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

ST. JOHN (4-08-2009) There was a lot for both sides to take home out of this Duneland Athletic Conference softball opener Monday afternoon.  Lake Central was glad to take a fourth consecutive victory home in a game where they didn't play well.  Winning 7-6 in softball is not a sign of a well-played game.

Crown Point was happy to score six runs (five earned runs) off undefeated LC pitching star Jessica Dobson, who had allowed just three runs in the previous three games.

"We dug ourselves a big hole and we dug ourselves out of it," said CP coach Brett Crutchfield.  "The middle of our lineup is fairly consistent.  It will just be a matter of getting people on base in front of them.  We missed some opportunities in this game and we gave them a couple of runs on defense."

The Bulldogs did make three errors allowing LC (4-0) two unearned runs, but this was an unusually high scoring game for big school softball.  Both teams had three extra base hits and all six of them were drives between or over the heads of the outfielders.

"When I talked to Brett after the game," relayed first year LC coach Glenn Eisfelder, "he said, who would have thought it would be 7-6 today?"

Lake Central scored four times in the third inning as Ashley Cuthbert singled and raced home on a triple to right center by Jessica Morgan.  Morgan scored on a wild throw back to the infield.  Melissa Magdos walked against CP right-hander Jackie Beilfuss and she scored on a double to the left field fence by LC's Meredith Cioffi.  Cioffi scored when CP second baseman Jessica Martinez made a throwing error on Sammy Terry's two out ground ball.

CP, which won the season opener 2-1 at Penn, scored two in the fourth on back-to-back RBI doubles by Martinez and Taylor Perry.  Both hits were long drives, surprising since LC's Dobson had pitched a 6-2 win over Penn, a 2-1 win over Munster (a no-hitter) and a 1-0 win over Highland.

In the fourth, LC appeared to take an insurmountable lead as Cuthbert singled to right after a walk to Brooke Polus.  Morgan doubled to make it 5-2 and Taylor replaced Beilfuss as the CP pitcher.  Two more runs scored on a fielders' choice and a wild pitch.

Crown Point scored three times in the sixth when Martinez singled on a 3-2 pitch and Dobson lost her control and walked Perry and Klingberg to fill the bases.  Raeanna (LuLu) Jenks, a freshman batting for the first time, hit a roller between first and second.  LC's infielders got confused with bases-loaded responsibilities and nobody went to field the ball, which rolled into right field for a two-run single.

Kara Gulvas drove in another CP run with a ground ball to short, but LC turned a double play on a ground ball to first base (Jenks was caught in a rundown trying to score) and the Indians escaped that inning with a two-run lead.

In the seventh inning, Tori Connelly was safe when Dobson fumbled her tap to the mound and Martinez drove a long RBI double to right center with two out.  Dobson struck out Perry on a 2-2 pitch to end the game.

"We only have two girls who played any amount of time last year," said Eisfelder.  "They (CP) are a very, very good team.  When I took the job I was told that they are going to be pretty good and they didn't do anything today to change my mind."

There's a misconception about Lake Central.  They have been downgraded in pre-season expectations because they graduated eight position players last year.  The hole in that logic is that new players aren't necessarily inferior players.  Cuthbert, the catcher, has excellent speed and a very strong throwing arm.  She picked off a CP base runner to kill the fourth-inning rally.  Morgan, the new LC shortstop, has overwhelming speed that's going to require defenses to rush on anything she hits.

Morgan said she didn't really have anyone talk her into switching from track to softball.  She'd always played softball in the summer after track season was over.

"I thought I was going to play (softball) in college," she said.  "And I really didn't enjoy track that much."

Eisfelder said, "When I took the job, I heard they had a senior who hadn't come out for softball the first three years and she was trying out.  The first day we did open gym and I was here, a ball was hit about six to eight feet to the right of her on the gym floor and she dived for it.  On the gym floor.  That's just the way she plays."

"But so far, it's been a total team effort.  Every day, someone new does something to win for us."

Crown Point coach Brett Crutchfield has to be getting tired of his team coming close to big wins and not getting them.  But he seemed pleased with CP's bats in the 7-6 loss Wednesday.  It's hard to determine the last time CP scored six runs against Lake Central.

"Jackie may have put a little pressure on herself today," agreed Crutchfield about his starting pitcher (Beilfuss was 12-8 pitching last year as a sophomore).  "The second time around (in the batting order) her ball straightened out and they hit her pretty good.  But it was her first time out and they're pretty good."

But Crown Point will take six runs against LC every time.
 

Its promising," said Crutchfield.  "We hit the ball hard.  We didn't score because they made errors.  The girls have put in a lot of time in the cage.  We hit the ball.  And against probably the top right hander pitcher in our league."

Both managers talked a lot about how the other team was good.  Everybody had some positives to take home with them.

DOG NOTES:  Crown Point will play twice on April 18 against two different teams.  The Lady Bulldogs will take on Lowell at 9:00 a.m. and then play a make-up game with Hobart at 11:00 a.m.

"Lowell has their prom that day so they wanted to play early," explained coach Brett Crutchfield.  "So we decided we'd make up the game against Hobart that day."

There is no rule that prevents a softball team from playing four or five games on a Saturday if they can arrange it.  At many tournaments, one team can play as many as four times.

"I don't think there's any limit.  But you don't want to abuse that."

Jessica Dobson has a 5-foot-10 freshman sister who is also a pitcher.

"She could be as good," said Eisfelder, the former coach at Boone Grove three years ago.  "We're in a fortunate situation.  We have Amanda Foy (a junior) and she'll pitch some.  So we don't have to force her (Ashley Dobson) out there and have her get torched."

Crown Point has five sophomores on the varsity and four started at Lake Central Wednesday.  Alison Amodeo and Gabby Raspopovich started in the outfield and batted 1-2 in the order.  Tori Connelly also started in the all-sophomore outfield and Jessica Palm has been the starting shortstop since late last season.  CP has just three seniors in the program.

CP senior second baseman Jessica Martinez, who will be a walk-on at Indiana University in 2010, reached base all four times against LC.  Kara Gulvas drove in both runs as CP defeated Penn 2-1 at Penn on April 2.

Lake Central hoped to play a rained-out game against Lowell (April 5) on Friday, April 10.

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Revised: April 22, 2009.