State Tourney next: Wendlinger leads Lady Wildcats to 13-inning, 3-2 regional championship win over West Lafayette

Team (Record) / Inning	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	R	H	E
West Lafayette (23-8)	1	0	0	0	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	2	9	1
HANOVER CENTRAL (25-6)	0	0	0	0	2	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	3	8	3

Twin Lakes (2A) Regional final,   70 degrees, cloudy in Twin Lakes
WP -   Amanda Wendlinger (23-5) CG No. 27, 17th shutout, 5K, 4 walks
LP -   Brittany Stanley (8-2) 7K, 0 walks (8 innings)

HANOVER CENTRAL (7 singles, double)
Jacklyn Kienzle (HC) 3 singles, 2 runs scored
Amanda Wendlinger (HC) Double, single, RBI
Cathy Homolka (HC) 2 singles

West Lafayette (8 singles, triple)
Olivia Ghiselli (WL) 3 singles, 2 walks
Ashley Archer (WL) Triple, 2 singles

MONTICELLO (6-7-2003) - "We've had better teams than this," insisted Hanover Central's Larry McMillen, the only coach the Lady Cats have ever had. "The 1999 team had Crystal Fisher at catcher and Melanie Brumbaugh at short. That was a great team."

"But this team doesn't give up," he said, looking around at his celebrating players late Saturday night on the Twin Lakes high school softball diamond. "They just don't give up."

Not until they made history. After five consecutive big winning seasons. After falling one game short last year. After 13 innings in the setting Monticello sun Saturday night.

Hanover Central sends a team to the state finals for the first time in school history as the Lady Cats beat West Lafayette 3-2 in the 13th inning of the Twin Lakes 2A softball regional championship game Saturday night.

Amanda Wendlinger's RBI double to left center against West Lafayette freshman Brittany Stanley (8-2) drive in junior Jacklyn Kienzle and set a new standard for team sports at Hanover. The Lady Cats's 2003 softball team becomes the first team to reach any state finals in the 36-year history of the Cedar Lake school.

"I just wasn't thinking about anything, said Wendlinger of the big hit. "No game plan. I just tried to hit it where it was pitched. When I saw it fall in, I knew we'd won. This is great. We're going for the first time."

No one celebrated more than Hanover. After a 6-2 semifinal win over Griffith and the three-hour 13-inning triumph over Twin Lakes, which had defeated No. 2 Culver Academy (22-2) in the semifinals, the Hanover school was led down Route 24 and I-65 back to Lake County by motorcycle police.

At the Cedar Lake city limits, the caravan was met by a fire truck and more police, who led the girls through town to the cheers and waves of local people, who came out of their homes on a warm Saturday night to figure out what all the commotion was about.

Back at the high school, principal Joe Fetty led the team into the basketball gym where the regional championship panel was added to the girls much larger sectional championship trophy and rewarded to them as the second regional champion (1999 girls basketball) in the long history of the Porter County Conference school.

"12 years," said McMillen, who suffered through the 2-0 loss to Lewis Cass last year. "We didn't play badly last year. We just got beat (by Lewis Cass, a team that lost to West Lafayette at the sectional level this year). I thought that this year, after we won the first game, we didn't have that much time to think about it. We played the second game today."

"After they (West Lafayette) scored in the first inning, the girls were hanging their heads. "I said, What's wrong with you. That's nothing. Then, once we tied it up, we were okay."

After Olivia Ghiselli, West Lafayette's smooth-swinging number three hitter, singled in a run off Wendlinger (23-5) in the top of the first, the Indians (23-8), who roared through four playoff wins without star catcher Alicia Spack (.524, 13 steals), who was hurt last month and missed the state tournament, made it 2-0. HC's second baseman Kienzle, who again starred with three singles and several fine defensive plays, let a hard hit smash by Ghiselli go through her legs for a run-scoring fifth inning error.

Trailing 2-0, Hanover began to rally. Christie Wick reached on an error by third baseman Jacki Bernhard, who made only one error in 57 chances during the 26-game regular season. With two out, Kienzle, who was DH'd for (she was replaced in the order by a designated hitter) much of the year, lined a base hit to right and McMillen pulled ninth place hitter Trisha Sheehy for freshman catcher Heather Rebenack.

The tall right-handed hitter bounced a single to center field, scoring the tying runs.

"Why did I think she could do it," said McMillen, who has pinch hit Rebenack several times. "The way she swings the bat in practice. I know she can hit."

Once we tied it up," said Wendlinger, who struck out just five of the 54 hitters to face her. "Our defense has improved so much. At the start of the year, we didn't have a set infield. Once we settled on who would play, we got better."

"Jacklyn has improved so much as a player and as a hitter. She deserves the player of the game. She's gotten so much better this year. She tries so hard. Everybody in our infield has gotten so much better."

"We've worked with her hitting," said McMillen said of Kienzle. "She's doing much better. We've had some people come in to work with all the girls on their hitting. We're going to have to do it again."
No one was talking about how it appears that Hanover should reach the state title game. The New Palestine team they'll see in the semifinals is unranked and has not played the schedule that Hanover has.

Defending state champion Evansville Memorial lost 2-1 in 11-innings to No. 3 Gibson City Saturday night in South Spencer regional matchup at the bottom of the state. Norwell (19-10) will be the fourth team in the finals, having beaten Blackford 1-0 in the Garrett Regional.

But nobody from Cedar Lake knew that, nor cared late Saturday. After a 16-hour day that ended up with townspeople applauding some very tired teenage girls returning to one of northwest Indiana's classic small schools in a moment of triumph.

"I'm hungry," said right fielder Shannon Phillips. "Where can we go to eat," said Bess Copak.
The best thing about winning is coming home afterwards.

CAT NOTES: Amanda has 284 strikeouts in 180 innings. Hanover Central again had the advantage of being the visiting team (top halves of the innings) in the semifinals and the home team in extra-inning title game.

Hanover will play the 8:30 semifinal game at North Central high school, which is at 1801 - 86th Ave on the far north side of Indianapolis. The game could start later than 8:30 if the first semifinal match runs long. The 2A state title game is set for 4 p.m. at Carmel's Cherry Tree Softball complex. Cherry Tree is not far from North Central as Carmel is a northern suburb of Indianapolis.

New Palestine was not ranked in the final state poll. The Dragons (24-8) beat Brownstown (14-13) in a regional semifinal game, 7-0 before eliminating Bishop Chatard (11-15) in the title game, 5-3. Sophomore pitcher Katie Armour, who pitched 28 scoreless innings at the sectional, gave up five hits against Chatard, striking out eight.

The Lady Cats (25-6) will not return to Twin Lakes in 2004 to defend their regional title. Twin Lakes will be a 3A school in the new four-class softball playoffs next year. Hanover will be 2A. Possible 2A regional sites in 2004 could include Garrett and Wheeler. Regional sites must have lights.

2003 Twin Lakes (2A) Regional
Semifinals - June 7, 2003
HANOVER 6, Griffith 2
Twin Lakes 4, Culver Academy 3
Championship - June 7, 2003
HANOVER 3, Twin Lakes 2 (13 innings)

STATE FINALS

Friday, June 13 at North Central (Indianapolis)
6:30 p.m. – Norwell (19-10) vs. No. 3 Gibson Southern (27-4)
8:30 p.m. New Palestine (24-8) vs. Hanover Central (25-6)

Saturday, June 14 at Carmel
4 p.m. -- Championship game: Friday night winners.

HANOVER CENTRAL (25-6)
Head coach Larry McMillen (11th year)
2002: 24-5 2001: 28-3 2000: 16-9-1 1999: 23-2

4-3:    11-0 (6) at River Forest (7-14)
4-10    1-2 Chesterton (22-5-1)
4-12: 8-3 Bishop Noll (19-12)
4-12: 2-7 Bishop Noll (19-12)
4-15: 11-0 at North Newton (13-13)
4-16: 11-0 MORGAN TOWNSHIP (6-10)
4-18: 11-0 Clark (1-21)
4-19: 20-1 at HEBRON (12-10)
4-21 (Rain) at WHEELER (14-9)
4-23: 1-2 at Lowell (13-15)
4-24: 1-4 Beecher, Ill (26-5)
4-26: 9-0 LaCROSSE (6-14)
4-28: 5-0 Whiting (14-10)
4-30: (Rain) Morton
5-1:   10-4 at South Newton (9-13)
5-2: 12-0 at KOUTS (8-11)
5-3: 2-4 Crown Point (16-15)
5-5: 12-1 at Renssealer (3-20)
5-8: (6 innings) 11-0 at BOONE GROVE (8-21)

Twin Lakes Invitational (in Monticello)
5-9: 5-0 North White (11-9)
5-10 (Rain) Jefferson (25-9)
5-10 (Rain) Pioneer (25-6)

5-13: 14-0 (5 innings) at WASHINGTON TOWNSHIP (9-9)
5-15: 5-1 Morton (15-11)

Porter County Conference (PCC) championship (at LaCrosse)
5-16: 2-0 Wheeler (14-9) quarterfinals
5-17: 8-0 Boone Grove (8-21) semifinals
5-17: 7-0 LaCrosse (6-14) PCC championship

5-19: 0-3 Lake Central (30-2-1)
5-20: 2-0 at Wheeler (14-9)
5-22: 15-0 Gavit (10-14)

ANDREAN (2A) sectional
5-26: 2-0 Wheeler (14-9) quarterfinals
5-27: 11-0 North Newton (13-13) semifinals
5-29: 1-0 (8 innings) at Andrean (26-2-1) championship

Twin Lakes (2A) Regional
6-7: 6-2 Griffith (19-14) semifinals
6-7: 3-2 (13 innings) West Lafayette (23-8) championship

2A State semifinal at (Indianapolis) North Central (8:30 p.m.)
6-13: New Palestine (24-8)

2A State Championship at Cherry Tree Elementary School - Carmel
6-14: Winner of Norwell (19-10) vs. No. 3 Gibson Southern (26-4)