Jeff softball inspired despite end result

MONTICELLO — The tears in Cassie Jenkins’ eyes showed the end result.

Lafayette Jeff’s softball team ultimately fell to Crown Point 4-3 in the championship game of the Twin Lakes Invitational. But the Bronchos may have left with something more important than the championship trophy that slipped away during Crown Point’s three-run fourth inning.

For a team used to taking its lumps at the Twin Lakes Invitational, Lafayette Jeff survived eight straight hours of softball Saturday for a runner-up finish and left confident about the results posted over the two-day, 16-team event.

“I’m a senior and this is the first time we’ve made it this far, so this is a big accomplishment,” Jenkins said. “We wish the outcome was a little better, but we played really well this weekend.

“These were good teams and we played against them really well. They (Crown Point) just got one-up on us. In our eyes, we didn’t lose, we won.”

The Bronchos went 3-0 in pool play, including a 2-0 win over Munster and an 8-3 win over Pioneer on Saturday, then beat Twin Lakes for the second time in nine days in the semifinals.

Lafayette Jeff took a 2-0 lead in the bottom of the second, but the Bulldogs (17-7) scored a run in the third and three in the fourth for their second Twin Lakes Invitational title in three years.

Lexie Rolff’s two-run homer with two outs in the fourth pushed Crown Point in front 4-2.

Reliever Brittany Ard retired 12 of the 13 batters she faced, nine of those by groundout.

Jenkins’ solo home run off Ard in the bottom of the fourth was one of the Bronchos’ five hits in the championship game.

Tori Crouch’s bunt single scored Madison Flanagan and Connor Garrity, who doubled to the fence, dashed in right behind her to put the Bronchos (15-9) ahead 2-0 in the second.

After victories over Munster (2-0) and Pioneer (8-3) in pool play Saturday, the Bronchos had just four hits against Twin Lakes in the semifinals but took advantage of four errors to win 6-3. Zoee Anderson went 2-for-3 with two runs, and Kaitlynn Moody and Jenni Graham drove in runs.

“Normally we come in and lose all three games and we’re done,” Baumgardt said. “We won our pool, made it to the final four and then made it to the championship. That’s something we haven’t done for eight years. It definitely felt really good.”

Coryn Tirpak went 2-for-4 with a double and RBI against the Bronchos. Shelby Hicks was 7-for-12 in the tournament before going 0-for-4 off Moody. Chloe McAchren was the hard-luck loser, giving up five unearned runs for the Indians (14-5).

Harrison fell to Crown Point 3-1 after defeating Maconaquah 11-0.

Abbey Scowden went 2-for-3 with three RBIs against Maconaquah. Kaitlyn Carnahan, Jade Spitznagle and Hunter Bridge each drove in two and Alex Spitznagle scored three runs. Bridge drove in Shailen Johnson for the only Harrison (9-9) run against Crown Point.