WEST LAFAYETTE — The IHSAA Class 4A softball semi-state tournament at Harrison High School has been delayed.
Inclement weather struck West Lafayette as Penn and Lake Central were heading into the bottom of the sixth inning with the latter ahead, 3-0. Penn is the designated home team for the game.
The other semifinal between Westfield and Fort Wayne Carroll never started. The Penn-Lake Central game will resume sometime Monday, with Westfield-Carroll to follow, culminating with the championship game between the two winners.
Monday’s game times have yet to be announced, but they will not be played at Harrison. Instead, it will be at a Northern high school yet to be named which has a turf field. Officials will have to be mindful of Penn High School’s graduation set for 8 p.m. ET that evening at the University of Notre Dame’s Joyce Center in South Bend.
Penn softball will look to rally
Luckily for Penn, the Kingsmen watched a lot of the 2026 NCAA Women’s College World Series heading into this weekend.
It was a tournament that featured — among other heroic moments — a walk-off home run by Texas Tech’s Mia Williams in a semifinal between the Red Raiders and Alabama, forcing an elimination semifinal in which the former also won. It was a tournament that saw Texas come from behind to beat Texas Tech twice to win its second straight national championship.
After a frustrating afternoon in West Lafayette, Kingsmen head coach Beth Zachary feels like her team has new life.
“The NCAA [Tournament] is definitely going to be in the back of our minds and replaying in our heads,” Zachary said. “We’ve watched so many of those games go into extra innings and come down to the wire. We’re going to fight until the last out. It’s almost like a new game.”
Prior to the postponement, 4A No. 1 Lake Central made a statement from the jump, and Penn senior starting pitcher Caitlyn Denny was uncharacteristically shaky, hitting two batters and walking another in the top of the first inning. Indians’ junior starting pitcher Maddie Such helped herself with a two-RBI double.
In the bottom of the frame, Such struck out the Kingsmen’s first three batters in order. By the time the second inning was over, the University of Kentucky commit had five punchouts.
Lake Central pushed home another run in the second inning when junior Indiana University commit Madi Wainwright hit an RBI double.
From that point on, Denny was rock solid. In three of the next four innings, the Indians put runners on base, but the Arkansas at Pine-Bluff commit found a way to strand them.
After six innings of work, Denny had six strikeouts, six hits allowed, three earned runs, three batters hit by pitch and one walk. It was up to Penn’s bats to get the Kingsmen back in the game, and heading into the bottom of the sixth inning, they only had three hits.
Sophomore Harper Rumble had the first base knock for her team with a single in the third inning, sophomore Charlie Swiger had the second in the fourth and sophomore Addyson Zachary had the third in the fifth. All three hardly made it out of the infield, and none of the runners were able to advance from first base after reaching.
With Penn’s top three in the batting order due up in the bottom of the sixth, the dreaded sirens began blaring at Harrison, signaling lighting within 10 miles of the facility and ushering in a 30-minute delay.
That 30-minute delay turned into an approximate 127-minute pause, which eventually resulted in the game being pushed back.
Kyle Smedley is a sports reporter at the South Bend Tribune. Contact him via email at ksmedley@usatodayco.com or follow him on X @KyleMSmedley.
This article originally appeared on South Bend Tribune: IHSAA Class 4A softball semi-state games postponed to Monday
Reporting by Kyle Smedley, South Bend Tribune / South Bend Tribune
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
By Kyle Smedley, South Bend Tribune | USA TODAY Network
