Softball draw: Rochester, Valley, Winamac, Argos among teams getting byes

BY VAL TSOUTSOURIS

Sports Editor, RTC

The Rochester, Tippecanoe Valley, Winamac and Argos softball teams were among the area teams receiving byes, per the IHSAA softball draw held Sunday.

Meanwhile, Caston drew the team that knocked them out of last year’s sectional, Pioneer drew a team that has played only seven games, and Culver drew a traditional power.

Sectionals will be held statewide from May 26-31, regionals are June 3, and semistates are June 7.

The state championship games will be held June 13-14 at Bittinger Stadium on the Purdue University campus in West Lafayette.

Sectional tickets are $7 per session, regional tickets are $10, semistate tickets are $12 per session, and state championship tickets are $15 per person per day.

Here is a closer look at the draw.

Rochester

The Lady Zs won the sectional on their home field last year without the benefit of a bye. This year, they will travel to Oak Hill for Class 2A, Sectional 38 with a bye.

Rochester will await the Lewis Cass-Oak Hill winner in the semifinals.

Lewis Cass is currently 4-7. Oak Hill is 8-4, and one of their wins was a 6-1 win over Lewis Cass April 22. Lewis Cass, however, still retains much of the nucleus that won the 2023 sectional at Rochester, including pitcher Amma Fitzhugh.

Rochester will play Lewis Cass May 21. They are not scheduled to play Oak Hill.

In the other half of the bracket, Manchester drew Wabash with the winner to meet Eastern (Greentown). Manchester knocked off Wabash 8-4 in their Three Rivers Conference game April 28.

Rochester has won five sectional titles in its history.

Tippecanoe Valley

Seeking their second sectional title in three years, Valley will await the NorthWood-West Noble winner in the Class 3A, Sectional 20 semifinals at Fairfield.

NorthWood is 7-6 while West Noble is 2-12. NorthWood beat West Noble 16-1 in five innings when they met April 14.

Valley is not scheduled to meet either team during the regular season. Valley is 6-6 and coming off a 2-1 loss to Jimtown Thursday. Two of Valley’s wins (John Glenn, Mishawaka) are against teams in their class or higher.

In the other half of the draw, Fairfield received a bye and will square off against the Wawasee-Columbia City winner.

There is no defending sectional champion in this grouping.

Caston, Pioneer

No. 7 Tri-County and No. 12 North Newton are the two ranked teams in Class 1A, Sectional 50 at North White, and they were placed in opposite halves of the draw.

Caston and Pioneer were also placed in opposite halves of the draw.

Caston drew West Central for the third straight year in the sectional.

West Central beat Caston 4-3 in eight innings on Annika Smith’s walk-off homer in last year’s sectional quarterfinals. Caston beat West Central 10-4 in the 2023 sectional semifinals at North Miami on their way to a state title game appearance.

The West Central-Caston winner will face off against the South Newton-Tri-County winner in the semifinals. Tri-County is 12-1 with their only loss to Class 4A power Harrison (West Lafayette). 

As for Pioneer, they drew a DeMotte Christian team that is 3-4 and has not played a game since April 24.

The DeMotte Christian-Pioneer winner will face the North White-North Newton winner in the semifinals. That means there could be a potential showdown of top pitchers Lois Layer of Pioneer and Sydney Rainford of North Newton in the semifinals.

Rainford has an 0.69 ERA and 139 strikeouts in 61 innings. She threw a three-hit shutout with 16 strikeouts in a 1-0 win over Pioneer in the 2022 sectional.

Argos, Culver

Argos would appear to have a road to the Class 1A, Sectional 51 final at South Central (Union Mills).

That’s because Argos received a bye and will play either Triton or Elkhart Christian in the semifinals. Argos swept a doubleheader from Triton 10-0 and 15-3 April 12, and they beat Elkhart Christian 12-0 April 29. All three of those games lasted five innings.

Sisters Ava and Ivy Stackhouse are hitting a combined .508 this season, and Argos has also hit five home runs.

In the other half of the draw, Oregon-Davis drew North Judson, and South Central drew Culver.

Culver is 8-7 and coming off an 11-2 win over North White Friday. South Central is 8-3-1.

The South Central-Culver game could be a pitching showdown between South Central’s Lexi Johnson and Culver’s Aiden Molebash.

Johnson has a 1.59 ERA and 106 strikeouts in 66 innings.

Neither Argos nor Culver has ever won a softball sectional title.

Winamac

The Lady Warriors, ranked No. 9, will face Jimtown in the Class 2A, Sectional 34 semifinals at Bremen.

The teams do not meet during the regular season.

Winamac relies on the two-pitcher combination of Brooke Rausch and Adrianna Hall – Hall typically comes in to relieve Rausch in the fifth inning – while Jimtown relies on pitcher Kiyla Eberhart.

Eberhart has held opponents to a .114 batting average and struck out 23 in 14 innings.

In the other half of the draw, Bremen drew LaVille with the winner to meet Knox in the semifinals. That means there could be a potential pitching showdown between Bremen’s Chrissy Grabowski and Knox’s Bethany Barnes in the semifinals.

Winamac has won five softball sectionals, most recently in 2017.