Indians come out on top

Updated: April 22, 2011 2:06PM

CHESTERTON - Even if the average fan watching Thursday's softball game between Lake Central and Chesterton didn't know each was undefeated in the Duneland Conference heading into the contest, it didn't take long to see how good each team has been this season.

Back and forth, each team flashed the leather on defense.

Back and forth, each team's pitcher made clutch pitches when she needed to, getting out of jams.

And back and forth, each team traded runs in the middle innings with LC surviving for a 2-1 victory even though the stats tell you the Indians (9-1, 4-0) should have scored more based on 10 hits and at least one baserunner in every inning.

"Today was not a great day to hit," LC coach Jeff Sherman said, referring to the chill in the air. "With the conditions the way they were, it wasn't ideal. I told the girls all that matters is that you put up a bigger number than the other team."

Two is barely bigger than one, and those two runs were driven in by Post-Tribune first-team all-area catcher Sam Terry, who is headed to South Dakota State in the fall.

But the pair of RBI hits - a double in the third inning that scored Julia Druzbicki, and a single in the fifth that drove in Marissa Maluchnik - wasn't what impressed Sherman the most.

"She did her best job today of calling pitches," he said. "We trust our senior catcher to call the game. She's one of the best catchers in the state of Indiana and we let her go with that. She did a great job."

Terry admits the pitch-calling responsibility of isn't easy.

"I'm a little nervous here and there, but I believe in my pitchers to hit their spots," she said.

On Thursday, those pitchers were Bridget Boyle and Morgan Franovich. Boyle went the first five innings, striking out four, walking none and giving up five hits, three of them coming consecutively in the fourth inning to score Chesterton's lone run.

Franovich tossed the last two innings to earn her second save of the season. She had three strikeouts, including the last two hitters of the game.

Chesterton (6-4, 3-1) scored its run on a perfectly executed squeeze play. After Jaren Lynch lined out to start the fourth inning, Heather Overla and Cooley followed with singles with Overla going to third. After a first-pitch ball, Megan Matheny was called over to the third-base coaching box where head coach LouAnn Hopson asked a simple question.

"I asked her if she was confident she could get (a squeeze bunt) down, and she said, ‘I got it coach,'" Hopson said.

But the Trojans couldn't bring home another run in that inning, or score in the next inning after Jeanette Sosnowski led off with a double.

Chesterton also had two errors in the scorebook and a couple other mental errors that led to numerous opportunities for Lake Central. But LC left the bases loaded twice in the final three innings, succumbing to a strikeout from freshman pitcher Sydney Cooley both times.

"I didn't think we played a brilliant defensive game and we still managed to stay in the game and work ourselves out of jams," Hopson said.

Cooley finished with five strikeouts and two walks, though they were both intentional walks to Nikki Adams called by Hopson after Adams scalded a flyout to the wall in the fourth inning.

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