Lowell Girls blank Valpo 2-0 behind 9 strikeout performance by Bolanowski, Reed

A USA-365 special report by Mark Smith

3-31-2008

Team (Record) / Inning	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	R	H	E
Valparaiso (0-1)	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	3	1
LOWELL (2-0)	0	0	1	1	0	0	-	2	7	0

Saturday, March 29, 2008 - 39-degrees AND sunny at LOWELL, IN

WP - Kaitlyn Bolanowski (1-0) 6K, 0 walks (4 innings)
Allyssa Reed (Save) 5K, 0 walks (3 innings)
LP - Casey Crozier (0-1) 4K, 1 walk, CG

LOWELL (2-0)
Rachel Nida (CF) 1-for-3, single
Megan Bolanowski (SS) 1-for-2, HR, walk
Jacki Fletcher (2B) 0-for-3
Katherine Allert (DH) 1-for-3, double, run scored
Kristina Kuzma (LF) 1-for-3, bunt single
Lauren Wells (1B) 0-for-3
Nina Iakomidis (C) 3-for-3, RBI
Nicole Sqourdis ( LF) 0-for-3
Amanda Underwood (3B) 0-for-2

VALPARAISO (0-1)
Jordan Longstreth (CF) 1-for-3
Cassie Shuta (LF) 1-for-3
Megan Olsen (OF) 1 for-2

LOWELL, IN (3-29-2008) - The questions are: Is Lowell going to be as good as they were in 2007 and is Valparaiso going to be better?

The answer to both questions appeared to be 'yes' on the cold Lowell softball field early Saturday afternoon. Valparaiso was only 4-18 last year with a very young roster that struggled as predicted. But with 5-foot-11 Casey Crozier picthing, Valparaiso stayed close in their season opener and gave indications they'll be close in all their games.

"They went to the state finals last year," said Valparaiso coach Kathy Levandowski. "And they used their top two pitchers today. We made one error in our first game? Last year we struck out 15 times against them and got one hit. I'm very pleased with this."

Lowell has set a higher bar. Few softball programs in the state have had 30-win seasons. So, when you come back off a 30-7 regional championship campaign with 80% of the roster intact, you are expected to win and play well while you're at it. Lowell did that Saturday.

New shortstop Megan Bolanowski hit a third inning home run and new catcher Nina Iakomidis singled in a fourth inning run and handled both pitchers to the tune of 11 strikeouts and no walks.

"Megan has the second best arm on the team," said Iussig, who explained that Iakomidis is catching in part because all-area catcher Katherine Allert has some arm soreness and partly because "She's a stud catcher."

"I think when Kat sees Nina throw a bullet to second base, Iussig jokes, "all of a sudden, her arm feels a lot better."

Allert and Iakomidis are both elite traveling league players with lots of non-high school experience. The hard hill to climb will be for Bolanowksi, the younger sister of winning pitcher Kaitlyn Bolanowski (1-0), who is being asked to replace now-graduated Kelly Johnson, the Red Devils only four-year all-area player. For her to hit a home run and play errorless ball in her first home game as a starting shortstop was more than anyone could expect.

"Kathy (Valpo coach Kathy Levandowski) said that a 250-foot fence wouldn't have held that one. We've seen her do that before. The game against Munster here last year, she hit one out to right field. Our infield today was all sophomores. Two of them (first baseman Lauren Wells and second baseman Jacki Fletcher) are going to be our pitchers next year, but we're in pretty good shape in the infield."

Both sides were glad to get this game in on a Saturday following a Thursday evening snowstorm. But that didn't make it much easier to play in very cold conditions. The field was in surprisingly good shape due to a lot of work put in by coaches and 'friends of the program' Saturday morning.

"When we first got here this morning and tried to sop up some of the water," said Iussig, "we couldn't do it because it was frozen. But the sun came out and we were able to get a lot of the water off. The game only started 20 minutes late."

Lowell did have five games scheduled for next week (March 31 - April 4) but consistent rain was predicted and everyone in NW Indiana figured to have some extra down time. The hope was they could play again by Thursday's match up against defending 3A state finalist and 3A No.1 Andrean (1-0).

They'll hope for a little more than two runs, but indications are that they will come.

"I think we can put six girls names in a hat in the 2-though-7 positions," said Iussig, "and it won't make any difference where we put them. We'll have (Rachel) Nida in the number one spot but after that, we'll have a lot of people."

DEVIL NOTES: Lowell beat Merrillville 14-2 in the season opener on March 24 as sophomore Lauren Wells and Jacki Fletcher were the pitchers. The Devils make a first-ever trip to South Central Saturday for a 1:00 p.m. game.

"When the Lake Conference broke up," explained Coach Pete Iussig, "we lost our two games with Bishop Noll. We kept one of them as a non conference game, but we needed somebody else. We really play pretty much everybody we want to play around here. Whiting won't play us. We could play LaPorte, but that's even further away than South Central. So Patti (Lowell assistant AD Patti McCormack) gave them a call and they were extremely happy that a 4A school wanted to play them."

"They were in the state finals last year. I didn't know they'd lost quite as much (graduating) as they did. But they are usually pretty good."

Kathy Levandowski still sees Lake Central as the top team in the Duneland Athletic Conference (DAC).

"They have two very good pitchers," she said. "I think Keith (LC coach Keith Hauber) is playing coy. Chesterton still has a lot of people."

Because last week was spring break, Lowell has not announced when the rained out Lowell-Chesterton game from March 22 will be played. Hanover Central had all three games (River Forest, Chesterton and Munster) postponed last weekend by the weather.

Lowell's baseball game with Lake Central Friday was also postponed.