Hebron emerges by default with 2006 PCC Softball Championship

5-14-2006

A USA-365.com Special Report by Mark Smith

Team (Record) / Inning	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	R	H	E
HANOVER CENTRAL (14-12)	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	4	1
HEBRON (17-2)	0	1	2	0	0	0	-	3	7	1

Saturday, May 13, 2006 - 48 degrees, cloudy & wet in LaCrosse, PCC Semifinal

WP - Maggie Riggs (14-2) 7K, 0 walks, CG
LP - Danielle Hill (10-9) 5K, 1 walk, CG

Hanover Central (14-12)
Heather Rebenack (CF) Single
Vickie Wigsmoen (1B) Single
Alissa Janes (LF) Single

Hebron (17-2)
Courtney Overton (2B) 2 triples, RBI
Katie Hren (1B) Single, walk, RBI
Sheri Warren (SS) Single, sac bunt

Team (Record) / Inning	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	R	H	E
HANOVER CENTRAL (13-12)	1	0	4	0	4	-	-	10	9	0
LaCrosse (5-14)	0	0	0	0	0	-	-	0	3	1

Friday, May 12, 2006 - 43 degrees, cloudy & wet in LaCrosse, PCC Quarterfinal

WP - Danielle Hill (10-8) CG, 5Ks, 2 walks
LP - Caitlin Domermuth (5-14) CG, 1K, 6 walks

Hanover Central (13-12)
Heather Rebenack (CF) Double, single, RBI
Kara Gilbert (SS) 3 singles, 2 RBIs
Jill Sjoerdsma (C) 2 singles, 3 RBIs

Team (Record) / Inning	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	R	H	E
Kouts (5-14)	0	0	0	0	0	-	-	0	1	1
HEBRON (16-2)	0	9	0	6	-	-	-	15	8	0

Friday, May 12, 2006 - 43 degrees, cloudy, wet in LaCrosse, PCC Semifinal

WP - Maggie Riggs (13-2) 8K, 0 walks, CG
LP -- Carrie Rush (3-10) 0K, 5 walks, CG

Hebron (17-2)
Courtney Overton (2B) 2 triples, 2 RBIs
Heidi Freund (CF) Triple, single, 3 RBIs
Sheri Warren (SS) Double, 3 RBIs

2006 Porter County Conference (PCC) Softball Championship

Quarterfinals
South Central 14, Morgan Township 1
BOONE GROVE 10, Washington Township 3
HANOVER CENTRAL 10, LaCrosse 0 (5 innings)
HEBRON 15, Kouts 0 (5 innings)

Semifinals
BOONE GROVE 4, South Central 1
HEBRON 3, HANOVER CENTRAL 0

Championship
HEBRON (19-2) over BOONE GROVE (12-13) Forfeit

LaCROSSE (5-13-2006) If you showed up in time for the 3 p.m. championship game of Saturday's Porter County Conference (PCC) championship tournament, you missed it. But don't feel bad. Everybody did.

It wasn't the ending anybody wanted but it is will stand. Hebron won the Porter County Conference softball championship Saturday with a forfeit win over Boone Grove. Odd but true.....After Boone upset South Central 4-1 and Hebron blanked defending champ Hanover Central 3-0, Boone Grove coach Andrew Niksich asked again if the title game could be postponed until Monday. When told it would not be, Niksich said his girls had gone home and his team would have to forfeit the league championship game.

This forfeit, a first in the 10-year history of the PCC playoffs, was certainly an embarrassment to the league and it does detract from Hebron's first-ever title. The Hawks (17-2) blew out Kouts 15-0 in the quarterfinals and stopped Hanover (14-12) on three hits. But, it wasn't as satisfying as it could have been. Even during the game, there were whispers that the Boone Grove girls had left and weren't coming back.

Almost immediately after Hebron and Hanover Central shook hands under damp and darkened southwest LaPorte County skies, the LaCrosse public address announcer told the crowd of about 150 that Boone had left for the Saturday night school prom and that Hebron was the league champion.

"At first, I was saying, you don't want to win by forfeit," said Hebron coach Scott Eriks. "But we want to play now. This had been scheduled for a year. It's always this week. We don't know (weather wise) what's going to happen Monday. And sectional track is Tuesday. Can you imagine anybody now showing up for the finals of the PCC basketball tournament."

Niksich, Boone's first year coach, who stayed behind to watch the Hebron-Hanover game after his girls had rejected South Central, knew that the PCC title game was on the same day as prom because it had been discussed earlier in the season. But he still wasn't happy with how it all went down Saturday.

"We knew," he said quietly. "Everybody knew the situation. They (Hebron) had an open date Monday. We could have played. We could have and we should have."

There was a school of thought that Boone Grove might not have notified the league about the prom-finals conflict because they weren't sure they'd reach the final. With a new coach, they simply may not have known how to arrange a postponement. Hanover Central coach Larry McMillen said that one thing was certain.

"This tournament has been on the same weekend ever since this tournament started," he said. "Nobody asked that we move the starting times."

McMillen also said that the prom is a bomb that's been dropped on a lot of schools.

"At Hanover, we ask that before they schedule the prom, they come to the athletic department and find out what's on that day, " he said. "This year, nobody told us anything and they had the prom on April 28. We had to cancel a softball game and there was a boys and girls track meet on Saturday, too. You've got to ask somebody."

Hebron might have won anyway. With six seniors and led pitcher Maggie Riggs, a four year starter, the Hawks have lost only to South Central and Kankakee Valley. The win over Hanover Central was Hebron's 15th victory in a row. They were never in danger of losing Saturday after Courtney Overton tripled to right center and in the second inning and scored on Katie Hren's single to center. In the third inning, Riggs chopped an RBI single far over the head of HC third baseman Andria Trock to make it 2-0 and Overton's second triple gave Hebron a three-run lead.

Hanover, with a lineup of four seniors, a sophomores and four freshmen, never got started after a 10-0 quarterfinal win over LaCrosse. Senior Heather Rebenack was the only HC leadoff batter to reach base all day, singling in the second inning. Losing pitcher Danielle Hill bunted her to second base but Riggs, a tall blond right-hander, struck out freshman Vickie Wigsmoen got Trock to ground out to shortstop. Hanover chased bad pitches and rarely hit the ball hard off Riggs, who changed speeds frequently to fool the Lady Cat batters.

"It's not a change up," Riggs said afterwards. "Every body thinks its a change up because it's so slow. It's a curve and it really does curve."

Whatever it does, she better keep using it. Riggs, after 19 games (officially, Hebron is 19-2 with the forfeit) has 170 strikeouts and just 15 walks in 112 innings. She has allowed 56 hits and four earned runs all season. McMillen gave Riggs credit but he thought his girls should have attacked her better.

"Our pitch selection stunk," he said. "We couldn't put two hits together. We chased the high ball religiously. We worked on some things. Fake bunts and things like that and we just a swing at bad pitches. It was a learning experience for a lot of our girls though."

Riggs struck out nine and she's probably a better pitcher than anyone HC will see at sectional time.

"She's really on right now," said Eriks. "It feels real good to beat them (HC). Is it our turn? Pretty much. We do have a lot of seniors."

It wasn't Hanover's time. Hanover had a string of five consecutive PCC championships end and McMillen, who never takes losses very well was a little upset because, as it turns out, the Lady Cats would have won the league title had they beaten Hebron.

The Cats, who rumor has it, have two highly-regarded 8th grade pitchers entering school in the fall, and figure to be the favorite in this tournament for the next couple of years. But the Lake Station Sectional comes up in two weeks and even though HC must beat Wheeler, Boone Bishop Noll and Boone Grove in a four day span, the Lady Cats' improving defense (just three errors in the last eight games) give Hanover hope to extend another string, five consecutive sectional titles.

"We'd have to beat them all anyway," said McMillen, of the draw that requires HC to beat three of the five teams in the Lake Station sectional. "But we've got to play Whiting and Crown Point now. I plan on winning those. I don't know if the girls do but I do. If we can hit the ball, we can beat those teams."

PCC NOTES: Hebron becomes the first team in the 10-year history of the PCC tournament other than Hanover Central and Morgan Township to win the title. Hanover is a six-time champ and Morgan is a three-time winner. Both HC and Morgan Township have won state softball titles. South Central won its first PC C regular season title in three years in the league.

It was easy to say in retrospect but more than one person agreed that the solution to this prom situation would have been to schedule the quarterfinals on Thursday, the semifinals Friday and the finals at 11 a.m. Saturday, leaving all the girls plenty of time to go home and party. But no one asked.

Hebron's Courtney Overton, who had two triples against Hanover, also had two triples in the 15-0 quarterfinal win over Kouts Friday. Hanover freshman Kara Gilbert had three hits and Jill Sjoerdsma had three RBIs to lead the Lady Cats to a 10-0 win over LaCrosse in a game that was move from Cedar Lake to LaCrosse because of all day rains in Cedar Lake. All four Friday games were played in miserable mid 40s and cold weather. But it did not rain nearly as much in LaPorte County as it did in Lake County, where no high school baseball or softball was played Friday or Saturday.

Hebron coach Scott Eriks announced that the rained out game with undefeated Whiting scheduled for Monday, May 15 was canceled by Whiting because they had to make up a rained out Lake Athletic Conference (LAC) Blue Division game. That means a Friday, May 19 home date with Hanover Central (14-12) is virtually all that stands between Whiting (21-0) and an undefeated regular season.

Two years ago, Hanover Central had the prom and the Twin Lakes Invitational scheduled on the same day. HC stated up front that they would not be playing in the finals even if they qualified. It didn't matter. HC did not qualify for the finals. This month, Benton Central went 3-0 in pool play at the Twin Lakes Invitational and then left for the school prom.

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