Six region girls softball teams enter 17-team Twin Lakes Invitational with more than prestige on the line

(5-7-2004)

A USA-365.com Special Report By Mark Smith

TWIN LAKES INVITATIONAL
at Monticello, Indiana - May 7-8, 2004

POOL ONE: Twin Lakes, Frontier, LOWELL and MERRILLVILLE
POOL TWO: West Lafayette, Jefferson, WHEELER and ANDREAN
POOL THREE: Benton Central, Culver Academy, Eastern and BOONE GROVE
POOL FOUR: Pioneer, Lewis Cass, McCutcheon and HANOVER CENTRAL

DEFENDING CHAMPIONS
2003: Tournament was rained out
2002: ANDREAN beat Jefferson 1-0 in the final game
2001: Jefferson beat ANDREAN 7-0 in the finals
2000: Twin Lakes beat ANDREAN 10-0 in the title game
1999: ANDREAN beat Twin Lakes 2-0 in an 8-inning title game
1998: Jefferson beat ANDREAN 3-2 in the title game

TWIN NOTES: No northwest Indiana team other than Andrean has ever won a pool in this tournament, which began after Twin Lakes won the state title in 1989. Andrean is not loved in Monticello going back to years of football and basketball regionals. But Jefferson is not a favorite son either. No inning will begin after 90 minutes has elapsed. If the game is tied, the 'international tiebreaker' is used. Every subsequent inning begins with a runner at second base and no one out. Understand that Saturday rain wipes out this tournament. It will not be rescheduled. Also, this is an open area. Bring umbrellas for rain or sun. Nine teams at Twin Lakes are ranked in the top 15 in one of the four classes. Oddly (or maybe it isn't so odd) Twin Lakes is grouped with three teams that are not ranked. It's always good to play at home.

THE SCHEDULE:

May 7, 2004 (Friday night)
Frontier (6-7) vs. Twin Lakes (8-8) 5 p.m.
WHEELER (10-8) at West Lafayette (13-4) 5 p.m.
Benton Central (12-2) vs. BOONE GROVE (6-12) 5 p.m.
McCutcheon (16-5) vs. Lewis Cass (10-0) 5 p.m.
MERRILLVILLE (9-8) vs. LOWELL (9-4) 6:30 p.m.
Culver Academy (11-2) vs. (Howard Co.) Eastern (13-0) 6:30 p.m.
Jefferson (8-9) vs. ANDREAN (15-2) 6:30 p.m.
Pioneer (8-6) vs. HANOVER CENTRAL (12-6) 8 p.m.

May 8, 2004 (Saturday night)
MERRILLVILLE vs. Frontier - 9 a.m.
McCutcheon vs. Pioneer - 9 a.m.
Benton Central vs. Eastern - 9 a . m.
WHEELER vs. ANDREAN - 9 a.m.

Twin Lakes vs. LOWELL - 10:30 a.m.
Culver Academy vs. BOONE GROVE - 10:30 a.m.
West Lafayette vs. (Lafayette) Jefferson - 10:30 a.m.
Lewis Cass vs. HANOVER CENTRAL - 10:30 a.m.

MERRILLVILLE vs. Twin Lakes - 12 noon.
BOONE GROVE vs. Eastern - 12 noon
Jefferson vs. WHEELER - 12 noon
Lewis Cass vs. Pioneer - 12 noon

LOWELL vs. Frontier - 1:30 p.m.
Benton Central vs. Culver Academy - 1:30 p.m.
West Lafayette vs. ANDREAN - 1;30 p.m.
McCutcheon vs. HANOVER CENTRAL - 1:30 p.m.

SEMI-FINALS: 3:30 p.m. at Twin Lakes high school
CHAMPIONSHIP GAME: 6 p.m. at Twin Lakes high school

THE CONTENDERS:

Lewis Cass (10-0)

WALTON - Cass, rated fourth in Class 2A, gets top pitching from pitchers Mallory DeHaven and Ollmay Wilson who struck out a combined 13 in a 2-0 win over 2A No. 9 Rochester last Saturday. The Kings beat Hanover Central 2-0 in the 2003 Regional championship game. Cass is always especially well coached but they've got to beat McCutcheon Friday night at 5 p.m. or they can plan on begin home for dinner Saturday.

LOWELL (9-4)

LOWELL - Making their Twin Lakes debut, the Red Devils have a quick team that has not been shut out all season. Lowell got a good draw. RHP Cristin Just (5-3) has to overpower a young Merrillvile team to get the squad off to a good start Friday night. If they win two, you will probably see Vanessa Esenberg (4-1) against Frontier. Esenberg shut out Clark 8-0 Tuesday (May 4) and had three base hits. With the weather heating up into the mid 80s Lowell needs to sue their bench, which is rather deep. The Devils' slap and slice style is good for tournament like this where every game has a 90-minute time limit. You have to score quickly. This tourney is tailor made for the Devils.

McCutcheon (16-5)

LAFAYETTE - One of the favorites here and a perennial top-10 powerhouse. McCutcheon was 27-3 and ranked No.1 most of last season. Maverick sophomore shortstop Alicia Garza was hitting 40 of 73 (.546) after 20 games and senior OF Tiffany Dismore was 27 of 67 (.403). Junior catcher Heather Han was 23 of 65 (.354) after 20 games and she is a premier defender with no errors in 2003.
The pitching is led by Amy Bowman (7-5. 0.78, 90Ks in 81 innings) and undefeated sophomore Marie Badylak (9-0, 0.80, 46Ks, in 61 innings). McCutcheon is an older version of Lowell with Garza, a premier right handed hitter in the three slot. Garza has 13 doubles, three triples and three home runs. There's nobody in northwest Indiana like her. This team plays perhaps the state toughest schedule traveling from Evansville to Lake County so they will not be intimidated. You pitch around Garza and you jam the left handers. They are beatable but the infield has to play well.

ANDREAN (16-2)

MERRILLVILLE - This is Andrean's specialty. They are undefeated (8-0) on Saturdays with two sweeps of tournaments (Dowagiac and Valparaiso) and two double header sweeps (Culver Academy and St. Joseph's). No. 3 hitter Carly Rossner was hitting .556 with 24 RBIs after 17 games. Left-handed leadoff hitter Ashley Emmett (.571) has 24 stolen bases. Junior Lori Knopf (10-2, 0.27) brings power to the table and is coming off a 7-0 no-hit shutout if Gavit Tuesday. Undefeated soph Katie Ivancich (6-0) shut down senior-dominated Elkhart Memorial 3-0 Saturday. the 59ers have two one-run losses and they truly should be 18-0. The 59ers used to be an independent and their schedule was dominated by tournaments like this. Andrean and McCutcheon are the tournament favorites.

HANOVER CENTRAL (12-6)

CEDAR LAKE - This what happens when you go to the state finals. the next season, at tournaments, they give you all the good foes. HC will see perennial powers Pioneer (Friday at 8 p.m.), Lewis Cass and McCutcheon. RHP Amanda Wendlinger (8-2) had 90 strikeouts in her first 60 innings. Bess Copak got the key hit of the game, a double in a 1-0 win over Class 1A No. 6 South Central (12-3) Tuesday. HC's Kelly LaPota Had eight hits in three game against Morton, South Newton and Kouts last week but they'll see some ace smokers this weekend. HC's Wendlinger ran her consecutive inning shutout streak to 26 with the shutout of SC but she'll this tourney is not constructed for a team like HC. Lapota (4-3) is the No. 2 pitcher and she'll have to pitch against Lewis Cass or McCutcheon. Wendlinger, coming off knee surgery, won't be asked to pitch three games. Hanover truly does not have the defense to contain McCutcheon and they won't win their pool without beating the Mavericks.

WHO WILL WIN?

MONTICELLO - I would think the four pool winners would be McCutcheon, Eastern , ANDREAN and LOWELL. I would like to see a matchup of 300-win coaches Jim Bates (356-124, 18 years) of McCutcheon and Frank Podkul (339-91, 17 years) of Andrean. There is only one chance these two teams can meet every year and it could occur in the semifinals or finals here. I'm not sure Cristin Just can pitch four or five games in 24 hours and stay effective. In 85-degree heat, I'm not sure anybody can. It will get hot Saturday in Monticello. Andrean, with four left-handed hitters and Carly Rossner in the No. 3 slot, will resemble McCutcheon. I like Andrean and they are one of the top-2 teams in this area.

I like Andrean but I think McCutcheon might be northern Indiana's best 4A team.