Kiraly's 3-run homer in 8th lifts Wildcats to 7-4 win over Bishop Noll and Sectional Championship

A USA-365 special report by Mark Smith

5-23-2008

Team (Record) / Inning	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	R	H	E
HANOVER CENTRAL (20-7)	2	0	0	0	1	0	0	4	7	7	4
BISHOP NOLL (19-11)	0	0	1	0	0	2	0	0	3	3	5

Thursday, May 22, 2008 - 59-degrees, Class 2A, Sectional 33 Championship at Lake Station, IN

WP - Jessica Toth (10-4) CG, 9K, 2 walks
LP - Ramona DelGado (15-8) CG, 4K, 0 walks

HANOVER CENTRAL (20-7) starters
Kara Gilbert (SS) 1-for-4
Morgan Austgen (CF) 1-for-4
Kelsey Jankowski (1B) 2-for-4, HR, 2 RBIs
Jessica Toth (P) 0-for-4
Tiffany Gibson (RF) 1-for-4, RBI
Lindsay Thompson (2B) 0-for-4
Shannon Kiraly (3B) 1-for-3, HR, sac bunt, 3 RBIs
Alisha Janes (LF) 0-for-4
Anna Plassmann (DP) 1-for-3

Bishop Noll (19-11)
Niki Serrano (2B) 1-for-4
Caitlyn Crosby (DH) 0-for-4
Rose Mullaney (LF) 1-for-4
Meghan Yagelski (1B) 1-for-1, 3 walks, double, RBI
Jessica Miles (C) 1-for-4, RBI, stolen base
Julianna Esquivel (CF) 0-for-3
Venus Serrano (RF) 0-for-3
Rachel DeRolf (3B) 0-for-3
Kacey Amendola (SS) 0-for-2, HBP

LAKE STATION, IN (5-22-2008) - One of the great truths of the post-season is that it no longer matters how well you are playing. It only matters whether you win or lose. Playing perhaps their worst game of the season, 2A No. 4 Hanover Central used big thunder to erase each and every blunder, holding off upset-minded Bishop Noll 7-3 in extra innings to win the school's fifth sectional softball championship.

In a game that was a lot more fun for fans to watch than it was for coaches, HC (20-7) took a shaky step up the highway to state finals heaven, largely due to home runs from sophomore Kelsey Jankowski and senior Shannon Kiraly. That, plus the three-hit pitching of right-hander Jessica Toth, who danced around four HC errors and some unusual base running.

"This was ugly," said HC's veteran coach Larry McMillen, who clearly didn't want to diminish the celebrating of his girls. "We have to play a lot better than this next week or we'll be out quickly."

The two-faced nature of this win could not be displayed more effectively than in the performance of Shannon Kiraly, HC's senior third baseman.

Kiraly let a ground ball go between her legs to spark a two-run, game-tying rally in the Bishop Noll sixth inning. But when the game went into extra innings, Kiraly's three-run home run completed a four-run eighth inning.

"I know," she said of her error. "I don't know what happened to me out there. But I couldn't let it get me down or I'd be letting everybody else down out there."

Both Kiraly, a basketball player on HC's sectional title team in February, and McMillen, who coached the 2004 2A state champs, have no answer as to how someone who has never hit a home run in high school, can hit two in the last two weeks.

"Shannon didn't let the error bother her," said McMillen. "It bothered me. She's a good girl, but I have no idea where that (home run power) is coming from. She's never hit a home run in her life until last week."

"I don't know," Kiraly said. "I really had never hit a home run in high school until the PCC tournament (May 10). I remember I was just really mad. I don't know how I'm doing it."

Hanover was supposed to win the sectional, but they weren't supposed to beat 2006 2A Sectional 33 champ Bishop Noll, which upset 2007 Sectional 33 champion Wheeler 3-1 just 24 hours earlier.

Kelsey Jankowski gave the Lady Cats a 2-0 lead with a homerun to center field in the first inning. But Noll senior and losing pitcher Ramona DelGado (15-8), who deserved a better fate, retired 11 Hanover hitters in a row as the Warriors (19-11) found new life, swimming in a sea of softball boo-boos.

In the third inning Niki Serrano singled for Noll's first hit of the day after Kacey Amendola was hit by a pitch. HC pitcher Jessica Toth, who allowed just four hits all day, struck out Caitlin Crosby for the second out. Rose Mullaney singled to center, but HC center fielder Morgan Austgen's throw to the plate convinced Amendola to stop halfway home. Hanover catcher Danielle Sampognaro tried to throw behind Amendola, who was diving back into third base and threw the ball down the left field line, allowing Amendola to get up and score to make it 2-1.

On the next pitch, Sampognaro blocked the ball in the dirt at home plate, but Serrano thought it got past the catcher and raced for home. She was caught in a rundown and tagged out to end the third inning.

HC scored in the fifth when Amendola, Noll's shortstop, fumbled Lindsay Thompson's leadoff ground ball. Kiraly bunted the runner to second base. Thompson went to third on Alisha Janes' ground-out to second and scored when left-handed hitting Anna Plassmann beat out a ground ball to short.

Hanover should have won the game 3-1, but Mullaney's leadoff ground ball in the sixth inning went right between the legs of Kiraly. Meghan Yagelski, who walked three times, hit a line drive double to left center. Thompson, HC's second baseman tried to throw out Mullany at home plate, but fired the ball over Sampognaro at home plate, allowing Yagelski to reach third base, where she scored the tying run on Jessica Miles' single to center.

At this point, Noll should have won. Miles stole second base with nobody out. But Toth, the MVP of the Porter County Conference, got Julianna Esquivel on a line drive to left field, Venus Serrano on a pop up to the pitcher and Rachel DeWolf on a strikeout to end the sixth.

In the seventh inning, Plassmann reached base on a two-out error against DelGado and HC's Kara Gilbert singled to center. But Plassman tried to go from first to third base with two out and was thrown out easily to end the inning by Esquivel, Noll's center fielder.

Toth retired seven in a row in the sixth, seventh and eighth to give the Wildcats another chance to survive in the chilly, sunny conditions and HC got another break when Jankowski grounded a one-out single to center in the eighth. On the next play, Toth hit a ground ball to third base and DeWolf threw the ball far over the head of first baseman Yagelski, putting runners at second and third.

On the next play, Noll brought only the first and third baseman in close defensively and HC's Tiffany Gibson hit a ground ball to Amendola at shortstop. Playing at regular depth, Amendola fielded the ball and tried to throw home, too late to get Jankowski. One out later, Kiraly lifted a long drive that cleared the right center field fence for the three-run homer that iced the game.

"There were a lot of ups and down today," agreed Sampognaro, who was a freshman the last time HC won a sectional. "But we wanted to win pretty badly. I don't really remember the last time we won the sectional. Until last night, we always thought we'd be playing Wheeler today but they (Noll) played very well. They kept coming back and never gave up. They're a very good team."

Hanover is a very good team, but like the 2004 state title team, they're an erratic group. The 2008 Lady Cats are a strange mix of all four classes (freshmen through senior) and they admit they all aren't always on the same page.

"We clash sometimes," Kiraly admits. "We all have different personalities and we don't always get along. But there's times we know we have to pull together. Today was one of those times."

McMillen admits his troops drive him a little crazy sometimes.

"I was telling the girls that we'll practice Friday and then we'll practice Saturday, but they're saying, 'Coach, we've got other things to do.' So we'll probably just have four days of practice."

Upon learning that his team would play Hebron or Boone Grove (Boone won 1-0) in the regional semifinals at LaVille on May 31, McMillen was uneasy with that.

"I'd rather play someone who didn't know us," he said. "I really would like to play someone who is strange to us. We've played both of them twice already."

Toth (10-4) and Jankowski (10-3) carried HC in the sectional with strong pitching, but HC recorded just 13 hits in two games and they'll need to be more effective Saturday against Boone right-hander Taylor Johnson (13-3), who beat HC 2-1 on May 1.

Some good news is that Bremen (19-8) quickly eliminated No. 3 Jimtown (23-3) and No. 10 Fairfield (23-2) at the LaVille Sectional. What happened to Hanover defensively also happened to Jimtown, a team HC could have met in the 2A LaVille Regional finals.

Jimtown made six errors and Bremen pitcher Jenni Andrews pitched a no-hitter. The irony is that Bremen had lost 6-0 to Jimtown on May 15 and was meeting them for the third time this season. Next Saturday's Hanover-Boone regional match up will be the third game between those league rivals this season. Nobody knows what's going to happen, but nobody who saw them against Noll would say that Hanover is favored right now. The truth is, the Lady Cats only split their final 10 regular season games and they need a regional resurrection.

McMillen kept saying, "We haven't played well since the middle of the season. We just have to play a lot better than we did today."

NOTES: Hanover Central dominated Lake Station 11-1 in the sectional semifinals on May 20 as Kelsey Jankowski (9-4) pitched a two-hitter and struck out 10. Lindsay Thompson had a double, home ruin and five RBIs.

Hanover will play Boone Grove at the LaVille 2A Regional semifinals at 1:00 p.m. EDT (12 noon Cedar Lake time) on Saturday, May 31. They have split two games this season. Boone is the PCC regular season champion. Hanover is the PCC tournament champion. Boone Grove will be the home team and will bat last.

The Boone-Hanover win will be the home team in the regional championship game at 7:00 p.m. EDT (6:00 p.m. Cedar Lake time) at the LaVille sports complex. Hanover played three games at LaVille in early April, winning the 'Queen of Diamonds' Invitational, beating Clinton Prairie, Maconaquah and an injury-weakened (they did not have their top pitcher) 3A No. 1 Mishawaka Marian. Hanover Central won the 2004 regional title at LaVille and lost 1-0 in the 2005 regional title game there.

As shaky as the game was, the victory sent Hanover to the regional for the fifth time (2002, 2003, 2004, 2005) in seven years. Some of HC's players (largely sophomores and juniors) do not remember the four consecutive sectional championships, keyed by all-state pitchers Beth (1999-2002) and Amanda (2002-2005) Wendlinger, who combined for more than 130 pitching victories. But some do.

"I remember watching them," said Kiraly, who as much as confirmed that HC isn't thinking about just winning the sectional. "I knew the Wendlingers before I even got to high school. Coach told us he had a video he wanted us to watch and we were afraid we'd done something wrong. We were a little worried. And then we see it's the 2004 state championship game (where Amanda Wendlinger pitched a perfect game). It was good to see that. Some of us were crying at the end. It was very inspirational. We want to get to the state championship so bad and I think we can do it."

2A Hanover Central (20-7)
Coach Larry McMillen (17th year) 20-10 - PCC games in CAPS

(W) 12-2 at Chesterton (17-10)

Queen of Diamonds Tourney - at LaVille
(W) 15-0 Clinton Prairie (12-15)
(W) 11-0 Maconaquah
(W) 10-1 Mishawaka Marian (24-3) finals

(W) 14-1 at LaCROSSE (3-20)
(W) 7-1 at MORGAN TOWNSHIP
(L) 1-6 Munster (26-5)
(W) 3-2 (9 inn.) Lowell (20-10)
(L) 3-4 at Beecher, Ill (28-5)

Four Class Tourney
4-19 (rain) Andrean (17-10)
4-19 (rain) Crown Point (18-10)
4-19 (rain) South Central (12-12)

(W) 2-1 (8 innings) Wheeler (18-7)
(W) 5-0 HEBRON (16-8)
(W) 11-0 (6 inn.) South Newton
(W) 5-0 KOUTS (6-12)
(W) 13-1 (5 inn.) Rensselaer (0-26)
(W) 10-0 (5 inn.) SOUTH CENTRAL (12-12)
(L) 2-3 (8 inn.) BOONE GROVE (21-5)

Twin Lakes Invitational
16 teams - pool play - at Monticello, Ind.
5-2 (L) 3-5 Andrean (17-10)
5-3 (L) 4-5 Eastern (21-6)
5-3 (W) 11-1 Jefferson (5-20)
5-6 (W) 7-1 WASHINGTON TOWNSHIP

PCC Championship
5-9 (W) 4-0 Hebron (17-7)
5-10 (W) 10-0 (6 inn.) South Central (12-12)
5-10 (W) 5-3 Boone Grove (21-5)
5-16 (L) 0-3 at Whiting (30-0)
5-17 (L) 2-5 at Crown Point (18-10)

Lake Station (2A) Sectional
5-21 (W) 11-1 (5 inn.) Lake Station (4-22)
5-23 (W) 7-3 (8 inn.) Bishop Noll (19-11)

LaVille (2A Regional
5-30 (S) Boone Grove (21-5) 12 noon (CDT)
5-30 (S) Bremen (18-9) or Garrett (20-10) 6:00 p.m. (CDT)