Crown Point girls come back in 3rd straight game to beat Hobart 10-8 for 1st Sectional Championship since 1985

MERRILLVILLE Sectional championship (5-30-2003) sunny, 64 degrees
WP  -   Lacy Holevis  (10-12)  CG  No. 23   2 Ws, 3 Ks
LP  -   Taryn Jamison (10-6)  CG, 2K, 0 walks

Hobart  (6 singles, 3 doubles)
Brandy Varga (H) 2 doubles, 2 singles, 2 RBIs
Cameron Yoder (H) Double, single, 3 RBIs
Aubri Polak (H) Single, 2 walks

CROWN POINT (HR, double, 10 singles)
Lacy Holevis (CP) Single, 2 RBIs
Erin Hostinsky (CP) HR, 2 singles, 3 RBis
Kendra Rather (CP) Double, single, RBI

MERRILLVILLE (5-30-2003) - As the Crown Point girls stopped stopped talking and celebrating on the Merrillville softball diamond Friday, the sun broke through the clouds and rays of gold drifted down on young and old, as if all was right with the world.

I swear. That actually did happen. I didn't make that part up. The rest of it sounds pretty unbelievable, I admit.

Trailing by three runs or more for the third consecutive playoff game, Crown Point's Lady Bulldogs rallied repeatedly, finally beating 20-game winner Hobart 10-8 in the 2003 Merrillville Sectional Championship game late Friday.

Beyond that, CP, which was just 13-15 on the regular season, defeated two Duneland Athletic Conference (DAC) rivals that beat them during the season, coming from behind both times when it appeared they'd lose.

Beyond that, CP, a team dominated by 18-year-old seniors, won the school's first sectional softball title in 18 years and became the third Crown Point spring sports team (with golf and baseball still to come) to win a 2003 sectional championship.

Beyond that, they should actually be favored to beat Riley (14-14) in the Penn Regional semifinal at 1 p.m. Saturday after the opening regional match between defending state champion Lake Central (28-2-1) and seventh-ranked Mishawaka (26-4).

"This is so great," said CP catcher Erin Hostinsky. "We really deserve this.  We really do."

"We totally planned this," smiled second baseman Kendra Rather. "We wanted to surprise everybody. We all had confidence. It was hard to see us go down in the first inning but I think we've just gained a lot of confidence. I'm so proud of us."

Crown Point didn't play great softball. Great teams don't fall behind three or four runs in playoff games. But when the time came to quit, the team with 10 seniors didn't give up. This may be the most unlikely post-season win the the modern history of Crown Point. Not because they weren't good enough to beat Hobart and Valparaiso. They had beaten both during the regular season. But because they looked elimination in the eye three times in five days and came back like the champions they had always hoped they were.

"This is like a dream," said coach Chris Pepa.  "I just can't believe what happened. The Valpo game was the best thing that could have  happened to us. The kids know that two outs and down by three runs, to come back and win... it can't get any more crazy than that."

Trailing 5-1, CP scored four times in second inning to tie the Brickies.

"We've always come back," said Hostinsky. "We always do this. We always dig ourselves a hole but we're good at coming back."

With two out and a runner at second base, Hobart's Jen Schultz fumbled Cathy Yokovich's ground ball and third baseman Ashley Loden fumbled Amy Zondor's ground ball.  With the bases full and two out, Hostinsky lined a two-run single to center field and Lacy Holevis blooped another two-run hit to center to tie the game 5-5 and let everybody know that this would be a long game.

"When I was in school, we went to the semistate in basketball," said coach Chris Pepa. "And when I was in freshman ball, we went to the state finals. I was never more nervous than I was today.  Because I had to sit and watch. You just tell them what you want and then let them go."

It was Rather's RBI double that pushed CP to a 6-5 lead in front of a crowd of about 150 friends of the programs who seemed a little subdued after dramatic one-run semifinal wins 24 hours earlier.

On Thursday in the semifinals against Valparaiso and four-year starting pitcher Ashlee Blankenbaker (12 strikeouts), Crown Point trailed 3-0 with two out in the seventh and final inning. When you looked up hopeless in the softball dictionary, this was the situation it describes.

But Rather singled. Wendy Kurcz singled. Ashlee Amodeo singled to make it 3-1 and Cathy Yokovich was safe on an error by VHS third baseman Deidre Paitsel. With the Chesterton and Hobart people waiting for the second game and the CP and Valpo fans in an uproar, Amy Zondor singled to score pinch runner Melissa Cooper to make the score 3-2.  Blankenbaker struck out Hostinsky on a 3-2 pitch but catcher Leslie Rietveld couldn't catch the ball cleanly. Hostinsky broke for first base and the three base runners started running. Rietveld could have stepped on the plate to end the game.  But with everybody yelling something, she obviously got confused. Rietveld's throw to first was late and Amodeo raced across the plate to tie the game.

That put the bat in the hands of Lacy Holevis, arguably CP's best player. Holevis lined a single to right, beat a desperation throw to first base and CP had wiped out almost two decades of frustration.

The Lady Bulldogs had not even won a single playoff game in six years before beating Lowell.
"I've never seen anything like that in all the years I've played," third baseman Amy Zondor said.
"I knew we'd come back," said shortstop Mallory Michaels.  "We always come back. It's crazy. Who'd ever think we'd do this. You think it but who knew. "

Even though Holevis (10-12) pitched one of her poorer games in the title victory over Hobart, you knew that Crown Point was destined to beat the Brickies.

"I knew that pulling Lacy was a possibility," Pepa said about trailing 5-1 in the second inning, "but it was something I didn't want to do. She pitched the game of her life yesterday (against Valpo). I've never seen her pitch that well. To come back and pitch again today was pretty tough. I figured that she would settle down. Erin does a great job of explaining what they have to do. They talked and I let them go. I thought, 'Lacy's going to do it.'

It was a struggle. Hobart (20-11), playing without starting shortstop Jen Pritchard, who was suspended after she got ejected in the Brickie' 3-2 semifinal win over DAC champion Chesterton, took a 6-5 lead on all-DAC catcher Brandy Varga's RBI double in the second inning.  Rather, who had six base hits in three sectional games, drove in Kelly Harlow with an RBI double to tie the game in the third inning.  CP went to the lead with a three-run fourth. With two on and one out, substitute shortstop Sarah Bodhaine threw Holevis' potential double play ground ball into right field, allowing two runs to score. Jen McMullin's ground out made it 9-6.

Harlow's RBI single upped the count to 10-6 in the sixth inning, but Hobart rallied in the final inning. Varga's fourth hit of the game and Cameron Yoder's single cut the lead to 10-7.  Bodhaine hit a ground ball to CP third baseman Amy Zondor. But instead of running to third base for an easy force play, Zondor attempted to tag Hobart pinch runner Brittany Claussen. On contact, the ball popped out of her glove, filling the bases with only one out. Ashley Loden's ground out to the pitcher made it 10-8 and Kelly Glidewell grounded to Rather at second, leaving the tying runs in scoring position.

"It's great," said Zondor, who fell short of a basketball sectional title her last three years on the varsity. "I feel pretty good.  We got a good draw. The dark horse was Valpo, I know. Favored to win was Chesterton. No one thought we could do it. But we've all played together so long, I knew we could get it together."

The CP third baseman came as close as anyone to explaining the unexplainable.  How could CP rally from three and four run deficits three times in a sport when playoff games end 1-0 and 2-0?

"Somebody's got to step up and start it off.  Rather got it started last night and we all got excited. We all like to cheer for each other.  Once someone goes, it just keeps going.  Last night (against Valpo) every single one of us who got hits in that last inning was a senior."

Crown Point's graduation ceremony is June 10 and they could be still active after that.

Riley (14-14) is very much like Crown Point all the way down to the fact that they needed a two-run rally late Friday to beat Adams (12-18) in the title game of the South Bend Sectional 4-3. Second-ranked  Lake Central (28-2-1) and seventh-rated Mishawaka (26-6) sit in the other half of the Penn Regional bracket.  But after those teams meet Saturday at 11 a.m., they may overlook the CP-Riley winner.

"I don't have any idea who we play next," Pepa said. "I don't know anything about them. All we thought about was winning the sectional."

DOG  NOTES:  Erin Hostinsky' s first inning home run was overshadowed by the rest of the wild game but Erin will never forget it.  "That was the first one I've ever hit in my life. It was awesome to hit a home run with the possibility that this could be my last game ever.  I had a bad hitting game yesterday (against Valpo) but I knew it would be better today."  

"We tried not to think about the next level. Our goal this year was to win one sectional game. This is so far past our goal I can't believe it."

Amy Zondor realized she'd be playing softball after her final day in school.

"We finish (last) Monday," she said. "That's kinda weird.  My first team was coached by my dad and Kendra's dad when we were nine (years old). "We've played together all these years. My dad would take his time off during the summer to coach us."

This is the 19th state softball tournament so CP's last sectional championship was in the initial year of Indiana girls softball playoffs, 1985.  "We went all the way to the state finals," remembers athletic director Jerry Caravana. "They had an eight team state finals back then. The last time we won the sectional, we won the regional, too."

Jefferson beat No.1 McCutheon 5-4 in the Lafayette championship game. It marked the third consecutive year that Jefferson defeated McCutcheon (27-3) in the sectional title game.  McCutcheon had defeated all three of the 2002 state champions, including Lake Central.

Riley is led by sophomore pitcher Tori Cambell, who gave up seven hits against Adams (12-18). The Riley Wildcats are two-time defending sectional champions.

Mishawaka is led by junior pitcher Claire DeVries, who pitched a 1-0 no-hit game in the finals of the Elkhart Sectional, defeating host Elkhart Memorial (27-5).  DeVries has been a dominant pitcher since mid-season. The 5-10 right-hander struck out a state record 26 batters in a 1-0, 11-inning win over Memorial three weeks ago.  Observers always exaggerate a pitcher's speed but some say DeVreese hits 70 miles-per-hour on the radar gun, the equivalent of a baseball pitcher throwing 100 miles an hour.

She'll match LC fastballer Brooke Baker (18-2-1), who shut out Munster, Hammond and East Chicago to win the Highland Sectional.

Merrillville (4A) Sectional

5-26-3: Valparaiso 3, Portage 2
5-26-3: Crown Point 7, Lowell 4
5-27-3:  Hobart 3, Merrillville 2
5-27-3:  Chesterton 12, Kankakee Valley 3
5-29-3:  Crown Point 4, Valparaiso 3
5-29-3:   Hobart 3, Chesterton 2
5-30-3:  Crown Point 10, Hobart 8 (title)

Penn (3A) Regional
No. 7 Mishawaka (26-6) vs. No. 2 Lake Central (28-2-1)
South Bend Riley (14-14) vs. Crown Point (16-15)

DeKalb (3A) Regional
No. 5 Pendleton Heights vs. Winner at Bellmont
No. 3 DeKalb (28-1) vs. Lafayette Jefferson (23-8)

2003 (3A) State Finals
June 13:  DeKalb Regional winner vs. Penn Regional winner (8:30 p.m.)
at Carmel (Cherry Tree Complex)
June 14:   3A State title game  (7 p.m.)
at Carmel (Cherry Tree Complex)

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Revised: July 10, 2004.