin Lakes Invitational.

Maybe all three factors are true.

Even though they arrived in Monticello with a three-game losing streak, Crown Pont's Lady Bulldogs survived the five-games-in-two-days format at Twin Lakes last weekend, topping Western and Jefferson in late Saturday's finals to win the traditional Twin Lakes Invitational for the second time in three seasons.

The warm weather weekend victory, which could be a turning point in CP's roller coaster season, gave the Lady Bulldogs some 'big game' victories and showed that they can win a series of single-elimination game. What CP's coaches Ginger Britton and Russ Serrato also showed Saturday may have been a template for how they'll play in the upcoming state tournament.

Junior Sienna Gyure (8-2) started each of the final three games Saturday, but the Lady Bulldogs used a 'baseball style' bullpen with sophomore starting pitchers Rachel Centanni and Brittany Ard entering the game late as relief pitchers to finish off the wins.

"We've been doing that more lately," said Britton, who is CP's interim head coach. "We have three very distinct, different pitchers. Brittany stepped up at the end in the last four innings. Siena did well, but she was getting a little tired and we wanted to give somebody else a shot."

Centanni pitched the final inning of CP's 3-1 win over Harrison in the pivotal pool play game at 12 noon Saturday. Ard got the final three outs in a 4-2 semifinal victory over Western. And Ard, arguably CP's No. 3 starter, pitched the final four innings in the championship game, a 4-2 Saturday evening triumph over Jefferson (15-9).

Crown Point trailed just once in the entire tournament.

Jefferson, in the finals at Twin Lakes for the first time in over 10 years, jumped ahead 2-0 when Cassie Garrity's second-inning swinging bunt led to Jeff's Maegan Rusk and Connor Garrity both scoring from second and third.

Crown Point scored in the third inning on singles by Abby Skura and Courtney Holm in front of a double steal.

The Lady Bulldogs, who lost consecutive close games to Illinois power Homewood-Flossmoor, 4A No. 2 Lake Central and Portage, scored three times in the fourth inning. Amanda Rock's RBI single tied the game against Jeff left-handed pitcher Ashtin Baumgardt before senior Lexie Rolff hit a long two-run homer to left field.

"My team needed it," she said. "I had to do something. I'm a senior. Feels good. We had a bad week and we came out of it. I'm so happy we won."

Britton, who played for Lowell in 1998 to 2000 never played at Twin Lakes because the Red Devils were not in the 16-team field until six years ago. The format requires the final two teams to play four games on one Saturday starting as early as 9 a.m. and ending as late as 9 p.m. Last weekend, while temperatures were in the 50s and 60s in Lake County, they were in the 70s and 80s in Monticello.

"I think it's a great introduction to single-elimination," she said. "Long days. Playing when you are tired. Playing teams you haven't seen before. Today, in the heat."

Hanover Central won a nine-inning, 6-4 triumph over Benton Central. But they lost big to Andrean (16-2) and Western (10-9). In the Friday night opener, Hanover Lost when Andrean's Nicole Steinbach (13-1) struck out 13 and allowed just three hits, one a homerun by Melissa Balkema, her fourth of the season. In 16-innings against Hanover, Steinbach has 35 strikeouts and that matters because Hanover (12-10) and Andrean (15-2) could meet again in the Class 3A Kankakee Valley Sectional later this month.

The Lady Cats did top Benton Central Saturday after BC scored three unearned runs in the sixth to send the game to extra innings. In the eighth inning with Benton Central's Kendra Moyers at third base and one out, BC's Kristen Roe hit a fly ball to medium deep left field. Hanover's left fielder Tina Zychowski, a backup catcher, caught the ball and fired a perfect throw over the base runner on the fly to catcher Katie Klopp, who tagged Moyers out to send the game to the ninth inning. How did she do it?

"I don't know," Zychowski said later. "But that's my play. I work on that all the time in practice."

In the ninth-inning, sophomore Johnna Rozek singled in the go-ahead run and winning pitcher Ashley Yoways doubled in Rozek to give HC the two winning runs.

Against Western Saturday afternoon, Hanover seemed to wear out and six errors led to an easy win for the Panthers from suburban Kokomo. Hanover coach Larry McMillen is worried that his team does not seem to be getting better with the Porter County Conference (PCC) championships coming up next weekend.

"The last two games did not go well," said McMillen, who had a long sit-down talk with the players after the final pool play game.

"We won (against Benton Central). But we were going though the motions. If you don't put out the effort and stay fully focused and fully concentrate, you can't win ball games. That's what happened today. Winning's not everything, but you have to have the desire to win every game and that's what we're not doing."

Technically, Hanover was still eligible to advance to the semifinals after defeating Benton Central. But after a two hour layoff in the pool play format, the Lady Cats were not the same.

"I have no clue as to where they're at," said McMillen. "We've played some games where we're flawless. We hustle and dive for the ball. But we get out here. We played three games in the Crown Point tournament and we did the same thing. We played one good game and then we just didn't play anymore."

TWIN LAKES NOTES: Lowell found the two-day vacation experience at 'Indiana Beach' somewhat less than they'd hoped for. The Devils (8-13) lost all three games in Monticello, home of Indiana's famous vacation resort (on 'twin lakes' Shaffer and Freeman), two of them in extra innings.

Playing games at Twin Lakes high school (CP, Hanover and Andrean played their pool play games at Voight Park, three blocks from the high school), Lowell lost 10-5 in eight innings to Pioneer and 4-2 in eight innings to Pioneer.

In the championship game, the final batter for Jefferson was pinch hitter Kaitlin Perez. With the score 4-3, Perez fouled off three pitches, the third of which spun back quickly and hit the backstop. CP catcher Ally Rock ran back to the screen and dived head first towards the metal screen. She missed the ball and the ball banged into the screen creating a loud 'bang' that sounded like Rock's head hit the screen. Twin Lakes officials rushed out onto the field to help the CP sophomore but she climbed back to her feet immediately. Perez lined out to center fielder Rachel Suits to end the game.

Why did she dive for that virtually uncatchable ball?

"I just did," Ally said. "I don't know. That girl was fouling everything off. I just didn't want Brittany (relief pitcher Brittany Ard) to have to throw any more pitches."

The tournament ran long with five extra inning games Saturday. The so-called 'international tie breaker' which begins all extra innings with a runner at second base and nobody out, was in effect for the tournament, but Hanover's pool play game with Benton Central took nine innings and two hours anyway.

When CP defeated Andrean 8-2 to win the 2010 Twin Lakes Invitational, 2012 starters Raeanna Jenks and Courtney Holm were in the starting lineup. Six other Lady Bulldogs that day, Taylor Perry (Evansville), Jackie Beilfuss (St. Francis-Fort Wayne), Allison Amodeo (Ferris State), Tori Connelly (St. Mary's-South Bend), Jessica Palm (Cedarville) and Katrina Klingberg (Bethel) played softball in college this year and a seventh, Gabrielle (Gabby) Raspopovich, played volleyball at St. Joseph's College in Rensselaer. That was the CP team that won 26 games in a row and was 27-2 and rated No. 1 state wide.

Hanover's Katie Klopp, who was the starting catcher on HC's Twin Lakes Invitational championship team in 2009, says that the Twin Lakes Invitational is as big or bigger (to her) than the Porter County Conference championship one week later.

"It means a lot," said Klopp, who has won both. "The thing about us now. Everybody on our team was so big physically. Right now we are one of the smaller teams in the PCC."

Klopp, HC's only senior, agrees that there's a lot of different personalities and moods on the team but she likes that.

"We are different," she said, "but we actually offset each other. It's exciting."

Coach Russ Serrato, an Andrean head coach three years ago and a long time 59er assistant before that, was not a CP assistant coach in 2010, but he has coached on teams that have won the Twin Lakes Invitational.

"Four or five times," he said last Saturday. "Last year I was here (2009), we won and went to state. But we didn't win. We won state in 2007, but we lost here."

McCutcheon won the 2008 Class 4A state title after losing the Twin Lakes Invitational. Hanover won the 2004 state title even though they did not even reach the semifinals at Twin Lakes.

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Saturday, May 5, 2012 - Twin Lakes Invitational pool play, 81-degrees at Monticello, IN

WP - Ashley Yoways (10-8) CG 3K, 3 walks
LP - Courtney Best (5-5) CG, 9K 1 walk

HANOVER CENTRAL (12-9)
Ashley Yoways (P) 3-for-5, double, RBI
Jamie Frost (CF) 0-for-5
Melissa Balkema (3B) 1-for-5
Katie Klopp (C) 1-for-3, RBI, walk
Ivy Dawson (SS) 1-for-4, RBI
Tina Zychowski (LF) 1-for-4, double, RBI
Taylor Hurst (1B) 0-for-3, Sac Fly, RBI
Alyssa Howard (RF) 1-for-3, sac bunt
Johnna Rozek (2B) 2-for-4, RBI


BENTON CENTRAL (8-8)
Sierra Morin (RF) 0-for-4
Courtney Best (P) 1-for-3, walk
Kendra Moyars (2B) 0-for-3, walk
Kristen Roe (LF) 1-for-4
Zoey Wore (LF) 0-for-4
Ashley Terrell (DH) 1-for-4
Selecia Parker (SS) 1-for-3, HBP
Lauren LaGrange (CF) 1-for-4, 2 RBIs
Baleigh Fleming (3B) 1-for-3, walk

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Revised: May 06, 2012.