Lowell near 'perfect' in 10-1 Sectional Championship win over Munster
A USA-365 special report by Mark Smith
5-27-2007

Saturday, May 26, 2007 - 61 degrees, cloudy & light rain - Highland Sectional Championship at HIGHLAND, IN

WP - Allyssa Reed (13-2) CG, 3K, 4 walks
LP - Eleanor Kennedy (11-5) 0K, 1 walk, 4K, 2 walks, 3 ERs

4A No. 9 LOWELL (28-6)
Becca Nida (CF) 3 singles, 2 runs scored
Jacki Fletcher (2B) 4 singles, stolen base, 2 runs scored
Kristina Kuzma (DP) Double, single, 2 RBIs
Michelle Johnson (1B) 2 singles, RBI
Kelly Johnson (SS) HR, 3 RBIs
Lauren Wells (LF) 2 singles, sac fly, 2 RBI
Megan Bolanowski (RF) Single, walk, run scored
Katherine Allert (C) Single, 2 walks

4A No. 8 MUNSTER (24-7)
Ashley Moore (C) Double, walk, run scored
Hallie Gibbs (3B) Single, walk, stolen base
Laura Henning (1B) Single, HBP
 

Wednesday, May 23, 2007 - 89 degrees, sunny - Highland Sectional Semifinal at HIGHLAND, IN

WP - Allyssa Reed (12-2) CG, 3K, 1 walk
LP - Beth Haley (11-13) CG, 4K, 3 walks

4A No. 9 LOWELL (27-6)
Megan Bolanowski (OF) Single, double, 2 RBIs
Kelly Johnson (SS) Single, triple

Highland (17-13)
Megan O'Day (OF) 2 singles, RBI
Lizzie Stapke (SS) Double, run scored


23rd Indiana State Softball Tournament

4A Penn Regional
6-2 (S) Portage (23-6) vs. (SB) Adams (20-9) times (TBA)
6-2 (S) Elkhart Memorial (23-6) vs. LOWELL (28-6)

3A Twin Lakes Regional
6-2 (S) Benton Central (24-5) vs. Culver Academy (19-6)  times (TBA)
6-2 (S) ANDREAN (25-5) vs. Griffith (16-14)

2A LaVille Regional
6-2 (S) Wheeler (25-3) vs. Jimtown (21-8)  1 p.m.
6-2 (S) Winamac (25-5) vs. Sheridan (13-14)  3 p.m. (EDT)

1A Caston Regional
6-2 (S) Lakewood Park Christian (20-6) vs. Whiting (26-3) times  (TBA)
6-2 (S) Pioneer (14-13) vs. South Central (16-11)

HIGHLAND (5-26-2007) -  Lowell coach Pete Iussig is a good one for a theoretical discussion of the value of winning and losing.  He's not sure winning is always success and he struggles with the reverse concept of losing as failure.  The long time Lowell softball instructor has always spoken of perfection, the search of the perfect game.

We almost saw it Saturday.  Not the perfect game where a pitcher retires 21 hitters in a row.  Greater than that.  The game where everyone makes almost every play and gets almost every hit possible.  At the Highland Class 4A Sectional championship, Lowell rose their game near the sky.  They set a new Red Devil level of performance that brought fans and friends to their feet and left foes in stunned silence.  Lowell led 10-0 after three innings, easily beating Class 4A No. 7 Munster 10-1 for the 2007 Sectional title.

The Devils (28-6) will take on Elkhart Memorial (23-6), a 1-0, 16-inning winner over Penn in the Elkhart Sectional championship late Friday, in the second Penn Regional semifinal game next Saturday, June 2.  South Bend Adams (20-8) will take on Portage (23-8) in the second game.

In the decade I've watched Lowell softball, this was the best game I have ever seen them play against a quality opponent.  They caught every pop, fielded every grounder (even turning a double play) and right-handed pitcher Allyssa Reed (15-2) allowed just three hits and four walks in a complete game pitching performance.  And they were better on offense than they were on defense.

Lowell, with a lineup of five left-handed hitters against Munster right-handers Eleanor Kennedy (11-5) and Grace Ispas (9-2), stroked out 16 hits and scored four in the first, three in the second and three more in the third to lock the game up before Munster could bat three times.

When Lowell senior Kelly Johnson lined a three-run homer to left center through a light rain, the sun was shining so brightly in the Lowell dugout that her sister Michelle needed shades.

"We were so ready," said Michelle, who cited the fact that Lowell had played Munster three times already this season, and had a great deal to do with Lowell's confidence coming into this championship contest.

"I definitely think it did," she said.  "Even at breakfast this morning, we were all saying, 'We've seen all these pitchers.'  We knew we could hit them.  And then Becca (leadoff batter Becca Nida) started off with a hit and then Jacki (second place batter Jacki Fletcher) did too.  It's always big to beat Munster."

Munster was coming off a 3-1 semifinal win over defending sectional champ Lake Central (22-6), but Munster coach Beth Vesa knew that the sectional 'hill' had not yet been scaled.

"Everybody talked about Lake Central as the team to beat," said the Munster coach.  "But Lowell was the best team in this sectional.  We played them both and Lowell was the best team all season."

Lowell was the best team in the first inning after Becca Nida grounded the third pitch from losing pitcher Eleanor Kennedy into center field.  Then, a key play in the game, perhaps the only break the Devils got.  Jacki Fletcher bunted down the third base line and all-state Mustang third baseman Hallie Gibbs threw to second for a force.  The ball bounced in and it appeared to beat Nida.  The umpires didn't think so and Lowell had two on with nobody out.

After Kelly Johnson hit into a force play, Lowell's Katherine Allert walked to fill the bases.  Freshman Lauren Wells lined the ball to the right of Munster left fielder Kelly Mashura, who got to the line drive but dropped it.  Two runs scored on the play and the Devils would never trail.

"She was out", Vesa said of the bunt play at second.  But that had absolutely nothing to with the outcome of the game.  Vesa also didn't think that the frequent meetings (this was the fourth Lowell-Munster game this season) had anything to do with Lowell's hitting rampage.  Munster and Lowell met four times this season and the first two were 2-1 (for Lowell) and 3-2 (for Munster).  But, at the Twin Lakes Invitational in Monticello on May 6, Lowell beat Munster 5-4 and then the 10-1 sectional win.  Lowell got better the more they saw Munster pitching.

"If you say that," said Vesa about the familiarity helping the Devils, "You'd then have to say that after seeing them so many times we could pitch to their weaknesses.  Trouble is, they don't have many.  That's a good hitting team.  Their ninth place hitter might be batting fifth for some teams."

Kristina Kuzma's RBI double influenced Vesa to switch pitchers but Michelle Johnson's run-scoring single greeted freshman Grace Ispas.  The Munster bench tried to stay positive on an early Saturday morning, but the reality is, four runs wins the vast majority of softball games, much less playoff softball.

"I don't believe we're nine runs better than them," said Lowell coach Pete Iussig.  "We played them three times and they were all one run games."

"When I was a young coach, I was all about trying to win, win, win," said Iussig.  "But as time goes on, I realized that it's all about the art.  You have 13 girls and you're trying to mold them into the perfect game.  Just because you didn't play the perfect game and somebody beat you, that doesn't mean much.  I'm happy with the way we played.  Winning, obviously when it means something like this is great.  But I'm more concerned with how well we played.  We talk all the time that if you prepare mentally and physically, that winning will take care of itself."

Winning took care of itself as the Devils kept hitting low line drives and hard ground balls off a Munster pitching staff that had not allowed more than five runs in any game all season.  Nida and Fletcher singled to lead off the second inning before Kelly Johnson lined out.  While Allert was batting, a pitch from Ispas got away from Munster catcher Ashley Moore, allowing Nida to score with the 5-0 run.  Allert then walked and Wells, one of three freshman starting for the Devils, slammed a ground ball past the pitcher into center field for an RBI and a 6-0 edge.  Kuzma's hard line drive to right was then misplayed into a hit, making it 7-0.

In the third inning, with two on and two out, Kelly Johnson, who suffered through close sectional losses in each of the past three seasons, lifted a line drive to left center that immediately brought the Lowell fans in the high rise bleachers to their feet.  Johnson's second homer of the season crated an insurmountable 10-0 advantage.

"I won a baseball sectional a long time ago as baseball coach and I believe our record was about 16-15," Iussig recalled.  "We just had a real good day.  But we won 27 games this year. We'd like to have something to show for it and if you don't win the sectional, you really don't have anything.  You hope the girls win something after a year like this that they can bring their grand kids to and show them how good they were."

Freshman Jacki Fletcher was plenty good.

"I have been in a slump lately," she said.  "But I always get excited when we play Munster.  When we were little, our big rival was always Munster.  In 8-and-under all-stars, that was always the big championship game.  I get a lot of positive energy when we play Munster.  I'm very familiar with (Grace) Ispas.  We played each other in travel ball."

"I wanted to play Munster because I know their pitchers.  I would have been a little more nervous with Lake Central because we only saw them once.  But we've played Munster three times so we know them really well."

Lowell could have scored 15 or 16 runs in this game.  They had two hits each in scoreless fifth, sixth and seventh innings and Lowell left 10 girls on base.  The crowd was oddly quiet under cloudy morning skies because there was absolutely no drama to this contest.  Both sides were somewhat amazed with what the South Lake County girls were doing with a lineup packed with underclassmen.

"I was in the dugout asking, how many hits do we have?  Twenty?  (It ended up being 16)" said Michelle Johnson.  "Jacki had four?  The freshmen and sophomores are awesome.  We knew they were coming.  We all played with Jackie's sister (2006 grad Nicole Fletcher) so we actually did know them before they got here.  We were looking forward to them getting here."

Vesa said it was hard to see her seniors, four three-year starters and one four-year starter (Hallie Gibbs), end their careers with a blowout loss.

"At least we didn't give it away," she said.  "They beat us.  I've never seen a team come out like that.  They didn't hit balls that just found places to drop.  Of their 16 hits, only two were not hit hard and their outs were hit hard.  We played hard.  We never gave up.  The worst game we played all year was yesterday (a 3-1 win over Lake Central).  To be honest with you, we've had seven losses and we didn't play poorly in any of those seven.  We just got beat.  We didn't give it away.  They took it."

"We're done with school," said Michelle Johnson, a senior who wasn't prepared to face the end of her high school days.  "No. I wasn't ready for that.  I told the girls last night, 'Don't make me cry tomorrow.'  It's an awesome feeling.  Everybody hit.  The leadoff hitters got their hits.  We got bunts down.  It was perfect."

Her sister Kelly wasn't ready to go either.

"We were all so confident today," said Kelly Johnson.  "It was weird.  My junior year when we won in volleyball, we beat East Chicago like we should have.  We had a hard time with Highland and then we beat Munster and it was easier than we thought it would be.  That's exactly what happened here.  My volleyball coach (Wendy Fuerstenberg) was here and I told her we were going to win because it was exactly the same."

Kelly Johnson thought about all the reasons she and her teammates wanted to break the seven year streak without a sectional.

"Family?" she said.  "Yes, but it's like our team is all like a family.  We all get to be family.  Our school and our team.  We're just the little town that nobody expects much out of.  In the newspapers and the polls, we've beaten these teams and they're still ahead of us.  This is a sweet feeling."

SECTIONAL NOTES:  Lowell's regional foe Elkhart Memorial (23-6), pitched a shut out at the Penn Sectional.  Everybody feels they play in the toughest sectional in the state, but Memorial beat 4A No. 1 Mishawaka 2-0, beat Concord (12-18) in eight innings, 1-0, and beat Penn (20-8-1) in a 16-inning battle, also by a 1-0 score.  Senior Nicole Bachman pitched 31 consecutive scoreless innings to make sure that her team would not lose.  She pitched a three-hit shutout vs. Mishawaka (24-1), formerly the state's second-ranked team.  Bachman also defeated Chesterton 5-4, although that was a day when Chesterton chose not pitch ace Dawn McClellan (20-4) in the second game of a double-header.

The Penn Regional winner is likely to see 4A No. 1 superpower Hamilton Southeastern (27-0) in the second state semifinal on the night of Friday, June 8 at the Cherry Tree Complex in Carmel.  Southeastern beat Fishers 9-0, Carmel 6-0 and host Noblesville 3-0 to win the sectional behind left-handed pitcher Morgan Melloh.

Lowell last won a 4A sectional title in 2000 and if they get to the 2007 Penn regional championship game, they will see the same team they saw then.  The Devils then lost 4-2 in the 2000 Merrillville Regional semifinals to eventual 4A state champion Portage (30-4).  No Lowell girls team has ever reached the state finals in any team sport.  The 2005 football team is the only state championship team in the high school, which is over 100 years old.

Baseball coach Tom Stoner was on hand to cheer on the Lowell girls but few boys players could make it after a 7-1 loss at LaPorte Friday night.

"We didn't get home until after 11 o'clock last (Friday) night," Stoner said.  "I had to come to support Pete.  He gave me my start in coaching."

Highland softball coach Natalie Shadowen, former Lowell student and assistant coach, congratulated Lowell's Pete Iusiig on his first sectional title victory in seven years.  She said she didn't have mixed emotions about Lowell winning.

"Not at all," said Shadowen.  "I said in the (daily) paper that if I had to lose to someone, I'm glad it was Pete.  He taught me all I know about softball and we're trying to do at Highland exactly what he's done at Lowell.  Our program hasn't put in the time that he (Iussig) has.  Let's see what we can do in about five years."

Lowell's freshman second baseman Jacki Fletcher realizes that she won't get four hits and reach base five times in every championship game she plays in.

"I can accept that," she said, laughing.  "But I'm just trying as afraid as I can.  That's my goal."

4A No. 9  LOWELL (28-6)
23-7 in 2006 =  coach Pete Iussig...LAC games in CAPS

3-22 (W) 9-3 Kankakee Valley (10-20)
3-29  (L)  4-8 Chesterton (20-6)
3-31 (W) 5-0 at Valparaiso (7-19)
4-2    (L) 2-4 at Portage (23-6)
4-3   (W) 2-0 at HIGHLAND (17-13)
4-5    (W) 2-1 (8 innings) ANDREAN  (25-5)
4-10 (cold) BISHOP NOLL (9-19)
4-12 (W) 8-2 at HOBART (17-11)
4-14 (W)  6-4 (9 innings) at Crown Point (16-13)
4-16 (L) 2-3 at MUNSTER (24-7)
4-18 (W) 6-1 Hanover Central (20-10)
4-19 (W) 12-5 GRIFFITH  (16-14)
4-24 (W) 10-0 (5 innings) at KANKAKEE VALLEY (4-8)
4-27 (W) 10-0 (5 innings) Boone Grove (15-12)
4-28 (W) 9-1 at Pioneer  (14-13)
4-28 (W) 9-2 West Lafayette (6-22)
4-30 (W) 2-1 HIGHLAND (17-13)
5-1 (W) 4-0 at ANDREAN (25-5)
5-3  (W) 1-0 BISHOP NOLL  (9-19)

Twin Lakes Invitational  (in Monticello)
5-4 (W) 11-3 Frontier (18-8)
5-5 (W) 9-3 Twin Lakes (18-8)
5-5 (W) 14-0 Maconaquah (14-14)
5-5 (W) 5-4 (8 innings) Munster (24-7)
5-5 (L) 0-2 McCutcheon (27-6) title

5-7 (W) 3-0 Merrillville (3-22)
5-8 (L) 1-6 HOBART (17-11)
5-9 (L) 0-1(L) Wheeler  (23-5)
5-10 (W) 2-1 MUNSTER (24-7)
5-14 (W) 12-2 MORTON  (10-15)
5-15 (W) 5-2 at GRIFFITH (16-14)
5-16 (W) 3-2 Lake Central (21-6)

Lake Central (4A) Sectional
5-21-7 (W) 10-0 East Chicago (6-16)
5-23  (W) 6-1 Highland (17-11)
5-25   (W) 10-1 Munster (24-7) championship

Penn (4A) Regional
6-2 (Sat) vs. Elkhart Memorial (23-7)
6-2 (Sat) vs. Portage (23-6) or Riley (20-9)

Copyright © 2007 USA-365.com and Meyer Multimedia Services, a division of Meyer Broadcasting Corp.  All rights reserved.
Revised: May 26, 2007.