Team (Record) / Inning	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	R	H	E
HANOVER CENTRAL (7-9)	0	0	2	0	3	0	3	8	16	0
LOWELL (5-12)	2	0	0	2	0	0	0	4	10	2

BENTON CENTRAL (8-7)	0	0	0	0	0	5	1	2	8	10	2
HANOVER CENTRAL (6-9)	2	0	1	0	0	3	0	0	6	8	2

Team (Record) / Inning	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	R	H	E
LOWELL (5-12)	0	1	0	0	0	1	0	2	5	1
WESTERN (10-6)	0	3	0	2	0	3	-	8	11	2

MONTICELLEO (05-07-2011) Crown Point, Hanover Central and Lowell all rode home with a win and two losses in last weekend's Twin Lakes Softball Invitational.
But the feeling was much different.

Hanover Central salvaged the weekend with a come-from-behind 8-4 victory over Lowell after losing two games they should have won against Western and Benton Central. Lowell bombed Benton Central 15-4 Friday night, but lost 8-2 to Western and 8-4 to Hanover, a game they should have won.

Crown Point lost to McCutcheon (15-5) and Lewis Cass, two quality teams, and they dominated Jefferson, a team they should dominate. But the Bulldogs (9-7), ended a week where they played seven games, winning four times and catching up on the 2011 season with a half dozen rainouts.

"I'm nothing but optimistic," said CP coach Brett Crutchfield. "This was a good way to finish. We clicked on all cylinders at the same time, which was what we're trying to get done before we get to (the post-season) a couple of weeks down the road."

CP played Maconaquah on opening night the past two seasons at Twin lakes. This season, the pools were shuffled and CP got McCutcheon, a team that plays one of the state's toughest schedules. Senior left-hander Danny Owens struck out nine for the Mavericks, who face everyone from Carmel to Lake Central.

"McCutcheon had some of the best bat control I'd ever seen," said Crutchfield. "We'd make an adjustment with our outfield and they'd drop it in front of us. When we moved it up, they'd hit it over our heads. That's a pretty good McCutcheon team. They've got a real good pitcher who has a really good change up. They kept us off balance. We never got anything going.

"Against Cass, we had some defensive let downs. We have a flair for the spectacular, but the routine gets in our way. But they have a lot of speed. They're going to be tough in their (3A) bracket."

While Lowell and CP hope to benefit from the Twin Lakes experience come sectional week later this month, Hanover has a more immediate payoff scenario. Traditionally, playing in Twin Lakes one week and playing the eight-team single-elimination Porter County Conference (PCC) tournament the next week has worked out for the Lady Cats. Hanover has won the last four PCC championships and 10 of the last 15. But they face a large hurdle in an almost certain match up with 1A No.12 Hebron (15-3) in the PCC semifinals in LaCrosse.

"We can beat Hebron," said coach Larry McMillen. "We just have to stop giving away runs. That's all there is to it. I'm sure we can beat them."

Hanover, which scored 18 runs in three games over the weekend, could easily have reached the semifinals at Twin Lakes if they hadn't given away so many runs on defense. First, the Lady Cats gave up an unearned run on a wild relay throw in the seventh inning to lose 5-4 to Western (11-7) Friday night. Hanover led Benton Central 3-0 and 6-5 before losing 8-6 Saturday on RBI hits by Cindy Contreras and Bailey Fleming off losing pitcher Ashley Yoways in the seventh inning. This should have been an easy win, but BC scored five unearned runs in the fifth to make it a close game.

It was to be a happy ride home, though. Just when the day seemed to be a total loss, Hanover rallied. Yoways, who had pitched every inning of Hanover's first 15 games, pitched long complete games in the losses to Western and BC, throwing well over 200 pitches. The freshman looked visibly tired as Lowell built a 4-2 lead after four innings in the third 'pool play' game. HC went ahead in the fifth on RBI singles by Ivy Dawson, Elyssa Jankowski and Ashley Loy, but leading 5-4, Yoways (7-9) could simply go no further.

With pre-season No. 2 pitcher Blayr Poston sick and unavailable, coach Larry McMillen went to tiny 5-foot-2 right-hander Abby Stewart, a junior who had never before thrown a pitch in a varsity game. Stewart, not a hard-thrower, surprised everybody with 2-2/3 innings of scoreless relief to get a 'save' in her first-ever varsity game. McMillen didn't really want to put in an all-new pitcher with a one-run lead but he was obviously happy with the outcome.

"It wasn't a great coaching move on my part," said HC's long time coach. "It was a necessity. She (Yoways) couldn't go any more. This was an emergency case. The change of pace, I knew was going to throw them (Lowell) off a little. But the idea was to keep her healthy."

Hanover rolled up a season-best 16 hits against Lowell pitchers Cassie Karney and Leah Fenner and their spirits were lifted by the surprising end-of-the-day revival.

"We could have won all three," said senior Tiffany Gibson, who was 3-for-4 against Lowell.

"It was a long day. Can we win next week (the PCC finals)? I think so. We've been coming back against a lot of these teams. Sometimes our heads are just not in it. We all get frustrated with ourselves, but we know what we have to work on."

Oddly, though Lowell lost both games Saturday, they look to have improved the most since the start of the season. The Devils scored first in all three games but both pitchers seemed to tire late Saturday afternoon.

"We hit the ball really well Friday against Benton Central, said coach Ginger Britton. "We hit a couple off the wall. Scored 15 runs. We do some things really well now and then we don't. You can't always hit, but we just have to play well all the time."

This was the second consecutive weekend that Lowell had traveled a long distance (they played at West Lafayette on April 30) and played multiple games, but with no league championship tournament in the Northwest Crossroads Conference and the sectional set for Highland, traveling well won't be an issue. The Devils, who have only one senior and were 1-9 after 10 games, look a lot better at the plate than they did in March.

"I think we have improved lot," Britton agreed. Cassie has pitched very well for us most of the time. Hopefully, we can keep on improving."

TWIN LAKES NOTES: Munster (15-5) ended up winning the Twin Lakes championship for the second time in four years, topping conference rival Andean 6-3 in a rain-delayed game that extended beyond midnight in Monticello due to rain delays.

It was the fourth consecutive season that a Northwest Indiana school had won the Twin Lakes Invitational. Andrean (11-3) had eliminated the host school 2-1 Saturday afternoon on home runs by Kelly Ryan and Kaitlin Barajas. Munster defeated the tournament's other favorite, McCutcheon (15-5) in the semifinals.

Mustang senior Angelique Zadrozny was 11 of 15 in the five tournament games. Pitcher Carly Murphy (11-4) won four times.

On Tuesday, Lowell (5-14) outscored Andrean 12-7 as Nicole Steinbech, who did not pitch the Twin Lakes title game against Munster, was held out again.

Crown Point played four Duneland Athletic Conference (DAC) games four days last week and they split with a big 5-4 win at LaPorte last Thursday. CP coach Brett Crutchfield inserted a freshman pitcher.

"Brittany Ard," reported Crutchfield. "I told her that morning I was taking her with the varsity and that she was starting. She pitched a gem. We played good defense and she made three good plays herself."

Ard allowed seven hits and two walks in seven innings in her varsity debut. CP freshman catcher Ally Rock hit her first home run of the season off LaPorte's Hannah Fuller. Jessica Palm, Allison Amodeo and Amanda Rock all had two hits each.

Tiffany Gibson, who had started in the outfield on three very successful Hanover teams, admitted 'happy' was not always the mood when the team's record dropped to 2-7 late last month.

"I knew this was coming this year," she said Saturday. "We graduated all our pitchers from last year and a lot of good players. But Ashley (Yoways) is doing a very good job. We've started to win. Sometimes it's hard for us all to focus. That's our biggest downfall, we just lack focus."

Gibson, CP's center fielder, admits that losing close games makes her mad, but out in center field, you'd think no one can hear her saying what she thinks.

"Oh, I think they can hear me," she laughs. "I have to watch what I say sometimes because I don't want them to get down because I'm down."

More than one coach commented that the Twin Lakes Invitational needs to adjust its schedule for future tournaments. The 90-minute time limit that the tournament utilized years ago was ruled illegal by the IHSAA and games are now played to their conclusion. But the tourney schedule still allows just 90 minutes for each game so when tie games go into extra innings, the tourney falls hopelessly behind. The championship game, scheduled for 5:30 Eastern time, ended near 12:30 a.m. Sunday Eastern time. Rain did delay play, but before the rain prior to the second semifinal game, the tourney was three hours behind.

"We need to allow two hours per game," said one coach. "Games just don't end in 90 minutes anymore."

There is a thought that all 16 teams could play twice Friday night with 'pool play' games set for 4 p.m., 6 p.m., 8 p.m. and 10 p.m. on all four fields. That would leave only two rounds of preliminary games Saturday (9 a.m. and 11 a.m.) and the semifinals could be set for one p.m., a schedule that could withstand extra inning games or rain delays.

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Revised: May 13, 2011.