| Team (Record) / Inning | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | R | H | E |
| CROWN POINT (8-9) | 0 | 0 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 7 | 4 |
| HANOVER CENTRAL (10-5) | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 4 |
5-4-2003
in Cedar Lake - sunny, 51 degrees
WP -
Lacy Holevis (4-8) CG No. 12
6K, 1 walk
LP - Amanda Wendlinger (9-4) CG No. 12,
5K, 1 walk, HBP
HANOVER CENTRAL (2 singles, walk)
Cathy Homolka (HC) Walk, run scored
Kelly Lapota (HC) Single
CROWN POINT (Amy Zondor (CP) Double, single
Lacy Holevis (CP) 2 singles, HBP
Cathy Yokovich (CP) Double, run scored
Erin Hostinsky (CP) Single, RBI
CEDAR LAKE (5-3-2003) - Every time you think Hanover Central is about to step up onto the top shelf of northwest Indiana teams, they stumble. And every time you think Crown Point's lost too many games to recover, they take a step forward.
It just means that at midseason, we don't know much about either team just yet. After losing 8-1 to Class 2A No. 1 Andrean on Friday, the Bulldogs had to travel to Cedar Lake for an early morning matchup with Porter County Conference (PCC) leader Hanover Central, which was a coming off a 12-0 domination of league rival Kouts.
Friday didn't matter. Crown Point (8-9) never trailed and got solid pitching from senior Lacy Holevis and put together three hits against HC ace Amanda Wendlinger to hand the Lady Cats a disappointing 4-2 loss.
"We swung the bat pretty well against Katie Sheaks," insisted CP coach Chris Pepa. We got five hits off her. We just made eight errors. This was a good game for us today. We played well."
Hanover coach Larry McMillen wasn't as disappointed that his squad dropped to 10-5 on the season as he was that they fell to 0-3 against the bigger Class 3A schools.
"We just choke up against the big schools," the 12th year coach said. "We did the same thing against Lowell and we should have beaten Chesterton. That was just 2-1. We just didn't do anything today."
The game was scoreless through two innings when Wendlinger, who had pitched three consecutive shutouts and 27 consecutive scoreless innings, walked ninth place hitter Melissa Cooper to start the third inning. Senior Amy Zondor then lined a single to left field and catcher Erin Hostinsky grounded an RBI single to center field. Hanover seemed to get out of that inning when Zondor got caught between second and third base and was tagged out.
Wendy Kurcz struck out for the
second out but Kendra Rather's pop-up was dropped by second baseman Trisha
Sheehy, who was running into short right field. Two runs scored and CP led 3-0.
There was some thought that right fielder Shannon Phillips could have run Sheehy
off the ball and made the inning-ending catch. But HC coach McMillen had another
problem.
"You can't walk the ninth place hitter," he said. "You just can't. Amanda said, 'I wasn't trying to walk her' and I know she wasn't but she threw three rise balls. Just challenge her. Girls bat ninth for a reason."
Crown Point added a double by Cathy Yokovich and a passed ball in the fourth inning and Holevis dominated the Hanover batting order, allowing only one single in six innings.
"Lacy did a fine job, noted CP coach Pepa. "She worked through the calls (Holevis was called for three illegal pitches, allowing HC some extra swings) and she did a nice job. She gets frustrated. She gets mad. But she adjusts."
Hanover made what could have been a major comeback in the seventh inning when senior Cathy Homolka walked and Angela Trock was safe on an error with one out. Freshman Stephanie Skarwecki grounded a pinch hit single to centerfield and another error let runners go to second and third. But when freshman Jill Sjoerdsma pinch hit and grounded out to shortstop, junior Megan Myers was inexplicably thrown out advancing to third after the out. That ended the game.
"I don't know what she was doing," admitted McMillen. "We had the top of the order coming up. We still could have won."
Pepa seemed a little surprised to hear that four runs ties a season high against Wendlinger, the region's strikeout leader (140 Ks in 73 innings) and the PCC's top pitcher.
"Their bats are coming around real well," she said, "and if they focus like they did today, they can hit the ball well. Sometimes we have a problem with that."
While CP is a school almost four times the size of Hanover, the Lady Cats have enjoyed such success (91-19-1 in the last 4 seasons) and that beating HC matters to the Lady Bulldogs. In fact, both weekend games, including the Andrean game, were important even though there are no league ties between the three schools
"Yes they are," said Pepa. "They are rivals because some CP kids are from Cedar Lake. Andrean's a private schools and some of their kids come from Crown Point. We always want to play well against them."
Conventional logic says that Crown Point's is a better team than the 8-9 record would indicate. Eight of the Bulldogs' losses are to winning teams and five (Lake Central, Andrean, Portage and Kalamazoo Christian and Dowagiac, Mich.) are state ranked squads but that isn't much consolation when you remain stuck around the .500 mark. Hanover will almost certainly have another winning season and could come on strong and win 20 but tournaments that require consecutive wins (the Twin Lakes Invitational, the PCC finals and the Andrean Sectional) appear to be large hills to climb at this level of inconsistent play.
"We were great against
Whiting," McMillen said of a decisive 5-0 victory over one of the region's
top two (South Central is the other) 1A schools. "We rolled over
them. But today wasn't a good day. I don't mind getting beat but I hate to lose.
We lost today."
CAT & DOG NOTES: Crown Point's Jen McMullin, who
attended Hanover her first three years in high school, started the game as a
non-batting first baseman but got a single as a pinch hitter in the sixth
inning. "She did not do very well against (Katie) Sheaks yesterday,"
Pepa explained. "She's been having some trouble with her hand and she lost
a little confidence. But she went up there in the sixth inning and got a single.
That was big for her."
"I'd never batted against Amanda," McMullin said. "I don't even remember going against her in batting practice last year. It was a little funny. I still know everybody. There was no bragging (about the win). I was just glad to play. I didn't really know that I was going up to bat. I kept saying, 'I'm going to strike out."
Hanover will play North White at 5 p.m. in the first round of the Twin Lakes Invitational Friday night in Monticello. After the game, they will drive home to Cedar Lake, returning Saturday morning for a 10:30 matchup with powerful Lafayette Jefferson.
"We didn't want to stay overnight," said Wendlinger. "The girls voted not to stay. We didn't want to sit there all evening. It was us girls who decided it."
Jefferson is 7-6 on the season but
five of the six losses are to defending state champ Lake Central (16-2-1),
Munster, Penn (13-2), Harrison and top-ranked McCutcheon (20-1). Jefferson was
29-6 last season.
4-3:
11-0 (6) at River Forest (6-8)
4-10 1-2 Chesterton (11-2)
4-12: 8-3 Bishop Noll (9-7)
4-12: 2-7 Bishop Noll (9-7)
4-15: 11-0 at North Newton (7-3)
4-16: 11-0 MORGAN TOWNSHIP (2-5)
4-18: 11-0 Clark (0-11)
4-19: 20-1 at HEBRON (6-6)
4-21 (Rain) at WHEELER (7-4)
4-23: 1-2 at Lowell (6-9)
4-24: 1-4 Beecher, Ill (14-2)
4-26: 9-0 LaCROSSE (7-8)
4-28: 5-0 Whiting (8-4)
4-30: (Rain) Morton
5-1: 10-4 at South Newton (6-7)
5-2: 12-0 at KOUTS (3-6)
5-3: 2-4 Crown Point (8-9)
5-5 (M) at Renssealer (3-7) 4:30 p.m...
5-8 (Th) at BOONE GROVE (3-14) 4:30 p.m.
Twin
Lakes Invitational (16 teams)
5-9 (F) North White (6-6) 5:30 p.m.
5-10 (S) Jefferson (8-6) 10:30 a.m.
5-10 (S) Pioneer (10-2) 12 noon.
5-13 (Tu) at WASHINGTON TOWNSHIP (6-8) 4:30 p.m.
5-15 (Th) at Griffith (8-6) - 4:30 p.m.
Porter
County Conference (PCC) championship (at LaCrosse)
5-16 (F) quarterfinals - 4:30 p.m.
5-17 (S) semifinals- 9 a.m.
5-17 (S) championship - 2 p.m
5-21 (W) Lake Central (17-2-1) 4:30 p.m.
Crown
Point (8-9)
Head
Coach Chris Pepa - 2002: 12-16 - DAC
Games in CAPS
4-7:
at Morton (Canceled - snow)
4-9: Griffith (postponed)
4-9: 11-1 (5) Hebron (6-6)
Chieftain
Invitational (Dowagiac, Mich.)
4-12
2-3 (8 innings) at (Div. III) No. 10 Dowagiac, Michigan (16-1)
4-12: 5-1 Walled Lake, Michigan (8-7)
4-12: 1-5 (Div. III) No. 1 Kalamazoo (Mich) Christian (12-2)
4-14:
0-1 Class 3A No. 4 Lake Central (17-2-1)
4-15: 9-3 at MERRILLVILLE (5-8)
4-17: 5-6 at LaPORTE (5-7)
4-19: 6-4 Lowell (6-9)
4-19: 2-1 Lowell (6-9)
4-21: 12-2 (5 inn.) MICHIGAN CITY (2-8)
4-23: 0-8 (9 inn.) PORTAGE (11-3)
4-25: 3-5 HOBART (11-3)
4-26 : 8-4 Logansport
4-26: 3-6 Logansport
4-29: 0-1 at VALPARAISO (11-7)
5-1: (Rain) at CHESTERTON (11-3)
5-2: 1-8 Andrean (16-0-1)
5-3: 4-2 at Hanover Central (10-5)
5-5 (M) MERRILLVILLE (4-9) 4:30 p.m.
5-6 (Tu) at CHESTERTON (11-3)
5-7 (W) LaPORTE (5-7) 4:30 p.m.
5-9 (F) at MICHIGAN CITY (2-8) 4:30 p.m.
5-12 (M) at Munster (11-2) 4:30 p.m.
5-13 (Tu) at PORTAGE (11-3) 4:30 p.m.
5-15 (Th) at HOBART (11-3) 4:30 p.m.
5-20 (Tu) VALPARAISO (11-7) 4:30 p.m.
5-22 (Th) CHESTERTON (11-3) 4:30 p.m.
5-23 (F) Highland (11-3) 4:30 p.m.
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.
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