Lady Devils end season in 6-2 sectional championship loss to Lake Central, anticipate big winning seasons in 2005 & 2006

A USA-365 special report by Mark Smith

5-30-2004 

May 29, 2004,  68 degrees, 4A LC Sectional Final in St. John

WP - Beth Toyias (15-0) 10th CG, 5th shut out, 8Ks, 0 walks
LP - Cristin Just (9-5)  2k, 3 walks  (2 inn.)

Carrie Shelhart (LOWELL) Single, run scored
Kelly Johnson (LOWELL) 3 singles, run scored
Courtney Austgen (LOWELL) Single, 2 RBIs

Stacy Adamski (LC) Double, single, walk, RBI
Angie Funston (LC) Single, HBP, RBI, 2 stolen bases
Kari Duncan (LC) Single, walk
Katie Mitchell (LC) Double, walk, stolen bases
Brittany Smoter (LC) Single, walk, stolen base

May 27, 2004,  78 degrees, 4A LC Sectional Semifinal in St. JOHN

WP - Cristin Just (9-4)  CG, 9K, 1 walks
LP - Stephanie Zimny (13-5-1)  CG 

Cristin Just (LOWELL) Double, 2 singles, 3 RBIs

LOWELL (5-29-2004) - The first Lake Central Sectional championship game was a matchup between one team that's just starting to get strong and another that already is strong. As you might expect, 'already is' usually gets the best of 'just starting to get there.'

For the second time in a week against LC (25-3), Lowell fell behind early and never caught up, losing 6-2 to the Class 4A No.3 Indians.
It was a game that Lake Central will quickly forget on their way to the state finals for a fourth consecutive season. And it was a game that Lowell (20-9) will probably remember as they play this summer and think about coming back to take the sectional crown away from LC the next two seasons.

"What did they have?" asked Lowell coach Pete Iussig, "Eight stolen bases? That's not good. And there were seven walks if you include hit batters. You can't put people on base against good teams and then turn it into a double. They're just going to take advantage of that."

Lake Central, which was 32-3-1 and lost to Center Grove in the big school state title game last year, scored in the first inning after Katie Mitchell's would be home run hit the yellow piping at the top of LC's five foot center field fence and bounced back onto the playing field for a double.

Lowell right-hander Cristin Just (9-5) walked LC clean up hitter Stacy Adamski (28-74, .378) on a 3-1 pitch and wild pitched Mitchell to third base. Mitchell then scored on another wild pitch. The Lowell defense faltered in the second inning as well as Kelli Koch surprised everyone with an RBI squeeze bunt with one out and runners at first and third. Senior Angie Funston then made it 3-0 with a base hit to left field. Britney Smolar's RBI single made it 4-0 in the third after a hit batter and another stolen base.

"Obviously," said LC coach Keith Hauber. "We thought we could run on their catcher. You have to run. You're not going to get three hits in an inning."

Unlike the 5-0 LC win over Lowell on May 19, the Red Devils put up a fight.

Carrie Shelhart and Kelly Johnson started the fourth inning with singles against LC's undefeated left-hander Bethany Toyias. Two outs later, Lowell sophomore Courtney Austgen faked a bunt and lined a single to left to cut the lead to 4-2.

The Red Devils had the tying run at the plate after Kelly Johnson's third hit of the game with one out in the sixth. But Toyias, the 5-10 left-hander, who has allowed less than 50 hits in 100 innings, got Just to ground out on a 2-1 pitch and struck out Amber Roberts to end the inning.

Iussig pulled Just, who has been ill, after two fairly ineffective innings and went to senior Heather Stevens, who pitched the 5-0 loss a week ago. Stevens shut out LC in the fourth and the fifth to give Lowell time to come back.

"We thought they were catching up to Cristin," said Iussig, "So we thought we'd show them a change of pace. And it worked for a while."

LC coach Hauber knew what was going on. "He (Iussig) was smart to mix up the pitchers," Hauber commented, "because the slower pitcher threw our hitters off for a while. Pete does an excellent job. I've always had the utmost respect for him. Those slappers are a problem. I remember years ago when we were favored to win the sectional and they beat us at Crown Point. We had an awesome team that year with (future basketball all-stater) Kelly Komara. We knew exactly what they were going to do and we still couldn't stop it. He's always worried me. I wasn't very happy to hear that they were going to be in our sectional."

In the sixth inning, Kari Duncan bounced an RBI single up the middle, scoring Funston, who had reached base on a hit batter and stolen second base. Stacy Adamski's two-out double made it 6-2.

Toyias (15-0) finished her second complete-game victory over a 20-win team in 24 hours and LC, for all the world, appears ready to return to the state championships for the fourth year in a row.

"I tried to tell all the girls that it doesn't matter what kind of season you've had," said Hauber. "Do something big in the tournament and that's all you're going to remember. This was the first ever sectional on Lake Central high school's field. We're not about to let somebody else beat us. We've lost one game in four years here. That was (West Lafayette) Harrison (a 3-0 loss) this year. And I don't want to make excuses about that one, but we'd played a big league game against Chesterton the night before. That (Harrison) game meant nothing to us and it meant everything to them."

"We were pretty psyched up this week. To do what we did against Munster. I'm in awe of that. We had the biggest crowd to ever see a game here and most of them went home unhappy because it wasn't a game."

That couldn't be said Saturday. Both teams had seven hits and nobody's defense collapsed.

'We played tough," said Iussig. "I'm pretty proud of them."

For Lowell, the window of opportunity opens next season. The Red Devils started nine underclassmen including five sophomores. Kelly Johnson is a potentially dominant shortstop or center fielder and her twin sister Michelle Johnson, a varsity-ready outfielder who was 1-for-2 in the playoff game against LC.

There is every reason to believe that Munster, which went 23-3-1 with only two seniors and Lowell, which was 20-9 on the varsity level and 22-3 at the JV level, will be back to challenge Lake Central at sectional time next season.

"We're hoping for big things. We took about six of the sophomores for the varsity so we didn't expect them to do as well as they did. The other half of the sophomores and a sprinkling of freshmen did a great job."

"The problem is," added Iussig, "they (LC) keep graduating these pitchers and coming up with another one who's just as good. They never give you a break."

DEVIL DETAILS:  A light rain fell during the first four innings but it didn't appear to affect the play.  Lowell had the advantage of a Thursday afternoon semifinal game while Lake Central's 10-1 win over Munster was Friday. That also appeared to have absolutely no effect on the game.

Lake Central annihilated Munster 10-1 in the semifinal matching teams ranked No. 3 and No. 5 in the state. LC scored six times in the fourth inning against Munster, which had not lost since a 6-3 loss to LC on April 15. The Mustangs, the undefeated champions of the Lake Athletic Conference, were held to three singles in their first game against LC star Beth Toyias. The Munster three-pitcher rotation, which had a total of 15 shutouts on the season, gave up 10 runs in the final four innings. That LC won was no surprise but the margin of victory was a shock.

"I thought we might win 20," said Red Devil coach Pete Iussig. "But not without Nicole (Fletcher)." Fletcher, a sophomore third base man, missed the last four weeks of the season with mononucleosis. We haven't had her for a month and she's our best hitter."

LC defeated regional semifinal foe Portage twice.

"That first game was a classic," said LC coach Keith Hauber. "That was 6-5 with two home runs. You don't see many offensive games like that. You see a lot of classic 1-0 games. The second game was 6-2. That was the night after freshman pitcher Meghan (Gutierrez) got hit in the face against Penn."

Katie Mitchell's first inning drive hit the top of the center field fence and came back into play, giving her just a double. LC has bolted yellow drain pipe around the chain link fence, probably to cover the sharp spokes.

"I've never seen that happen," said Hauber of the Mitchell bounce back ball. "We replaced that piping all around the fence but that's the old piping in center field."

Lowell freshman Kelly Johnson was 3-for-3 against LC's Beth Toyias and made every play in center field and at shortstop. Kelly was Lowell's fastest player and truthfully appeared capable of playing any position other than pitcher and catcher. And, last week, here comes her twin sister.

"Michelle Johnson is Kelly's sister," said Iussig. "They're twins but they're not identical. We had an over abundance of outfielders. She started on the JV team. She plays first and outfield on the JV. You've got to give the juniors and seniors who have been with you a chance first but, yeah, we expect big things out of her next year."

Lowell had eight sophomores and two freshmen on the playoff roster. Valuable senior pitcher Heather Stevens (3-2)  graduates but Lowell returns No. 1 pitcher Cristin Just (9-5), JV pitcher Rya Nord and senior-to-be Vanessa Esenberg (5-2). If no one leaves the program, Lowell is looking at big-winning seasons in 2005 and 2006.

LOWELL (17-8) 
Coach Pete Iussig (15th year)
13-15 (2003), 14-15 (2002),  21-9 (2001), 24-10-1 (2000), 23-9 (1999)
Lake Athletic Conference (LAC) games in CAPS

March 27 (L) 3-4 (13 inn.) at Chesterton (20-6)
April 3 (W) 7-5 Valparaiso (14-15)
April 5 (L) 2-4 Portage (27-3-2)
April 6 (W) 23-0 at LAKE STATION (3-17)
April 8 (L) 6-2 HIGHLAND (19-6-1)
April 13 (W) 16-0 CALUMET  (3-20)
April 15 (W) 10-3 HOBART (16-11)
April 19 (W) 21-0 GAVIT  (3-16)
April 20 (Rainout) South Newton (8-14)
April 21 (W) 4-1 at Hanover Central (23-7)
April 22 (W) 5-1 KANKAKEE VALLEY  (7-13)
April 27 (W) 7-5 at MORTON (18-8)
April 29 (L) 6-7 ANDREAN (28-3)

May 4 (W) 8-0 at CLARK  (3-15-2)
May 6 (W) 5-3 at GRIFFITH (16-13)

Twin Lakes Invitational
May 7 (L) 1-2 Merrillville (15-16)
May 8 (L) 0-3 at Twin Lakes (18-12)
May 8 (W) 9-1 Frontier (9-15)

May 10 (W) 3-1 at Merrillville  (15-16)
May 11 (W) 15-4 at BISHOP NOLL  (17-14)
May 12 (W) 5-4 at WHEELER (14-13)
May 13 (L) 0-5 MUNSTER  (23-3-1)
May 14 (F) WHITING (26-5) canceled
May 17 (W) 7-6 Crown Point (7-19)
May 18 (W) 13-1 at Boone Grove (7-22)
May 19 (L) 0-5 at Lake Central  (25-3)
May 20 (W) 8-3 Benton Central (22-10)

Penn Invitational
May 22 (W) 2-1 (9 inn.) Pendleton Heights (20-8)
May 22 (W) 2-0 at Penn (20-10)

Lake Central (4A) Sectional
May 27 (W) 7-3 Highland (19-6-1)
May 29 (L) 2-6 vs. LC (25-3) title

Copyright © 2004 USA-365.com and Meyer Multimedia Services, a division of Meyer Broadcasting Corp.  All rights reserved.
Revised: July 10, 2004.