Lake Central senior third baseman Tegan Tripp truly has taken off this season.
The Virginia Tech recruit has a full season of varsity experience under her belt. But she also touts the benefits of having a potent lineup around her.
“It’s really the environment around me and the team that we’ve become this year,” Tripp said. “It’s just such a good group of people to be around, and the support coming from everybody, just going in the box and not feeling like you have to prove it to somebody, it’s relieving, and it kind of makes it easier to go up there and just do what you know how to do.”
Tripp has been doing her thing for the top-ranked Indians (28-2), who defeated Hobart 10-0 in six innings in a Class 4A regional on Tuesday and will play No. 3 Penn (28-3) in the semifinals of the West Lafayette Harrison Semistate at 10 a.m. Saturday. Lake Central beat Penn 14-0 on April 25.
Entering the postseason rematch, Tripp is batting .536 with nine homers, 48 RBIs, 49 runs scored and 15 stolen bases. The Indians have hit 68 home runs overall, and senior shortstop/outfielder Lexi Iwema is tied for the most in the state with 17, according to MaxPreps.
Last season, Tripp batted .379 with six homers, 30 RBIs, 27 runs scored and seven stolen bases.
“Tegan is one of our most consistent power hitters,” Lake Central coach Yvette Tovar said. “She’s not always about the glory of hitting home runs, although that’s great, but her mentality is just to get a hit, get on. We call her ‘Tank’ for a reason. She’s not hitting little grounders. She’s trying to drive it through a player.
“But her consistency has been there the whole season. I couldn’t ask for more from her.”
That includes Tripp’s role as a veteran player.
“She means everything to us,” Lake Central freshman pitcher Colbie Tressel said. “She’s a huge leader, and she’s always by my side, no matter what. Even when things go wrong, she’s always there to tell me it’s OK. And even when I’m pitching, I know she has my back on the field.”
Addy Mikolanis, another freshman pitcher, also appreciates Tripp’s efforts.
“She’s definitely come in clutch these last few games,” Mikolanis said. “She contributes a lot, just with her energy and her attitude and all the big hits for the team.”
Indeed, Tripp hit the tie-breaking homer in the third inning of Lake Central’s 3-1 victory against defending state champion Crown Point in the sectional final. She also had a run-scoring single in the first.
Tripp followed that up by hitting a two-run homer to put the Indians in position to run-rule the Brickies in the regional.
Tripp also hit the decisive two-run single in the Indians’ 2-1 victory against Munster in a sectional semifinal.
“It’s just being able to stay relaxed and knowing that I prepared for these moments and that I’m capable of going up there and succeeding in the box, and I know that if I don’t do it, someone else is going to come up behind me and do it,” Tripp said. “So it’s just knowing I have that support and just being able to be loose in the box that’s really helped me a lot and helped me with my performance the last few games.
“Sometimes you just need that push to get everybody hitting — hitting is contagious — and if I do it one game, someone else is going to do it the next game. Anyone on our team can do it, anyone on our team is capable of producing, so it’s just really exciting to know that we have the energy to keep going.”
Tripp and the Indians hope to keep going for two more weekends. Their ultimate goal hasn’t changed over the years — they last won a state title in 2004 — but this season they’ve made a concerted effort to focus on the process and not look too far ahead.
“We put in a lot of work — long, hard practices,” Tripp said. “One game at a time, and that’s been working for us, and we’re going to keep doing that. … We’re already going up, and we’re just going to keep going. We’re not stopping for anybody at this point.
“It’s just the amount of preparation we’ve put in this year and just everything we go by, like one game at a time, stay loose. In the past, we’ve had these big goals, and it’s kind of hard to comprehend that in the moment, like, ‘Oh, I need to do this so we get here.’ It’s like, ‘No, just do what you can do right now, and someone else will help you after that.’ So it’s just the support from the people around me and this environment and how we’ve been approaching it.”
