Lady Red Devils beat Whiting 7-4 under the lights

Team (Record) / Inning	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	R	H	E
LOWELL (8-9)	1	0	1	1	1	0	3	7	11	1
WHITING (8-6)	1	0	2	1	0	0	0	4	6	0

5-7-2003 in Whiting - sunny, 51 degrees

WP -   Cristin Just (3-3)               5K, 0 walks (2 innings)
Kristen O'Connell (L) 9Ks, 3 walks (5 innings)
LP -   Lauren Curosh (5-5)    CG, 10Ks, 1 walk

WHITING (6 singles)
Lauren Curosh (W)   3 singles
Brittany Malkowski (W) 2 singles
LeAnn Martinez (W) Single, walk, 2 RBIs
Laura Simunic (W) 2 walks, RBI

LOWELL (8 singles, 3 doubles)
Liz Martin (LOWELL) 2 bunt singles, sac bunt
Cristin Just (LOWELL) 2 doubles, RBI
Nicole Johnson (LOWELL) Double, 2 singles, 2 RBIs
Nicole Fletcher (LOWELL) Single, RBI
Kristin Kania (LOWELL) Single, RBI

WHITING (5-7-2003)- For a Class 1A school the size of Whiting, the future is pretty much always right now. For Lowell, the future was pretty much on the field last week in Whiting. With four freshman in the starting lineup, the Red Devils overcame two one-run deficits and won on the road, 7-4 down by Lake Michigan.

"We started 2-8," said veteran coach Pete Iussig, "And now we're 8-9. "

In their lone night game of the regular season, the Red Devils 'all new crew,' freshman
Liz Martin, Carrie Shelhart, Cristin Just and Nicole Fletcher collected four of their 11 hits
and the Lowell old timers did their part as the Devils continued to rise in the Lake Athletic Conference (LAC) standings.

With the game tied 4-4 and two out in the seventh inning, Fletcher grounded a single to left off Whiting senior pitcher Lauren Curosh (5-5), scoring Martin, who had singled and stolen second base.
After sophomore Amber Roberts was hit by a pitch, junior catcher Nicole Johnson doubled to right center to create the final score and win for Just, who relieved starter Kristen O'Connell.

Fletcher is the fourth freshman to enter Lowell's starting lineup this year.

There's two problems with having four freshman starters at a school with the softball history of Lowell (82-43-1 over the last 4 years) where girls have waited all their lives to get into the lineup.
First of all, the upperclassmen have to accept it. "They seem to get along," said Iussig.

"O'Connell and Just threw all winter together. They were throwing in the open gym. I had them throwing separately but they wanted to throw together."

"I think they all want to win."

That's the second problem. Can the ninth-graders play? That's another eye-opener. Iussig has touted this freshman class as one of his all time best but that doesn't usually translate into freshman success. Shelhart, installed in the leadoff role, had 20 hits in her first 49 at-bats. Just had 14 hits in her first 31 at bats and struck out 61 in her first 39 innings as a pitcher. Martin has played four or five positions and Fletcher just got to the big team.

"Roberts is our shortstop and Fletcher is the shortstop on the junior varsity," explained Iussig. "Roberts got hit behind the elbow (by a pitch) in the Griffith game and it just swelled up. She won't ever come out of the lineup so she played against Lake Central (3 days later). But I thought, I'll start you but I don't want you to get hit again right now. So, I brought Fletcher up and against Hammond, I substituted a lot in the fourth inning,. She takes a vicious swing with two strikes and she gets a triple. Next time, she blasts one about 30 feet over the fence. So I said, 'wow'. And we'd been hurting at third base. The only one who hadn't hurt us is Martin, but she'd played everywhere. She started at second, she started at third and she played two outfield spots because she's such a good athlete."

"But we need hitters so I put her in left and Fletcher at third. And tonight, she struck out and popped up but then she gets the big hit in the seventh inning."

This was an entertaining game with a little more offense than both sides probably wanted. Lowell's Amy Shelhart gave the Red Devils a 2-1 lead on a wild pitch in the third inning but junior LeAnn Martinez gave the Oilers a 3-2 lead with a one out single in the bottom of the third.

Lowell senior Kristin Kania tied the game in the fourth inning with a one-out RBI single, but Whiting regained the lead on a walk, a bunt, a wild pitch and Laura Simunic's ground out in the bottom of the fourth.

Lowell tied the game at 4-4 when Tiffany Meyers singled and Cristin Just doubled leading off the fifth. Going to the bottom of the sixth, Iussig replaced starting pitcher Kristin O'Connell with Just, the hard throwing freshman. Just struck out five batters in the final two innings after O'Connell had fanned nine in the first five frames.

Whiting coach Paul Laub left a bit amazed. "I asked Pete, how do you only have eight wins with those two girls. We don't get freshman like that. He's got a real good team coming."

Lowell won the game with a three-run rally in the seventh inning. Martin reached on her second bunt single, a very close play where she got the call at first base. Two outs later, Martin stole second base and scored on Fletcher's ground ball into left field. Johnson's two-run double made it 7-4.

Whiting, which has a coming star in Martinez, a freshman catcher, was coming off a 7-6 victory over South Central, the team that should meet Whiting in the Class 1A Regional. But Laub is not looking ahead.

"That's a big deal because they are 1A like us. he said. "We lost to Lake Station last year and it really wasn't a fluke. Our program is at the point where when we face a 1A school, we're supposed to win. We haven't had a losing season in 21 years. People get discombobulated when we lose a game."

"We're a school of 240 kids and we're playing Lowell. They have more kids absent some times than we have total kids. We're playing Andrean. Number one in the state. We're playing Highland and Griffith. We've got six losses and every one of them is to a good program. This is the first loss to a team with a losing record and they play a very tough schedule."

Lowell is 6-2 in league play and should finish at least 8-4 in a year when they do not expect to be a champion. The emergence of the freshman, especially on offense, has given seniors Like Kania, Meyers and O'Connell a chance for upset sectional victory or two.

In the meantime, everybody's just having fun. And playing at night on Whiting's multimillion dollar sports complex appeared to be fun.

Paul said, "'You're the first night game'. But when we go to Merrillville, Griffith or Whiting, I love playing under the lights. He said, 'Nobody wants to play us at night.' They think we play at night all the time and they've got a big advantage. I love this field. I love the grass. I always want to come here."

DEVIL NOTES: Wednesday's rescheduled game with Lake Station was rained out again. They'll try to play Friday (May 9) but they probably won't. Rain is predicted again.

Iussig says that Just is gaining in confidence in the short time she's been on the varsity.
Against Kankakee Valley, I had a plan to start Heather Stevens for four innings and I'm going with Just for three. The time came and I told her, 'Just, you better get warmed up.' She said, "Heather's doing fine. Just let her go.' Then, we were at Gavit. We were winning but O'Connell was in trouble. I told her to get warmed up and I went out there and said, "Are you ready? She said, 'Well, I don't know.' I'm not sure.'

Tonight, she was warming up and I went out there and asked her, 'Are you ready?' and she said, 'Two batters. Two more batters and I'll be ready.' She's a little different. But she's a pitcher."

Laub said that even though South Central has been a top-10 team all season and Hanover Central is now out of the top-10, that Hanover is the better team. "South Central doesn't have anybody like Wendlinger," Laub said. "We couldn't do anything against her."

Penn, which will host Lowell on the final day of the regular season, is 14-3 after a 1-0 loss to Mishawaka Monday. Future foes Andrean (16-0-1) and Highland (16-3) were rained out of an LAC matchup Wednesday. They are scheduled to play for the LAC lead Monday at 5 p.m.

LOWELL 8-9, 6-2 LAC

Head coach Pete Iussig
2002: 14-15 2001: 21-9 2000: 24-10-1 1999: 23-9

3-29: 2-7 Chesterton (14-2)
4-5: 3-6 at Valparaiso (11-7)
4-8: 8-0 Kankakee Valley (7-8)
4-10: 0-11 MUNSTER (15-2)
4-14: 0-2 at Hobart (12-5)
4-15: 11-0 at CLARK (0-15)
4-16: 1-6 Portage (11-4)
4-17: 4-12 BISHOP NOLL (12-11)
4-19:   4-6 Crown Point (9-10)
4-19:   1-2 Crown Point (9-10)
4-21L   7-2 at GAVIT (6-11)
4-22:   7-0 at South Newton (5-9)
4-23:   2-1 Hanover Central (10-5)
4-24: 6-3 GRIFFITH (10-9)
4-28: 0-8 Lake Central (18-2-1)
4-29: 11-2 at Hammond (7-8)
5-1 (Rain) LAKE STATION (0-15)
5-6: 7-4 at WHITING (8-6)
5-7 (Rain) Lake Station (0-15)

5-8 (Th) CALUMET (6-11)
5-12 (M) Merrillville (5-12)
5-13 (Tu) at HIGHLAND (16-3)
5-14 (W) Wheeler (9-7)
5-15 (Th) MORTON (5-12)
5-20 (Tu) at ANDREAN (16-0-1)

Penn Invitational (4 teams)
5-24 (3 games) 10 a.m. (EST)

MERRILLVILLE (4A) SECTIONAL
5-26 (M) quarterfinals - 5 p.m.
5-27 (Tu) quarterfinals - 5 p.m.
5-30 (Th) semifinals - 5 p.m.
5-31 (F) championship (TBA)

MERRILLVILLE (4A) REGIONAL
6-7 (S) semifinals - 10 a.m.
6-7 (S) championship - 7 p.m.

2003 STATE SOFTBALL FINALS
6-13 (F) 4A semifinals - 6:30 p.m.
6-13 (S) 4A championship - 5 p.m.