Area Teams Busy In Tourney Action
It was a mixed bag of results Saturday for area teams still competing in the state tournament series for softball and baseball.
The Fairfield softball team, which defeated Wawasee 1-0 in a sectional final, saw its season end with a 13-6 loss to Kankakee Valley in a semifinal game of the Class 3-A Twin Lakes Regional. Kankakee Valley scored nine runs in the fifth inning to rally for the win. Alexis Zook had a double and scored three runs for the Falcons, who finish the season at 24-8.
Kankakee Valley will play in the regional title game Monday night versus either Mishawaka Marian or Hamilton Heights. The Marian-Hamilton Heights semifinal game was postponed due to rain Saturday and will be played on Monday at 1 p.m. at Twin Lakes High School.
Penn, ranked No. 2 in Class 4-A, will have to wait until Monday to continue its quest for a softball semistate title. The Penn-Zionsville game at Lafayette Harrison was suspended due to rain with the score 0-0 in the third inning. The semifinal contest will resume at Harrison at 11 a.m. Monday with the winner advancing to the championship contest at 7 p.m.
The Manchester baseball team will also have to wait until Monday for its regional game. The action at the Wabash Regional was suspended with the first game in the seventh inning Saturday due to rain. That game, which has Lafayette Central Catholic leading Alexandria-Monroe 9-7, will begin at 2 p.m. Manchester will then face Frankton 40 minutes after the completion of that game. The title game will then be played at 8 p.m. Monday.
The trio of Penn, NorthWood and Bremen all won regional semifinal games Saturday to advance to title tilts later at night. Penn edged rival Mishawaka 4-3 at LaPorte, while NorthWood topped Fort Wayne Bishop Dwenger 4-1 at Belmont and Bremen beat Adams Central 2-1 at Whiting.
Penn defeated Chesterton 11-1 in six innings Saturday night to win the Class 4-A LaPorte Regional championship. The defending state champion Kingsmen advance to the semistate next Saturday at either Plymouth or Kokomo. They will face the winner of the Lafayette Jefferson Regional, which was postponed by rain on Saturday and will now be played on Monday.
Penn scored eight runs in the first inning of the title game Saturday night. Star pitcher and IU recruit Skyler Szynski notched the pitching win as Penn improved to 29-4. The Kingsmen had to rally from a 3-1 deficit to edge Mishawaka in their semifinal game. The Cavemen had a pair of runners picked off in the contest.
Bremen lost 4-3 to Hebron in the title game at Whiting.
NorthWood’s regional championship game was postponed by rain. The Panthers will face Delta Monday night at 7:30 in the championship contest at Bellmont. Vine Miranda pitched a shutout and Tanner Cleveland had two hits and an RBI for the Panthers in their win over Dwenger. Delta beat Belmont 7-5 in the other semifinal.
The Marian baseball team saw its season end with a 4-1 loss to Griffith in the Griffith Regional.