Team (Record) / Inning	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	R	H	E
LaPORTE (19-10)	0	0	0	0	3	0	1	4	9	2
CROWN POINT (24-4)	1	0	4	0	2	5	-	12	13	1

MERRILLVILLE (5-27-2009) If Crown Point's post-season softball run doesn't end well it won't be because it didn't start well.  In their best hitting performance of the season, the Lady Bulldogs opened the 2009 state tournament with an impressive 13-hit attack and a 12-4 win over defending regional champ LaPorte at the Class 4A Merrillville Sectional Wednesday night.

Senior Jessica Martinez had three, two-base hits and five RBIs while catcher Katrina Klingberg had three hits, including a homer and three RBIs as CP (24-4) scored far too many runs to leave any doubt in the setting sun at the Merrillville softball stadium.

Now CP had defeated LaPorte two times during the regular Duneland Athletic Conference (DAC) season so the win was not a shock.  But if CP had some opening night anxiety about their sectional and regional championship hopes, this game blew some of that away.

"Before the draw, I said, 'Lets just draw LaPorte right away'," said Crown Point's third year coach Brett Crutchfield.  "Then after the draw (when they did get LaPorte) I thought I don't know if I mean that or not.  It's good to get them out of the way."

"I don't care if I go 0-for-7 now," said senior Jessica Martinez. "As long as we win."

The final score of this game was a very un-softball like 12-4.  There have always high scoring games in high school softball, but most of them have been between regular season games between two bad teams.  CP and LaPorte had a combined record of 42-13 coming in.  They hit the ball all over the park against good pitching.  Hopefully, softball is becoming more of a team game where the pitcher doesn't strike out every other hitter.

"I was thinking about that," Martinez said.  "It's turned into a hitting game.  Even the college game has gone that way.  It's about hitting.  There aren't that many dominant pitchers anymore.  Everybody's hitting."

Klingberg agreed. "It has changed.  We spend a lot of (practice) time hitting.  That's almost all we do.  Martinez, she pretends that the pitching machine is who we're hitting against.  She talks to the machine.  She gets smart alecky with the machine.  It's pretty funny.  But we know that if we do our job correctly we can hit anybody.  We've just got to time the girl."

LaPorte, the defending 4A regional champ of Northwest Indiana, never led.  CP scored four times in the third inning to take a 5-0 lead with the help of a two-run double to the center field fence by Martinez, who will 'walk on' to the team at Indiana University this fall.  One out later, Klingberg hit the big yellow ball over the center field fence for the 5-0 edge.

LaPorte scored three times on five singles in the fifth inning, forcing Crutchfield to pull starting pitcher Jackie Beilfuss (12-3) and insert hard-throwing Taylor Perry.  CP scored two more runs in the sixth inning on a single by Gabby Raspopovich, another Martinez double and an RBI single by Klingberg.  The Lady Bulldogs scored five times in the sixth inning, including an RBI single by Allison Amodeo and a three-run double by Martinez, all against LaPorte senior right-hander Amanda Jones.

"Our offense was outstanding top to bottom," said Crutchfield.  "Everybody contributed.  We were lucky enough to catch a night when our order was hot.  At 5-0, I knew they'd come back.  They're a good team.  We're probably not eight runs better than them."

SECTIONAL NOTES:  Crown Point's Jessica Martinez said she was looking forward to the rain-delayed sectional schedule, which required CP to play three days in a row to win the sectional championship.

"In the middle of the season, I think we practiced more than we played," she said.  "Now, we're going to play every day.  I like that."

Martinez is going to play at Indiana University and so is Lowell's third baseman Katherine Allert.  The two have been in touch with each other most of the season in anticipation of becoming teammates.  Now, if Lowell and CP win their 4A Sectionals, they will meet in the regional semifinals.

"That's hard," said Martinez of her mind set on that scenario.  "I want her to do well but I want to move on."

Coaches want to play one game at a time, but players set long-range goals.  It's no secret that CP has hopes of a regional championship.

"My open house is the 13th," Martinez said. "We may have to cancel it because we're going to state."

It is a major advantage for Crown Point with the 4A Sectional and regional played in Merrillville.  Almost 100 CP fans followed the Lady Bulldogs Wednesday and those totals should rise after Thursday night, when regional track and sectional baseball quarterfinals (involving CP) are played at the same time as CP's softball semifinal game with Chesterton.

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2009 Crown Point (24-4)
Coach Brett Crutchfield (3rd year) 18-11 (2008), 16-14 (2007)
 Duneland Athletic Conference (DAC) games in CAPS
4-3 (W) 2-1 at Penn (24-5)
4-8 (L) 6-7 LAKE CENTRAL (24-6)
4-9 (W) 16-0 (5 innings) MERRILLVILLE (3-22)
4-10 (W) 5-0  Munster (12-13)
4-15 (W) 15-2 (5 innings) MICHIGAN CITY (10-15)
4-16 (W) 6-1  LaPORTE (19-10)
4-17 (W) 3-0 Lowell (20-10)
4-18 (W) 10-0 (6 innings)  Hobart (8-16)
4-20 (rain) CHESTERTON (13-14)
4-22 (W) 1-0 (10 innings) VALPARAISO (8-16)
4-24 (L) 4-5 at PORTAGE (12-13)

CROWN POINT Invitational
4-25 (W) 10-0 (5 innings) St. Joseph's (16-8)
4-25 (W) 1-0 (6 innings) Hanover Central (21-4)
4-25 (W) 3-1 (6 innings) Andrean (25-7)
 
4-29 (rain) CHESTERTON (14-13)
4-28 (rain) LAKE CENTRAL (24-6)
5-2 (W) 14-1 (6 innings) at MERRILLVILLE (3-22)
5-4 (W) 7-0 MICHIGAN CITY (10-15)
5-6 (W) 4-1 at LaPORTE (19-10)
5-7 (W) 5-0 at CHESTERTON (10-12)

Twin Lakes Invitational in Monticello, In.
5-8 (W) 8-1 Pioneer (10-15)
5-9 (W) 11-0 Maconaquah  (2-16)
5-9 (L) 1-2 (8 inn.) Twin Lakes (19-8)

5-12 (W) 5-0 at VALPARAISO (8-16)
5-14 (W) 4-0 PORTAGE (12-13)
5-18 (L) 0-2 at Boone Grove (22-7)
5-19 (W) 2-0 LAKE CENTRAL (24-6)
5-20 (W) 1-0 Wheeler (22-2)
5-22 (W) 2-0 Highland (13-15)

Class 4A Sectional Two at Merrillville
5-27 (W) 12-4 LaPorte (19-10)
5-28 (W) vs. Chesterton (13-14) 6:00 p.m.
5-29 (F) vs. Portage (13-12) 4:30 p.m.

Class 4A Merrillville Regional
6-6 (Sat) vs. Lowell (21-10)  11:00 a.m. or 1:00 p.m.
6-6 (Sat) championship - 7:00 p.m.

2009 Indiana State Softball Finals
Semifinals - 6:30 p.m.
6-12 (F) 1A at Hamilton Southeastern
6-12 (F) 2A at North Central
6-12 (F) 3A at Pike
6-12 (F) 4A at Ben Davis

2009 Indiana State Softball Finals
Title games  (at Ben Davis)
6-13 (S) 1A championship 10:30 a.m. (EST)
6-13 (S) 2A championship 1:30 p.m. (EST)
6-13 (S) 3A championship 4:30 p.m. (EST)
6-13 (S) 4A championship 7:30 p.m. (EST)

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Revised: May 31, 2009.