Team (Record) / Inning	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	R	H	E
HANOVER CENTRAL (13-12)	1	0	0	0	0	3	0	4	5	2
BISHOP NOLL (21-8)	0	2	0	1	0	0	0	3	7	0

UNION TOWNSHIP (5-28-2011) Come on. No way. Hanover Central beat Bishop Noll for the Class 2A Wheeler Sectional championship Saturday? Bishop Noll? The champs of the Greater South Shore Conference (GSSC) with a 13-1 record? Hanover? Which wasn't even a .500 team at the end of the regular season? A team that only had 13 players in uniform for the sectional championship game?

The year after they graduated three all-conference players, including a two-time MVP of the Porter County Conference, Hanover returned to the regional in very surprising fashion.

"When we had (Jessica) Toth and (Kelsey (Jankowski) and that group," said coach Larry McMillen, "we won one sectional in four years. Now, here we are with these guys."

In a major upset over a team that could have reached the Class 2A state finals, Hanover Central found way to rally from a 3-1 deficit and top Bishop Noll 4-3 in what is easily the biggest softball upset of the 2011 state softball tournament in Northwest Indiana.

Hanover takes on Hebron in regional play with the winner facing the winner of Jimtown vs. Prairie Heights in the Class 2A LaVille semistate Saturday morning (6-4-2011) at 10 a.m. (Lake County time).

On another cloudy, cool Saturday morning, Noll seemed destined to win when they took a 3-1 lead into the sixth inning, but Hanover (13-12) scored three times off Bishop Noll's 5-foot-10 all-state right-hander Vanessa Hartzell (18-6).

Ashley Yoways walked on a 3-2 pitch and Tiphani Ward, after missing two bunt attempts, lined a single to center field. Senior Tiffany Gibson was hit by a pitch to fill the bases and HC catcher Katie Klopp blooped a soft single to center to make it 3-2. HC sophomore Blayr Poston, who was unable to play in April when Noll defeated Hanover 8-3 in Hammond, then hit another soft pop fly hit to left, tying the game 3-3.

Hartzell, who struck out 11, struck out Hanover's Ivy Dawson. But Taylor Hurst lifted a fly ball to medium-deep center field that scored Gibson with the go-ahead run. Gibson, a Division II recruit to St. Joseph's College, raced into left center to make a diving, one-out catch of a line drive by Noll's Rachel Williamson and she later ran hard into right center to make a diving, game-ending catch off Vicky Papach's potential triple.

The win was a shock, even to Hanover, which won the Porter County Conference (PCC) the last two seasons only to lose in sectional play. Hebron won the PCC this season. Hanover's upset win allows them a rematch with the Hawks (22-5) in Tuesday's Class 2A regional title game.

"We all came focused," said Gibson. "We practiced really well this week. Those (diving catches) were hard plays. If you have to dive for them that's hard. But I've done it before. It felt really good. I'm not going to lie."

"That's what she does," laughed coach McMillen of Gibson's diving catches in the sixth and seventh inning. "That's what she's paid for. I feel bad that she had a down year hitting, but as an outfielder, there's not a better one in the area."

"The biggest hit in that inning was Tiphani Ward's," continued McMillen. "After she botched two bunt attempts. That was the biggest hit of the game."

How did she do that?

"I have no idea,'" Tiphani said later. "No idea. It's amazing. I didn't think we were going to win the sectional. Anything can happen. We proved it today. We just kept cheering each other out, even when we were striking out."

Ward is the epitome of Hanover's roller-coaster team. She missed a couple of balls but then she scored a couple of runs.

"I felt bad," said Ward, who at just 4-foot-10 is a starter in both basketball and softball. I just knew I had to make the next play."

In a shocker, McMillen started right-hander Abby Stewart, a 5-foot-2 junior who had never started a varsity game. Top pitcher Ashley Yoways (13-12), who had started every game all season, opened the game at third base.

"We saw how Noll struggled against their second girl (Emily Bisch) and hit their hard throwing girl (Nickole Finch)," said McMillen. "They couldn't hit her (Bisch). So, I thought we'd throw Abby and it bothered them. If we didn't have that misplay in left field, she wouldn't have been scored on."

When did Stewart find out about her surprise assignment?

"About 15 minutes before the game," Abby admitted. "I was surprised."

With Hanover leading 1-0 and two runners on base, Noll's Salena Espino pulled a hard, second inning line drive. Ward, HC's left fielder, charged the ball and dived for it but missed, and the ball turned into a two run double. Stewart got the next four outs and turned it over to Yoways after three innings.

"If it works, you're a genius," said McMillen, who thanked Wheeler coach Marc Bruner afterwards for showing him the way against Noll. "That's only the second varsity game she's ever pitched in.

Hanover won 4-3. How? They lost to Noll 4-1 in the sectional last year and didn't they have three seniors who went onto play sports in college? Didn't Hanover have a better team last year?

"We did," admitted senior Ashley Loy. "We definitely did. I don't know how we did this. We've had quite a few off games. But we've been waiting for something like this to happen all season. We just never gave up. That's all I can say. We've just had a lot of fun this year. We really support each other a lot when things go wrong. It was unbelievable how we'd support each other even with all the things that have gone wrong. This is awesome. I was almost in tears."

It's understandable. Among the hidden blessings for HC is that they have set themselves up for the next year or two. Instead of having seven returning starters coming back in 2012 off a losing team (which is what they would have been had they lost to Noll), Hanover now has seven returning starters pus the starting and winning pitchers off a sectional championship team.

Like winners have said for 100 years, Tiffany Gibson said that no one gave Hanover a chance to win a game at the sectional, something that wasn't a surprise since the Lady Cats began the year 2-7 At the start of the year, did YOU think Hanover was going to win the sectional?

"No," Gibson laughed. "Definitely not. Not at all. I'm so proud of everybody. I just didn't want the season to be over today. I'm so happy right now."

SECTIONAL NOTES: Hanover Central shut out Lake Station 4-0 in their sectional semifinals as Ashley Yoways pitched a two-hit shutout on Tuesday, May 24. Tiphani Ward drove in two runs with a single. Rainouts pushed the championship game, originally schedule for Thursday, all the way to Saturday morning.

Hanover starts two freshmen in Ashley Yoways and Ivy Dawson, three sophomores in Tiphani Ward, Blayr Poston and Taylor Hurst and junior catcher Katie Klopp.

Hanover assistant coach Megan Myers, who played on the 2004 Hanover state championship team, calls the pitches for this year's Hanover team.

"My dad (HC's JV coach Randy Myers) always said that anyone can beat anyone on any given day," Megan said. And this is that day."

Hanover Central has won six sectional softball championships, all in the class sports (since 1997) era. HC was a four-time sectional champ from 2002-2005 and they were in back-to-back state finals in 2003 and 2004.

Hanover ended up facing four teams (Hebron, Western, South Central, Washington Township) that were sectional champions, not counting Beecher which was 30-1 before Saturday's Illinois state playoff game with Coal City.

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2011 Hanover Central (13-12)
Coach Larry McMillen
17-7 (2010), 22-5 (2009), 20-10 (2008), 20-10 (2006)
March 31 (W) 10-0 at River Forest
April 1 (Rain) Chesterton
April 2 (L) 5-6 (8) at Munster .
April 5 (L) 2-3 Highland
April 8 (W) 7-0 North Newton
April 11 (L) 1-5 HEBRON
April 13 (L) 0-7 at Griffith
April 14 (L) 3-8 at Bishop Noll

April 18 (L) 2-10 BOONE GROVE
April 20 (rain) at Lowell
April 21 (L) 2-7 Beecher, Ill.
April 22 (rain) LaCROSSE

CROWN POINT Invitational
April 23 (rain) vs. Crown Point
April 23 (rain) vs. Wheeler
April 23 (rain) vs. Andrean

April 25 (W) 3-1 at KOUTS
April 26 (rain) at Wheeler
April 29 (W) 2-1 SOUTH CENTRAL.
May 2 (W) 2-1 at WASHINGTON TOWNSHIP
May 3 (W) 12-0 (5 inn.) at Rensselaer

TWIN LAKES Invitational
May 6 (L) 4-5 Western
May 7 (L) 6-8 Benton Central
May 7 (W) 8-5 Lowell

May 10 (W) 8-1 MORGAN TOWNSHIP
May 11 (W) 7-0 LaCrosse

PCC Tournament (last 2 rounds at LaCrosse)
May 13 (W) 14-1 (5 inn.) LaCrosse
May 14 (L) 0-5 Hebron (semifinal)

May 17 (L) 5-7 Chesterton
May 19 (W) 2-1 Lowell
May 20 (L) 0-6 Whiting

Wheeler (2A) Sectional
May 24 (W) 4-0 Lake Station
May 28 (W) 4-3 Bishop Noll (title)

Hebron (2A) Regional
May 31 (Tues.) at Hebron (22-5)

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Revised: June 21, 2011.