HIGHLAND — Lake Central effectively played long and small ball in dispatching Munster in the Class 4A Highland Sectional on Wednesday.
After suffering upset losses to the Mustangs the previous two years, the Indians got some satisfaction from their 7-2 victory.
Lake Central (24-6-1) earned a spot in Friday’s sectional title game against host Highland.
Sophomore first baseman Alex Hickey ignited Lake Central, crushing a two-run homer over the right-center-field fence off Munster starter Kelsie Kasper with two outs in the top of the first inning.
Hickey’s seventh homer this season and 13th of her career, tied the single-season school record of seven set by Laurren Ladwig last season, while breaking Katie Mitchell’s career record in the process.
“I was thinking base hit the whole time,” Hickey said. “I knew I had to hit it to the right side.”
Instead of a base hit, it turned out to be a game-changer that fueled the Indians.
“The whole team really got up (after the homer) and we were confident,” Hickey said. Hitting is contagious, so once you do that everyone thinks they can hit the ball. I like being able to ignite everything like that.”
With the rest of this postseason and two full seasons still remaining, Hickey is likely to put the school’s career record for homers out of reach.
“I have two more years, so hopefully, I can keep adding on,” she smiled.
While Hickey supplied the long ball for LC, the Indians chased Kasper in the third inning with their small ball attack.
Three bunts, including a squeeze by Ashley Nylen, a single, a sacrifice and a fielder’s choice, plated four runs, giving Lake Central a commanding 6-0 lead.
“Nylen is undoubtedly our best bunter and that situation just screamed for a squeeze,” Lake Central coach Jeff Sherman said. “Sometimes, when you put pressure on people, good things happen to you.”
“They did a nice job getting some bunts down,” Munster coach Beth Thornburg said. “We were ready for the bunts, we just didn’t make the plays. They were the best team (Wednesday), that’s the bottom line. They played a better game than we did and they executed better than we did.”
Thornburg pulled Kasper with nobody out in the third in favor of Amanda Osterhus, who pitched 4.2 innings and allowed only one hit.
“I probably should have made the switch a little earlier,” she said. “I might have waited a little too long.”
Taylor Kotzo’s two-out, two-run double in the fifth, cut Munster’s deficit to 6-2.
The Mustangs had an opportunity to draw even closer in the sixth after Maddie Moore (two hits) and Rebecca Radtke opened the inning with singles.
Lake Central pitcher Annabel Karberg, though, got Tegan Murphy to pop out, then fanned Paige Kwasigroch and Nicole Howard, ending the threat.
Karberg, who pitched a no-hitter and struck out 16 in Monday’s win over Lowell, scattered seven hits and struck out eight, while going the distance.
“Annabel did a good job against them,” Sherman said. “Munster has a very good and an extremely deep lineup. They had some hits, but she did a really good job of containing the damage.”
Sherman claimed he didn’t put much emphasis on losing sectional games to Munster the past two years.
“We really didn’t want to dwell on that,” he said. “We knew it was going to be important to score early. We talked about trying to be the first team to score, because when you score first, it puts pressure on the opposition,” he said. “For Alex to come up and hit that (homer) just ignited the whole day.”
Sarah Banasiak had two hits, including a double, and scored twice for Lake Central.
O’Malley is a freelance reporter.
