Lady Bulldogs capture Sectional title with 2-0 win over Chesterton

A USA-365 special report by Mark Smith

5-30-2011

 

Team (Record) / Inning 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 R H E
CHESTERTON (18-8) 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 1
CROWN POINT (18-7)  1 0 0 1 0 0 - 2 7 1

Saturday, May 28, 2011 - 4A Sectional Championship at CROWN POINT, IN

WP - Rachel Centanni (6-3) CG, 1K, o walks
LP - Megan Tymorek (8-4) CG, 6K, 4 walks

CHESTERTON (18-7)
Sydney Cooley (RF) double

CROWN POINT (18-8)
Allison Amodeo (RF) 2 singles, stolen bases
Allison Rock (3B) Single, RBI
 

Team (Record) / Inning 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 R H E
Valparaiso (6-21) 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 2 6 1
CROWN POINT (17-7)  0 0 0 0 3 2 - 5 7 0

Friday, May 27, 2011 - 4A Sectional Two Semifinal at CROWN POINT, IN

WP - Siena Gyure (7-4) CG, 4K, 3 walks
LP - Megan Krantz (3-12) CG, 5K, 6 walks

VALPARAISO (6-21)
Susan Friedlander (OF) HR, RBI
Megan Krantz (P) 2 singles
Victoria Claussen (OF) 2 singles

CROWN POINT (17-8)
Raeanna Jenks (2B) 3 singles
Siena Gyure (P) triple, 3 RBIs
Allison Amodeo (RF) Single, RBI
 

Team (Record) / Inning 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 R H E
CROWN POINT (16-7) 2 1 0 0 0 1 0 4 6 0
LaPORTE (19-7)  0 0 0 1 0 0 0 1 2 4

Monday, May 23, 2011 - 80 degrees, 4A Sectional Two Quarterfinal at CROWN POINT, IN

WP - Rachel Centanni (5-3) CG, 7K, 0 walks
LP - Meghan Bunch (10-6) 0K, 1 walk (5.3 inn.)

CROWN POINT (16-8)
Allison Amodeo (RF) 1-for-3, walk
Jessica Palm (SS) 0-for-2, sac bunt, walk, RBI
Raeanna Jenks (2B) 0-for-4
Allyson Rock (C) 0-for-4
Courtney Holm (LF) 2-for-4
Emily Zarate (1B) 2-for-4
Amanda Rock (3B) 0-for-2
Victoria Connelly (DH) 0-for-2, sac bunt
Gabby Raspopovich (CF) 0-for-3

LaPORTE (19-7)
Jessica Craft (CF) 1-for-3
Alexis Botsford (2B) 0-for-1, HBP, sac bunt
Skyler Kreamer (C) 1-for-3, double, RBI
Samantha Becker (3B) 0-for-3
Meghan Bunch (P-1B) 0-for-3
Hannah Fuller (1B-P) 0-for-3
Holly Buresh (LF) 0-for-2
Brynna Wolfenbarger (RF) 0-for-2
Addie Boardman (RF) 0-for-2


CROWN POINT (05-28-2011) When people talk about building a championship team, you know they just don't understand. It doesn't work that way. In sports, you don't build a championship team, you build a program and then you get lucky with a good team.

Last season, Crown Point was 27-2 and ranked No. 1 among big schools in Indiana. They never got out of the sectional. There's no concrete reason why. This season, with what all involved would have to agree is a lesser team, CP ruled sectional play last week. They didn't win big, but they won decisively. The Lady Bulldogs defeated Duneland Athletic Conference (DAC rivals LaPorte 4-1, Valparaiso 5-2 and last Saturday, Chesterton 2-0 to take just the schools' third-ever sectional softball championship.

CP's pre-season question mark, the pitching, was very, very good. Freshman Rachel Centanni (6-3), who pitched a complete-game, two-hitter in the 4-1 quarterfinal victory over LaPorte, came back with a one-hit shutout against Chesterton Saturday,

CP (18-8) was to play DAC champion Lake Central (26-5) in the Tuesday night Class 4A Regional at Crown Point high school and the winner will see Northern Indiana Conference champion Penn (24-4) or Goshen (27-2) and pitching star Natalie Newell (22-1) in the 10 a.m. semifinal game of next Saturday's Harrison Semistate in West Lafayette.

For CP, even with five seniors in the starting lineup, this was all about the very young pitching.

"They did really well,' said senior CP shortstop Jessica Palm, who won her first sectional championship in her last chance. "Rachel today, Siena (Gyure) yesterday against Valpo and Rachel Monday against LaPorte. They were all really good."

Centanni allowed only a one-out fourth inning double to Chesterton home run leader Sydney Cooley as her defense made all the plays, ending somewhat of a redemption week for the CP girls, who lost to LaPorte in sectional play last year.

"They made all the plays," said fourth-year coach Brett Crutchfield, who is a veteran (as an assistant coach) of more than one Andrean sectional championship.

"We had girls flying around," he said. "They made all the plays. The one hit they had... Courtney Holm (CP's left fielder) came a lot closer to that ball than I thought she would. I had her playing about at the JV baseball field against Cooley (who had seven home runs in 28 games) and she laid out. It bounced behind her. But we made a couple of plays."

The CP girls were happy to win the school's first sectional since 2003, but on paper, this wasn't an upset. The Lady Bulldogs were 1-1 against Chesterton during the DAC season and they were 5-1 against the three teams they defeated in the three sectional games.

But it still does not answer the question. The No. 1 team in the state, a dominant team, loses in the eight-team single elimination Class 4A Sectional 2 (in 2010). Then a lesser team comes back the next year and, after a less-than-great season, and wins the sectional championship. Its doesn't make sense.

"You're preaching to the choir," Crutchfield says. "But it happens a lot. You see it a lot. You see teams that are stacked don't get it done. But then you get a bunch of kids that will just go out and eat dirt and they win it. The chemistry on this team is just great. Everybody's completely behind each other."

"We were fighting the weather, hoping we'd have enough games in. Laying an egg at Twin Lakes where I thought we needed to get into the single-elimination round to get ready for this tournament. I thought that beating Munster on the last day of the year was absolutely a boost. As hot as they were at the time, us coming out and competing with a team like that showed what we could do. And then last night's (semifinal) game with Valparaiso. I told them that Valpo, was coming on. They were tough. Everybody was tough. This is the only eight-team sectional in the state."

In the semifinals against Valparaiso (6-21), CP trailed the underdogs after a second inning home run by Valpo's Susan Friedlander off CP's Siena Gyure (7-4) gave the Vikings a 2-0 lead.
The Lady Bulldogs had defeated Valparaiso 14-1 and 8-0 during the DAC season. But Gyure rallied her side with a three-run double in the fifth inning. In the sixth, Victoria Connelly walked and scored on a single by Alison Amodeo. Amodeo scored one batter later on a squeeze bunt by Palm, who thought that comparing her teams's 2011 experience to their 2010 showing proved one thing is always true.

"Anyone can win on any given day," she said. "The game doesn't know. You just have to show up."

SECTIONAL NOTES: Whoever won the CP Regional Tuesday faces a tall order in the Harrison Semistate Semifinals against either powerhouse Penn or Goshen (27-2). There's a reason Goshen hasn't lost many. Goshen senior Natalie Newell (22-1) is one of the state's premier pitchers with a fade-away screwball that gets a lot of called third strikes. The right-hander was 19-4 (0.64 ERA) with 309 strikeouts in 150 innings last season. She struck out 15 in a Warsaw Sectional game against Concord last week and struck out 15 more in the championship game victory over Warsaw (21-9) Saturday. Newell will join 2010 Crown Point-grad Katrina Klingberg next season at Bethel College.


CROWN POINT (4A) Sectional
QUARTERFINALS
CROWN POINT 4, LaPorte 1
Valparaiso 12, MERRILLVILE 2 (5 inn.)
Portage 7, Mishigan City 3
Chesterton 18, Hobart 5 (5 inn.)
SEMIFINALS
CROWN POINT 5, Valparaiso 2
Chesterton1, Portage 0
CHAMPIONSHIP
CROWN POINT 2, Chesterton 0 (title)

HIGHLAND (4A) Sectional
QUARTERFINALS
LOWELL 8, Morton 1
East Chicago 22, Gary West Side 5
Lake Central 5, Munster 0
SEMIFINALS
Highland 9, LOWELL 8 (8 inn.)
Lake Central 10, East Chicago 0 (5 inn.)
CHAMPIONSHIP
Lake Central 11, Highland 0 (5 inn.)


REGIONAL (4A) Championships
May 30, 2011

Lake Central (27-5) at CROWN POINT (18-8)
Penn (22-4) at Goshen (27-2)
East Noble at Huntington North
McCutcheon (21-8) at Carmel


Harrison (4A) Semistate
June 4, 2011 - Semifinals in West Lafayette

LC or CP vs Penn or Goshen - 10 a.m.
E. Noble or Huntington vs McCutcheon or Carmel - 12 noon
Championship - 7 p.m.

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