What We Learned at Carmel Invite: Avry Miller in the clutch, Roncalli, Penn, Carmel, more

CARMEL — A number of the state's best high school softball players and teams were in Carmel this weekend for the annual Carmel Invite. The weather held out and the teams all delivered, resulting in a few interesting outcomes and some absolutely wild finishes.

Here are some takeaways from this weekend's festivities.

Avry Miller: Clutch

Player of the weekend? Pendleton Heights' Avry Miller. She hit a solo home run in the fourth inning Friday to beat Roncalli, 1-0, for the first time since 2013 (0-4 with back-to-back semistate losses), a go-ahead grand slam vs. Penn (credit the Kingsmen for responding, but it was a massive moment) and a bunt single to score the go-ahead run in the ninth inning vs. Brownsburg.

Clutch.

"Big moments come when you least expect it," Miller beamed following the Penn game. "I just try to relax and wait, see what happens. Trust God."

Pitcher Shelby Messer made sure Miller's solo homer stood up against Roncalli; Penn answered Miller's massive moment to take the lead, but the Arabians drew a bases-loaded walk to tie in the seventh, then reclaimed the lead with some heads-up baserunning by Grace Fisher and Ari Rector on another wild pitch; Brownsburg scored four runs in the seventh to tie, but stranded the bases loaded in the eighth, to set up Miller's ninth-inning heroics.

Three big wins for Pendleton Heights, which has won six straight following a 4-4 start. (A hem. )

"We have grit, fight," Miller said.

"Yeah," Messer continued. "I'm really proud of us that we would come out here and have the confidence to play well as a team against a quality opponent."

Rob Davis sets wins record

With the Arabians' wins over Roncalli, Penn and Brownsburg (an impressive feat unto itself), coach Rob Davis surpassed Pat Medler as the all-time winningest coach in program history with 275 career wins.

And what a way to do it: Beat Roncalli, rally to win an absolute thriller vs. Penn, then hang on for a nine-inning triumph over Brownsburg, with the Bulldogs scoring four in the bottom of the seventh to force extra innings, then had the bases loaded and a chance to walk it off in the eighth.

"It feels really, really good," Messer said of securing the record for Davis. "I'm really proud of us — and I'm proud of him, too. He's awesome to play for."

Penn learning as it goes

With so many key players returning, it's easy to forget Penn still graduated a couple key seniors from its state championship team in outfielder Alexis Riem and middle infielder Kiley Hinton. "It's still a new team," coach Beth Zachary pointed out, and there have been some growing pains as the Kingsmen navigated a brutal first month of the schedule, which concluded this weekend with Noblesville, Carmel and Pendleton Heights.

After beating Noblesville by six Friday night, the host Greyhounds proved difficult to put away Saturday morning (more on them in a bit), then Pendleton generated its 11 runs on only six hits. Penn aces Aubrey Zachary and Olivia Signorino allowed a combined nine runs on four hits with eight walks (six by Zachary) in the Pendleton game.

"They're still trying to figure out and find their groove right now, which is totally fine and to be expected," Beth Zachary said of her pitchers. "They're facing good hitters and that's one of the things I said today to the team. … We're facing the best hitters in the state and those girls are going to put the ball in play, so we have to find a way to play solid defense behind them. We're still working on that. We're still young."

But we also caught a glimpse of how dangerous this Penn team can be beyond its two aces, both of whom showcased their potential amidst last year's championship run. The Kingsmen built a 9-1 lead on Carmel with eight different players contributing a hit, then went blow-for-blow with Pendleton Heights over seven innings. Abigail Widmar drove in four runs (three off a bases-loaded double), Izabella Hanna had three hits and Logan Rumble capped her six-hit, eight-RBI weekend with a go-ahead homer in the bottom of the sixth.

"Logan's just a sophomore and is really just having a phenomenal season so far," Beth Zachary said. "She started a little slow, but to see her come out of it and work through it — that growth, it's exactly what I want to see from my players and she's really embraced that. That was a clutch moment."

For better or worse, the schedule lightens up quite a bit from here, with Crown Point (May 3), South Bend St. Joseph (May 6) and New Prairie (May 13) standing as the final in-state tests.

Roncalli bounces back with strong Saturday

The Royals' lineup may not be as formidable as it was last year, but this team knows how to win and has found a way more times than not.

Roncalli really had to grind against Carmel, but the defense was perfect on 26 chances and the bats finally broke through in the fifth. A walk by Wolford was followed by Morgan Curtis and Carly Keller singles. Wolford scored on a wild pitch, then pinch runner Lauren Candler on an Elise Baker sacrifice fly.

Two runs on six hits to beat Carmel, then three runs on seven hits to best Tecumseh.

Once again, Roncalli finds a way.

"(The lineup) is definitely different," said Keller, who bats lead-off. "It's a little harder getting hits, but we like coming together as a team. I can definitely feel everyone settling into their roles."

Avery Clark pitched against the Arabians, limiting their formidable lineup to one run on six hits, then Addy Poe took the circle against a similarly potent Carmel bunch — and she carried a no-hitter into the seventh. Said no-no was broken up moments after a reporter — who shall remain nameless — realized what was happening and said it out loud, but a one-hit shutout with only one walk and eight strikeouts is still impressive.

Saturday marked the longest pitching appearance of the season for Poe, who missed all of last year with a knee injury. She's still working her way back to 100% and admits the mental grind has been more challenging than expected, but she's settling in.

"(The key) is just to keep my head high," she said. "I take a lot of mental breaks before games to settle in, a lot of silent moments, but it just feels good to play again and I'm happy to be out there."

Poe has 13 strikeouts with only three runs allowed on two hits through 10.1 innings (she also plays in the field).

No nerves, just confidence and trust for Carmel

I was really interested to see how the host Greyhounds would fare against a Saturday slate that began with Penn and Roncalli. And honestly, they were really impressive. The Penn game got out of hand early with the Kingsmen building a 9-1 lead through four innings, with a flurry of fielding troubles contributing to the Carmel deficit.

It was barreling towards another run-rule loss, but Gracyn Erickson buckled down and held the margin at eight while her teammates went to work at the plate, scoring five runs in the fifth, then loading the bases and walking in a run in the seventh to bring the winning run to the plate.

Carmel finished with six runs on 10 hits.

"We really have nothing to lose, so there's not really nerves when we play against teams like Penn, just confidence in ourselves to be the best that we can," Mia Fleming said.

"Yeah, that's exactly it," added Paxton Law. "We went up to the plate, tried to relax and remembered we had nothing to lose. We just tried to play our best out there."

Carmel displayed similar resiliency against Avon in the finale, marching back from a 10-run deficit before falling, 14-10 (Jayden Kleiner, Fleming and Winni Owens all homered).

Both performances (not to mention the 2-0 loss to Roncalli) count for a lot when considering the team's overall youth and inexperience.

"We have a lot of fight in us," coach Stephanie Kleiner said. "We know as a coaching staff what we need to succeed and putting pressure on the girls is not going to make that happen. We're talking with them about looking within themselves, not passing blame but taking ownership of the situation. And that's what each and every girl did."

Of note: Carmel has only been run-ruled once this season, a 15-1 loss in five innings vs. Pendleton Heights. Asked what the biggest difference has been from last season, Law and Fleming both pointed to confidence.

"We're definitely louder and more confident with ourselves," Fleming said. "It's a lot of younger girls, but we're definitely improving and using that."

"There's a lot more energy in the dugout this year and we're taking that onto the field with us," Law added.

Tecumseh holds its own against the big dogs

The defending Class A champion Braves sent quite the message this weekend, beating Brownsburg on Friday, losing to Cathedral on a walk-off, then hanging with Roncalli in the finale.

Three really good performances against quality 4A opponents.

A few performers of note: Jenna Donohoo went 6-for-11 with a homer and two RBIs; Taylor Ash had four hits; Natalie Feather homered and pitched 13.1 innings, allowing just five runs with seven strikeouts. She pitched against Brownsburg and Cathedral, while Melanie Pfieffer held Roncalli to three runs on six hits.

Check out Clark Wade's timeline for highlights from Tecumseh's game vs. Cathedral.

Brownsburg battles back

Brownsburg lost a three-run decision to Tecumseh on Friday, then was teetering on a mercy-rule loss to Lake Central and down 6-2 to Pendleton Heights entering the seventh. The Lake Central game not only went a full seven (three runs in the fifth and sixth, including a three-run homer by Ashley Sylvia), the Bulldogs were threatening to draw even closer in the top of the seventh, with a one-out walk to Avery Toole. The Pendleton Heights rally began with a bit of luck (an infield error), then continued with a string of hits: Singles by Izzy Neal and Kensly Larkin, sacrifice fly by Lexi Gordon, another single (AG Pogue), then a two-out, two-run RBI single by Hailey Thompson to tie at 6.

Brownsburg at rival Avon on Tuesday.

Odds-and-ends

∎ Dylan Geil played a starring role in Castle's wins over Cathedral and Noblesville, picking up five hits and five RBIs (three and four vs. the Millers). She also had two RBIs in a loss to Avon. It was a very good weekend for Castle, which added quality wins over the Irish and Millers to a resume that already includes wins over Penn and Brownsburg.

∎ Staying with Castle: Check out this throw by Aleyna Quinn. Oh, by the way: This is her first/only season of high school softball .

∎ Avon scored four runs in the sixth to erase a 4-3 deficit and beat Castle, 7-6. Madi Pappas led off the sixth with a triple, then Karly Anderson, Lilly Heath, Reagan Cooper and Hannah Sutton all strung together RBI singles. Of note: Sutton returned from injury Saturday and went 6-for-10 with a grand slam and eight RBIs.

∎ One more Pendleton Heights note: Shelby Messer was really good against Roncalli, pitching a four-hit shutout with only two walks and six Ks. The senior doesn't strike out a ton of hitters, but it's wicked effective when she's dialed in and the defense is on top of its game.

∎ One bad inning cost Noblesville against Penn (a seven-run second) and Cathedral (a four-run fifth), but the Millers rallied vs. Castle, with Gabby Fowler blasting a three-run homer to make it 11-7 in the sixth, before they scratched across another run in the seventh. Still counts as a loss, but at least they have something to build upon entering next week.

∎ I've seen Lake Central a few times this year and gosh, they're really good. Senior pitcher Sofia Calderaro, who drew rave reviews from a couple coaches I talked with in the press box, spun a one-hit shutout vs. Avon with four strikeouts, while Jolie Adams, Taylor Schafer, Kate Renschen and MaKayla Van Vossen all had five-plus hits over the three games (Carmel, Avon and Brownsburg). Renschen homered twice.

Scores

Follow Brian Haenchen on Twitter at @Brian_Haenchen .

This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: What We Learned at Carmel Invite: Avry Miller in the clutch, Roncalli, Penn, Carmel, more