Holloway a hit for Bulldogs
Notre Dame recruit goes 3 for 3 in top-ranked Crown Point’s long-awaited season opener
Crown Point’s Anna Holloway kept things simple.
Sure, the senior shortstop and Notre Dame recruit was more than eager for Saturday’s game at Andrean.
But Holloway didn’t want to press as Crown Point played for the first time in nearly two years after last season was canceled due to the coronavirus pandemic.
The 2019 first-team all-state selection went 3 for 3 with a triple, an RBI, two runs and a stolen base as the Bulldogs topped the 59ers 6-0.
“I just try to see the ball, hit the ball — that’s kind of my philosophy in the box,” Holloway said. “It was just working.
“We were all just super excited to play. It’s been like two years in the making. We were just ready to get back out on the field. We knew we were going to be playing a really good team right off the bat. We all were just trying to get ready and prepared in order to start off on a good note.”
Crown Point (1-0), ranked No. 19 in the latest USA Today national poll and No. 1 in this week’s Class 4A state coaches poll, last played June 1, 2019, losing in the West Lafayette Harrison Semistate final to Leo.
The Bulldogs’ win against Andrean (1-1), ranked No. 5 in the Class 2A state coaches poll, marked the debut of Crown Point coach Angie Richwalski. She succeeded Indiana Softball Hall of Famer Pete Iussig before a “bizarre” 2020 season.
“It’s such a huge relief to have the rust knocked off and get that first game under our belt,” Richwalski said. “It’s been two years, an insane amount of time to go between the last game and the first game of this year. It feels really good to be done with it. Everything went smoothly. We remembered to do everything, and they played well.
“For not having seen live pitching with an umpire in two years at the high school level, I’m happy. They did a good job putting the ball in play. I’d like to see them get a little bit more aggressive. But they’re out of practice. We’ll get there.”
Senior Madi Elish, an Arizona recruit who also was a first-team all-state pick in 2019, pitched a four-hitter. She had 11 strikeouts and three walks, with two to freshman third baseman Addison Kammer, and hit three batters, including Andrean senior pitcher Leah Navarro twice. Andrean junior outfielder Avery Antczak had two singles.
“I was a little wild,” Elish said. “It was first-game jitters. I was trying to keep the ball low.”
Elish, who added a run-scoring triple in the first, said she gets “nervous” with “butterflies” before every game. This one was intensified given the circumstances.
“I was so excited — everybody on the team was,” Elish said. “We were just so eager after two years to get back out there. Playing Andrean was cool because we haven’t played them in a while. So just to come here, have our first game, nice weather, it was great.”
Andrean had runners on second and third with one out in the second before Elish recorded back-to-back strikeouts. The 59ers loaded the bases with two outs in the fifth before Elish induced a popout to her.
“I can’t ask for a better game out of Madi Elish her first game back,” Richwalski said. “She worked from ahead the whole game. There was a batter somewhere in the middle she got behind, and I was, like, ‘Whoa, that’s not how she’s been working.’
“She did a phenomenal job staying ahead of the hitters and keeping them off-balance and hitting her spots. She was putting them everywhere I was calling them, with the exception of a few hit batters, which were pretty close to the spot she was aiming for anyway.”
Navarro also pitched well for Andrean, allowing three earned runs on seven hits in 5 ⅓ innings with five strikeouts and no walks.
“She was a little warrior, a little bulldog,” Andrean coach Glenn Eisfelder said. “She didn’t let anything affect her. She kept doing her job, and she did a great job.”
Eisfelder, whose team opened March 30 with a 7-4 win against Morgan Township, liked the way his team competed against highly regarded Crown Point.
“Not too bad. … I’m really encouraged,” he said. “We got good pitching. We got good defense. We need timely hits.”
Poll position: In addition to Crown Point and Andrean, several other area teams are ranked in the state coaches poll this week.
Lake Central is No. 5 in Class 4A. Chesterton is No. 16.
Hanover Central is tied for No. 3 in Class 3A, and Kankakee Valley is No. 10.
Boone Grove is ranked No. 2 in Class 2A. Bishop Noll is tied for No. 16, and Whiting is No. 23.
Morgan Township checked in at No. 9 in Class A. Covenant Christian is No. 11, and South Central is in a three-way tie for No. 18.