Lady Bulldogs upset No. 2 ranked Chesterton, 3-2 in 13-inning softball marathon

A USA-365 special report by Mark Smith

5-07-2007

Friday, May 4, 2007 - 75 degrees, Duneland Athletic Conference at Crown Point, IN

MP3 Audio Podcast now available for download

WP - Jackie Beilfuss (5-3)   3K, 2 walks, one earned run, nine hits   (11 innings)
(Bielfuss pitched the first two innings and the last nine)
LP - Dawn McClellan (11-2) CG, 11Ks, 3 walks

Chesterton (16-3, 9-2 DAC)
Julie Farmer (SS) 2 singles
Alexis Paz (3B) 3 singles, RBI
Amanda Gough (RF) Triple, walk, RBI
Dawn McClellan (P) Single, 2 sac bunts, run scored
Catie Armstrong (LF) 2 singles,

CROWN POINT (13-8, 7-4)
Lindsey Gurnenz (1B) Triple, single, walk, run scored
Amber Pierce (LF) 2 singles, walk, run scored
Aimee Favia (RF) 2 singles
Jessica Martinez (SS) Single, RBI
Amy Fairchild (CP) Single, walk, 3 sac bunts

Wednesday, May 2, 2007 - 72 degrees, Duneland Athletic Conference at Crown Point, IN

WP -Kelsey Rather (6-2) 2K, 1 walk
LP - Casey Crozier (4-11) CG, 3K, 0 walks

CROWN POINT (12-8, 6-4)
Anna Stephens (CF) ) 2 singles, 3 RBIs
Jessica Martinez (SS) 2 doubles, 4 RBIs

CROWN POINT (5-04-2007) -  Nobody beats anybody forever.  If you play the same team again and again, eventually, you beat them.  It doesn't matter how long you've been down or how good they are.  Crown Point waited seven years and 13 innings, but the Bulldogs finally beat Chesterton 3-2 in the biggest Bulldog upset in many years.

"How many has it been?" asked first year coach Brett Crutchfield after his girls had headed for home.  "How many?"

The answer is 15.  Chesterton had defeated Crown Point 15 times in a row since CP last beat the Trojans on April 4 2000.  For Crown Point to finally beat the Trojans, especially since this is basically the same team that went to the state title game last June, this could upgrade the value of CP's 2007 season.

Sophomore Jessica Martinez sliced a 13th inning, one-out line drive single to right center field off all-state pitcher Dawn McClellan (10-2), scoring Amber Pierce with the winning run as CP won for the eighth time in 10 games.  Despite striking out 11 times and leaving 10 girls on base, CP appeared, for this one day, to be just as good as the state's second-ranked big school softball team.

"You can't think about how important the game is or who you're playing," said Martinez, who handled seven ground balls without an error in the 2-1/2 hour game.  "Once the game starts and you're playing, you just forget about it.  She (McClellan) always tries to come up and in on you.  I was finally able to step back and hit it."

Chesterton coach Lou Ann Hopson thought her side should have won this game a few times.

"A few?" she asked.  "We had a lot of chances.  Obviously, they've gotten better."

Hopson thought the Trojans (16-3), who fell into second place in the Duneland Athletic Conference for the first time since the 2005 season, should have won when they filled the bases with nobody out in the 11th inning.  But Jackie Beilfuss, a freshman right-hander who pitched 11 innings for CP, got Amanda Gough to pop up, struck out eighth place hitter Nikki Gamblin and got Kelci Garcia to ground out to end that threat.

In the 13th inning, Pierce singled to left field and Amy Fairchild, who had three sacrifice bunts on the day, bunted Pierce to second base.  Martinez then fought off a rising 2-1 pitch from McClellan and dropped it into center field to the left of Gamblin, the Trojans' center fielder.  Gamblin made a decent throw, but Pierce, probably CP's best base runner, slid home safely, thereby starting a celebration of red uniforms behind home plate.

"She fought her (McClellan) tooth and nails four or five times up there and she looked at me once when she thought I was going to bunt her (order her to bunt) one time.  She looked at me and said, "No, please no. Let me hit!"

Crown  Point scored in the third inning when Lindsey Gurnenz drove a triple over the head of Gough, the Chesterton right fielder.  On a 1-2 pitch to ninth place batter Aimee Favia, McClellan, who was 22-1 last season, threw a change up over the catcher's head back to the screen, allowing pinch runner Jessica Lightfoot to score on a very close play.

Chesterton, which was 30-2 last season, tied the game in the fifth on a two out RBI single by Amber Paz.  Chesterton took a 2-1 lead in the top of the sixth on McClellan's one out single and Gough's RBI triple over the head of Pierce, CP's left fielder.  In the bottom of the sixth, CP scored without a base hit as Pierce and Fairchild walked with one out.  Martinez hit a ground ball back to McClellan but third baseman Amber Paz missed a catchable throw to third base, allowing Pierce to score, tying the game 2-2.  With pinch runner Lightfoot at third base, Anna Stephens then hit a fly ball to right field but Gough made the catch and made a strong throw to the third base side of home plate.  Chesterton catcher Kristin Mann came up the line, made the catch and tagged Lightfoot before she could score.

After Gough's RBI triple, Beilfuss, a 5-foot-6 righty, retired 14 Trojan batters in a row.  She was almost as effective as she was on April 16 when the little rookie allowed three hits and five walks in a complete game 2-0 loss at Chesterton.

"She's a fighter," said Crutchfield.  "She wants to win.  I couldn't be more proud of them.  They've been great all week.  The girls were confident today.  They were loose.  Sometimes they're goofy loose.  They were focused today.  All 16 were standing against the fence watching Chesterton warm up."

The former Andrean assistant coach has been part of great wins but he said this one was different.

"It's different because of the expectations," said Crutchfield.  "At Andrean, we were expected to win.  Maybe it was just the difference between the third base coaches box (where the head coach traditionally stands) and the first base box.  This game just seemed endless.  I just tried to tell them one thing.  Finish.  Just finish.  It took us a long time, but we finished."

DOG NOTES:  Chesterton coach Lou Ann Hopson said that there was no new date for an attempted makeup game with undefeated Mishawaka (12-0).  Chesterton vs. Mishawaka has been rained out twice.

Jessica Martinez, who was a varsity freshman last season, is surprised with the performance of present day freshman Jackie Beilfuss (3-5) and Taylor Perry (2-0), who pitched a combined 13 innings Friday.

"They have been so great," Martinez said.  "I don't know what we'd do without our freshmen."

After 20 games, junior Allison Adank (28-69, .406) led CP with in hitting and also had collected 15 stolen bases.  Second place batter Amber Pierce (16-46, .346) was second with 12 steals.  Amy Fairchild (18-56, .321) led the Bulldogs in RBIs with 13.

2007 CROWN POINT (14-8, 7-5 DAC)
Coach Brett Crutchfield  (1st Year) -  DAC games in CAPS  - all games 4:30 unless otherwise indicated

3-27   (L) 1-7  Hobart (9-6)
3-27   (L) 3-7  at New Prairie  (8-4)
4-2    (W) 17-0 (5 innings) at Morton (6-8)
4-3    (W) 2-0 MICHGAN CITY  (1-10)
4-5    (L) 4-2 PORTAGE  (13-6)
4-7    (W)  16-0 West Central (0-11).
4-10  (L) 2-10 LAKE CENTRAL  (17-3)
4-12  (W) 8-2 at VALPARAISO  (2-13)
4-14  (W) 6-1 North Newton (6-5)
4-14  (L) 4-6 (9 innings) Lowell (19-3)
4-16  (L) 0-2 at CHESTERTON (16-3)
4-18 (W) 3-2 (8 innings) at MERRILLVILLE  (4-12)
4-20  (W) 9-3 at LaPORTE  (10-7)
4-21 (W) 7-3 at Elkhart Central (6-9)
4-24 (W) 8-1 at MICHGAN CITY  (1-10)
4-26 (L) 5-12 at PORTAGE  (13-6)
4-28 (W) 2-0 Morgan Township (11-2)
4-28 (W)  7-2 Morgan Township (11-2)
4-30 (L) 1-2 (8 innings) at LAKE CENTRAL  (164-3)
5-2  (W) 11-0 (5 innings) VALPARAISO   (2-13)
5-4 (W) 2-1 (13 innings) CHESTERTON (16-3)
5-5 (W)  11-0 Morton (8-14)

5-8-7 (Tu) MERRILLVILLE
5-10-7 (Th) LaPORTE (11-8)
5-14-7 (M) at Boone Grove  (11-5)
5-16-7 (W) at (South Bend) Riley
5-18-7 (F) Highland  (10-9)
5-19-7 (S) at Hanover Central  (11-6)

4A Sectional
5-21-7 (M) quarterfinals (TBA)
5-23-7 (W) semifinals (TBA)
5-25-7 (F) championship (TBA)