Miranda Elish flashed a smile.
Otherwise, there was no noticeable reaction, no overt celebration by the Crown Point pitcher.
A five-inning perfect game for Elish in the Bulldogs’ 12-0 win against Munster on Thursday? It wasn’t just another outing. But so it goes for the senior, an Oregon signee who is considered the nation’s top recruit.
Elish was so locked into the game, she didn’t even realize she retired all 15 batters she faced.
“I don’t know, was it (a perfect game)?” she said. “I wasn’t paying attention. I was just throwing, pitching.”
Crown Point coach Ginger Britton liked what she saw from Elish.
“Miranda did a nice job on the mound hitting her spots, staying ahead of the batters in the count,” she said.
Elish had 12 strikeouts for the Bulldogs (5-0), including eight straight to start the game. Sarah Johnson rolled a bunt to the mound to end the third inning for the Mustangs (3-4). Elish induced two groundouts around a strikeout in the fourth, and struck out the side in the fifth.
The Bulldogs, including catcher Lexi Madrigal, were on the same page.
“Coach and Lexi called a really nice game,” Elish said. “I was just throwing what coach was calling. I was just executing to the best of my abilities.”
Madrigal described Elish’s performance as “awesome.”
“We like to call riseballs for a couple batters who are under the ball,” Madrigal said. “She worked hard, and really got under them.”
Munster coach Beth Thornburg was more concerned about the hits and walks the Mustangs allowed and the errors they committed.
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“Elish obviously is a great player,” Thornburg said. “We knew we were going to have trouble offensively. She’s a kid that throws that hard, you need two, three, four days to try to do as much as you can to adjust to that speed.
‘”So we got about what I thought we would. Where we need to be way better is defensively.”
Crown Point scored in four of the five innings, including sending 10 batters to the plate for six runs on six hits in the fourth.
Notre Dame commit Alexis Holloway went 4-for-4 with two triples, three RBIs and three runs scored. Elish went 3-for-4 with two doubles, an RBI and three runs.
The Bulldogs have yet to allow a run this season while scoring 40 in their five games.
“You have to give yourself a chance,” Thornburg said. “If you get down right away to a team like that, it’s hard to stay positive because you’re going to be lucky to scratch out two runs — they might give up two runs all year.”
After this twice-postponed game against a strong Munster team, Crown Point has a showdown Monday against Lake Central.
“This was just really good for us,” Elish said. “We needed something to get us rolling, and I feel like this is really going to do that.”
Twitter @MichaelOsipoff