CARMEL — The Castle Invite is the best Indiana high school softball event of the season. But I don’t consider the season to have officially begun until we reach the Carmel Invite in late April. No, the weather’s not always perfect — quite the opposite, most years — but it does hit that sweet spot right with everyone beginning to ramp up for the May push and the weather ready to turn a corner.
This season’s event brings a number of familiar faces, but introduces an entirely new format with a two-day bracketed event. The 5:30 p.m. session on Friday features Avon vs. Carmel and Penn vs. Cathedral, then at 7:30 p.m. Lake Central takes on Noblesville and Pendleton Heights takes a crack at Brownsburg.
Those are your eight participants, now here are the storylines I’ll be following as action gets underway.
Game of the weekend: No. 3 Lake Central vs. No. 11 Noblesville
This is probably more of a top-5 matchup, honestly.
Lake Central has fully looked the part of a 4A juggernaut. It’s batting .443 as a team with 31 home runs and a scoring rate of 12.3 runs per game. Its power-packed, senior-led lineup includes IU commit Alexa Iwema (.581, 11 homers and 33 RBIs through 13 games), DePaul commit MaKayla Van Vossen (.500, 7 steals) and Virginia commit Tegan Tripp (.419, 18 RBIs, 3 homers), plus IU-bound junior Maddie Wainwright, whose first homer of the season lifted LC to an 11-inning win over rival Crown Point on Monday.
The fielding has been rock-solid and the pitching staff is elite, led by Maddie Such (0.52 ERA, 48 strikeouts in 27 innings) and Jada Lewis (1.17 ERA, 37 strikeouts in 24 innings).
Noblesville is a really interesting matchup. Its similarly potent lineup boasts a .410 average with six players batting .450 or better (seventh is in the .430s) and has crushed 22 homers in six games, 10 of which have come from senior IU commit Haley Schatko (6) and junior Reese Newsom (4). The Millers do not strike out very often (20 Ks in 170 plate appearances entering Tuesday) and ace pitcher Addi Retzinger (3.69 ERA, 42 strikeouts) is finding her groove following the team’s stop-and-go start to the season. Noblesville scored five runs in the seventh to beat Franklin Central on Tuesday.
This is a statement game for both teams, obviously, but regardless of outcome, will serve as a quality measuring stick for the Millers, who play 17 games in 24 days after this weekend.
Noblesville rallied to beat LC at this event last season.
Defending 3A state champs enter 4A foray
We should have a better idea of where Cathedral stands after this weekend. The Irish have losses to West Lafayette Harrison and Danville (a perennial thorn in their side), a quality win over Brownsburg and a 6-6 tie with Westfield, wherein they let an early 6-0 lead slip away.
Penn will provide a quality test Friday night. The lineup — led by Logan Rumble, Charlie Swiger and Kaiya Garringer — presents its own challenges, but I’m most interested in how Cathedral handles the pitching staff. Anchored by Caitlyn Denny, the Kingsmen posted back-to-back shutouts entering Tuesday and allowed just 10 runs through their first 10 games, 14 of which came in a blowout loss to Kentucky power Daviess County.
That will be the hurdle facing an Irish lineup that’s littered with new(ish) faces, but largely held its own through the first month with Amanda Lupke, Ellis Land and Lola Scarsi all off to strong starts. Those players are stepping into new roles alongside key returners Jordyn Hazelwood, Sidney Feczko, Sydney Matthews, Kelsey Beres and Amya Gary.
Cathedral hit .400 or better in each of its first five games (including Brownsburg), but was limited to 12 total hits across games vs. Seymour, Living Water Homeschool and Westfield.
Both Avon and Carmel would present good challenges for Feczko and the pitching staff.
Brownsburg’s ramp up
The Bulldogs used the Castle Invite as an opportunity to test out some different lineup combinations and throw their younger players into adverse situations to see how they respond.
The Carmel Invite should serve as more of a proving ground with Friday’s opener vs. Pendleton Heights followed Saturday by either Lake Central or Noblesville, and one of Penn, Avon, Cathedral or Carmel.
The Bulldogs seemingly had a breakthrough at the plate with five runs on 10 hits vs. Westfield and 10 on 12 against Center Grove, but they were held in check by Chatard and Cascade, leaving the team’s average at .284 entering Tuesday’s visit from Zionsville.
We’ll see how sophomore ace Etta Schroering is deployed this weekend. She’s been really good so far, going 5-0 with a 2.08 ERA and 27 strikeouts through her first 30.1 innings.
Trial by fire for Pendleton Heights
The Arabians’ draw … it’s tough. Real tough. Brownsburg in the opener then either Lake Central or Noblesville. It will be tough sledding, but don’t doubt this young group’s potential to take a game or two this weekend.
Junior Aubrey Fox (.525, three homers, 19 RBIs) has seven multi-hit games, including a two-homer game vs. Lawrence North, a three-hit, two-RBI performance vs. Lapel and a two-hit night vs. Westfield. Sophomore Ally Carlon (.439) took 11 games to eclipse her hit total from last season (18) and senior Cassie Hayes is one of the team’s top run generators with 14 RBIs so far. Grace Fisher has also been a bright spot with her .333 average and nine runs.
Pendleton scored five earned runs on 11 hits against a stingy Fishers pitching staff last week, and clocked 11 hits and six runs in an extra-innings win over Shelbyville.
Congratulations are in order for coach Rob Davis, who secured his 300th career victory with a 5-4 win over Delta on Tuesday.
Opening night slugfest
Avon allowed 66 runs through its first nine games while averaging nearly 11 runs per game. Carmel allowed 75 runs through its first 12 games while averaging over eight runs per game.
The Orioles have scored at least seven runs in eight games, with an 18-14 loss to Roncalli and a 15-14 loss to Franklin Central. The Greyhounds had an 18-10 loss to Westfield, scored four on Hamilton Southeastern’s Grace Swedarsky and just last week beat New Palestine, 7-0.
Both lineups are batting in the .375 range with a boatload of home runs (7 for Avon, 12 for Carmel), and both have a core-five with double-digit hits on the season (Kayla Pickering, Chloe Stopperich, Lilly Heath, Regan Cooper and Zoey Chavez for Avon; Riley Petrites, Jayden Kleiner, Ellie Goddard, Chloe Junkersfield and Winni Owens for Carmel).
This is all to say: We could be in for a good ol’ slugfest in game one on the main field Friday night. Buckle up.
Carmel Invite schedule
April 24-25 at Cherry Tree Softball Complex
Friday
G1: Avon vs. Carmel, 5:30 p.m. (Field 1)
G2: Penn vs. Cathedral, 5:30 p.m. (Field 2)
G3: Lake Central vs. Noblesville, 7:30 p.m. (Field 1)
G4: Brownsburg vs. Pendleton Heights, 7:30 p.m. (Field 2)
Saturday
Winner’s bracket (Field 1)
G5: Winner G1 vs. Winner G2, 9 a.m.
G6: Winner G3 vs. Winner G4, 11:30 a.m.
3rd: Loser G5 vs. Loser G6, 2 p.m.
1st: Winner G5 vs. Winner G6, 4 p.m.
Consolation bracket (Field 2)
G7: Loser G1 vs. Loser G2, 9 a.m.
G8: Loser G3 vs. Loser G4, 11:30 a.m.
7th: Loser G7 vs. Loser G8, 2 p.m.
5th: Winner G7 vs. Winner G8, 4 p.m.
Follow Brian Haenchen on Twitter at @Brian_Haenchen. Get IndyStar’s high school coverage sent directly to your inbox with the High School Sports newsletter.
This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: Softball: Five things to know entering the 2026 Carmel Invite
Reporting by Brian Haenchen, Indianapolis Star / Indianapolis Star
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