Third inning the key to Indians’ win

Updated: June 4, 2011 10:28PM

WEST LAFAYETTE — There was no panic whatsoever on the Lake Central side.

And it turned out there was no need whatsoever for it.

The Indians rallied for a 7-5 victory against Penn in the Class 4A West Lafayette Harrison softball semistate on a sweltering Saturday. Carmel (26-2) downed Huntington North (20-9) 8-0 in the second semifinal.

The Indians (29-5) trailed 3-0 in the first inning, but scored seven straight runs, including six in the pivotal third, to knock off the Kingsmen (22-6).

“I have a lot of faith in our offense,” Lake Central coach Jeff Sherman said. “I felt like we got some good swings early on; our timing was a little off. In the third inning, all of a sudden we got our timing back.”

In that third, the Indians sent 12 batters to plate, collecting five hits, with Lizzie Seymour delivering the key one. The freshman cracked a bases-clearing triple to turn their 3-2 deficit into a 5-3 lead.

“It was huge,” Sherman said of Seymour’s hit. “We talked about wanting to chip away, and keep hanging zeroes on the board, which we did until the end. We waited for our opportunity to pounce, Lizzie got a pitch up in the zone and she drilled it.”

The Kingsmen had scored three runs in the first inning. Holly Hoffman plated the first run by lining a sharp single to center that caromed off the pitching hand of Indians starter Bridget Boyle.

After getting checked out and throwing some warmup pitches, Boyle remained in the game. When play resumed, on the first pitch, Sam Krcelich homered to left-center field to give Penn a 3-0 lead.

Boyle finished the inning, before Sherman removed her for “precautionary” reasons, with Lily Del Toro taking over on the mound in the second. The freshman allowed two runs — both in the sixth inning — in 42/3 innings, before Morgan Franovich recorded the game’s final four outs, retiring all four batters she faced.

“She (Del Toro) was phenomenal,” Sherman said. “That is an exceptionally good-hitting ballclub right there.

“I have a lot of faith in Lily and Morgan.”

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