Lady Devils split weekend prom date, beat Pioneer 6-0,

fall to West Lafayette 6-1

A USA-365 special report by Mark Smith

4-30-2006

Team (Record) / Inning	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	R	H	E
West Lafayette (21-2)	0	0	0	2	3	1	0	6	13	0
LOWELL (12-5)	0	0	0	1	0	0	0	1	2	3

Saturday, April 29, 2006 - 61 degrees & cloudy at Lowell

WP - Liz Mowery (5-0) 3K, 0 walks (5 inn.)
LP - Alyssa Reed (2-1) 5K, 0 walks (4 inn.)

West Lafayette (21-2)
Natalie Rudman (CF) 3 singles, double,
Liz Mowery (P) Double, HBP, RBI
Brittany Stanley (P) Double, 2 singles, RBI

LOWELL (12-5)
Katherine Allert (C) Double, RBI
Becca Nida (CF) Single, run scored

Team (Record) / Inning	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	R	H	E
Pioneer (9-8)	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	2	0
LOWELL (11-5)	1	0	0	0	4	0	-	6	10	0

Saturday, April 29, 2006 - 61 degrees & cloudy at Lowell

WP - Ryssa Nord (5-3) CG, 13K, 2 walks
LP - Jennie Williams (6-8) CG, 3K, 0 walks

LOWELL (11-5)
Katherine Allert (C) Double, RBI
Megan Wilbourn (3B) 2 singles, run scored
Kelly Johnson (SS) HR, double, 4 RBIs

Team (Record) / Inning	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	R	H	E
Kankakee Valley (5-10)	0	0	0	3	0	1	0	4	6	2
LOWELL (11-4)	3	0	4	0	0	0	-	7	8	2

Tuesday, April 25, 2006 - 45 degrees & cloudy at Lowell

WP - Alyssa Reed (2-0) 5K, 4 walks (5 2/3 inn.)
SAVE - Ryssa Nord (1 1/3 inn.) 1K, 1 walk
LP - Debra Wood (4-7) 6K, 3 walks

Kankakee Valley (5-10)
Lindsay Strasky (1B) Single, 2 RBIs
Krystal Higginson (OF) Double, single, 2 RBIs

LOWELL (11-4)
Courtney Austgen (C) Double, 4 RBIs
Michelle Johnson (1B) 2 singles,
Kelly Johnson (SS) 2 singles

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

Thursday, April 27, 2006 - 67 degrees & sunny at Highland

WP - Beth Haley (5-6) CG, 7K, 0 walks
LP - Ryssa Nord (4-3) CG, 5K, 1 walk

Highland (5-8)
Amber Barnes (OF) 3 singles, RBI

LOWELL (11-4)
Whitney Magley (OF) 2 singles

LOWELL (4-29-2006) One of the top nonconference games of the year was supposed to be senior-laden West Lafayette traveling to senior dominated Lowell on Saturday, April 29. But the person who scheduled Lowell's prom clearly did not know that.

So the game became a battle between 3A No. 6 West Lafayette and the junior varsity of 4A No. 6 Lowell. As you might have expected, West Lafayette won easily, 6-1. It was a disappointment largely because the two top-10 teams didn't learn anything about how they stack up against another top foe.

West Lafayette (21-2) is one of the state's powers and they showed why as senior pitchers Brittany Stanley (13-2) and Katie Mowery (5-0) posted the victory and WL leadoff batter Natalie Rudman had four hits against Lowell sophomore pitchers Alyssa Reed and Kaitlyn Bolanowski.

So, the annual three-way softball dance which saw Lowell beat 1A No.10 Pioneer 6-0 in a breakfast hour game, West Lafayette beat Pioneer by the same 6-0 score, and ended with the visitors pulling away in the late going of the final game.

WL ace Brittany Stanley pitched two shut out innings before Liz Mowery finished up, allowing just two hits to a very young Lowell team that included second baseman Carrie Shelhart as the only upperclassman.

"I'm glad he took it easy on us," said Lowell coach Pete Iussig. "He took his big stud pitcher out after two innings."

Lowell (12-5) beat 1A No. 10 Pioneer 6-0 in the morning game as junior shortstop Kelly Johnson hit a grand slam home run to break open a 1-0 battle. Senior right-hander Ryssa Nord struck out a career-high 13.

The highlight of the second game for Lowell was the return of sophomore pitcher Kaitlyn Bolanowski, who cracked up her car swerving to avoid a raccoon on a two lane Lowell road last month. Bolanowski had missed two weeks.

"I asked her during the first game if she was ready to go and she said, 'I don't know. I cant get my hand above my head.' I told her, 'Let's not worry about the line drives.' Let somebody else field them. Let's just get you back in there. She warmed up and then she changed her mind. She said, 'I think I'm ready to go.'"

Bolanowski gave up four runs in three innings but only two were earned and West Lafayette is 21-2. West Lafayette is very much like Munster. Very big physically. Not speedy at all, but they feature a big intimidating right-handed pitcher. This is the third consecutive season they have won 20 games.

Iussig said, "They're a very good team as some of our younger players found out."

This annual get together matches three perennial softball powers in Saturday nonconference play that doesn't have anybody facing anybody twice. The three-game dance is annually distorted because somebody is getting ready for the dance that night.

"Neither one of us (Iussig and Woods) are very high on double-headers," Iussig explained. "So we added a third team. I don't know why Pioneer keeps doing this because its always their prom. But in the 28 years I've been here, our prom has never been in April. But it was a little bit of an experience."

Now, back to your regular programming.

DEVIL NOTES: West Lafayette coach Gary Woods praised Lowell's Alyssa Reed, who was making her third varsity start Saturday.

"I thought she did a heckuva job," said Reed. "She's probably the fourth or fifth best pitcher we've seen this year. Obviously Penn and Munster have good pitchers, but pitching in our area (Tippecanoe County) has not been good this year."

"Munster's solid; good hitting. Their pitching was not overpowering. She (Mary Ann Spolnik) puts the ball where it needs to be. Penn had probably the best pitcher we've faced."

The reason Lowell plays West Lafayette in what should be called the 'Red Devil Invitational' (both WL and Lowell are the Red Devils) is that the two coaches have a history.

"We go back a long way together, Iussig said. "When I used to give lessons about 10 years ago, he (coach Gary Woods) would bring up a car load of girls once a week for a couple of years. And his older daughter used to drive up here during the summer for lessons for about three years. She was an all-stater and she played at Evansville and she's out of school and married now."

Lowell will come home after Friday's game against 1A No. 3 Frontier in the Twin Lakes Invitational in Monticello and then return for a 9:00 a.m. (8:00 a.m. CDT) game. The price of gas has apparently been overshadowed by the price of hotel rooms for 18 girls. Hanover Central will also return after their 6:30 p.m., EDT Friday game against Eastern. Andrean usually stays at a hotel across from the high school.

Iussig has high hopes for Alyssa Reed, but he says she shares a common fault.

"Like many high school pitchers," the coach explained, "when you ask what does she throw, she says she throws seven pitches. When you ask the catcher, she says that they're all the same. What she needs to do is to work on two pitches and you'll be a very successful high school pitcher."

"She has a little more giddy-up than the normal pitcher. If she has a curve or a drop and a change up, that's all she needs. Work on them and forget the rest of the pitches."

LOWELL (12-5)

Coach Pete Iussig (21-10 in 2005)

3/23 (W) 6-0 at Kankakee Valley (6-5)
3/25 (W) 3-2 at Chesterton (18-1)
4/1 (W) 12-0 Valparaiso (3-9)
4/4 (W) 7-5 Highland (4-6)
4/5   (W) 9-2 Portage   (12-5)
4/6 (L)   1-7 Andrean (16-1)
4/11 (L) 0-2 Bishop Noll
4/12 (W) 2-1 at Boone Grove (4-7)
4/13 (W) 10-0 Hobart (5-4)
4/15 (W) 2-1 (10-innings) Crown Point (10-9)
4/17 (L) 0-4 Munster (14-2)

4/19 (W) 7-1 at Hanover Central (8-7)
4/20 (W) 3-2 at Griffith (9-10)
4/25 (W) 7-4 Kankakee Valley (5-10)
4/27 (L) 1-2 at Highland (8-10)
4/29 (W) 6-0  Pioneer  (7-8)
4/29 (L) 1-6 West Lafayette (21-2)

5/02 (Tu)   Andrean (16-1)   4:30 p.m.
5/4 (Th) Bishop Noll (9-10) 4:30 p.m.

5/05 (F) Twin Lakes Invitational   - 5 p.m./ 6:30 p.m.
5/6 (S) Twin Lakes Invitational - a.m. game
5/6 (S) Twin Lakes Invitational - p.m. game

5/8 (M) at Merrillville    4:30 p.m.
5/9 (Tu) at Hobart   4:30 p.m.
5/10 (W) at Wheeler 4:30 p.m.
5/11 (Th) at Munster 4;30 p.m.
5/15 (M) at Morton 4:30 p.m.
5/16 (Tu) Griffith High School 4:45 p.m.
5/17 (W) at Lake Central (16-6) 4:30 p.m.

Munster (4A) Sectional * site not certain
5/22 (M) sectional quarterfinals
5/24 (W) sectional semifinals
5/26 (F) sectional championship

6/3 (S)   Merrillville (4A) Regional semifinals
6/3 (S)   Merrillville regional championship

6/9 (F) State semifinals (TBA) 6/8 p.m.
6/10 (S) 4A state championship 7 p.m.