Lake Central junior pitcher Maddie Such has wanted to bat throughout her three-year varsity career.
With more depth on the pitching staff this season, coach Yvette Tovar finally relented. But Tovar still envisioned a worst-case scenario with her ace at the plate.
“She got hit a few times, but it wasn’t anything dramatic,” Tovar said. “Lord knows, you don’t ever want to say, ‘If she gets hit, we have these pitchers,’ because you don’t want to put that karma out into the universe. But we did have other pitchers if anything had happened.
“But from a coaching aspect, I was more comfortable with her hitting and pitching. She’s a strong kid. She proved this year, for sure, that she could do both — and get out of the way if something’s coming at her in the box.”
Indeed, Such was not only her dominating self in the circle but also a productive and powerful hitter for Class 4A state champion Lake Central’s loaded lineup, typically batting in the No. 5 spot.
Such, the 2026 Post-Tribune Softball Player of the Year, went 17-1 with a 0.95 ERA, 167 strikeouts and 19 walks in 103 1/3 innings. The Kentucky recruit also hit .474 with seven homers, three triples, eight doubles, 40 RBIs and 18 runs scored in 110 plate appearances.
Such entered this season with a total of 25 plate appearances. Still, she wasn’t surprised by her success as a hitter.
“I know how much work I put in,” she said. “I went to all my hitting lessons, worked my butt off, put the work in on the side. There wasn’t a single day where I just didn’t want to work on something, whether that was balancing pitching and hitting. I’ve always put the work in for both.”
Tovar also believed in Such’s offensive ability. It just was a matter of when to unleash it. The Indians had only one other varsity pitcher in each of Such’s first two seasons. This season, they had four others.
“She’s always hit well,” Tovar said. “It wasn’t like she didn’t hit well, and I actually think her hitting improved this season over her first two years at Lake Central. She worked her tail off this season, and she’s a gamer to go in there.
“It was my call. If she would’ve gone down in either of her first two seasons just because of an inside pitch, broke her fingers or something, we wouldn’t have been as successful the last two seasons. It was just being scared of her getting hurt and not having the pitchers. This year, we had a lot more pitching on our staff, so I felt a little more comfortable.”
Such had been eager from the outset.
“It definitely was a conversation I wanted to have numerous times throughout my years, and I really fought for it my freshman year because I did hit for travel ball,” she said. “I thought I put in enough work to have a good spot in the lineup. It didn’t matter where I was as long as I was hitting and contributing to my team.
“I was very consistent, and my coach was noticing, and I meshed well with the rest of the lineup. It was a big change, hitting and pitching in the same game, or just hitting. There wasn’t a game where I was just pitching. So it obviously was a big change, and I’m glad she had faith in me and finally got to see what I could do. I’m going to hit in college, try to push to hit in college, so why not start now?”
Such also continued to make strides as a pitcher.
“Her speed’s always there, right?” Tovar said. “That’ll improve every year she’s pitching. But she really improved on hitting her spots. We talked about it a lot in the offseason, especially against teams like Crown Point and Penn that can cover the plate. It was like, ‘Your speed is great, but it’s going to be even more important that you’re hitting that outside corner, hitting your spots, because good teams, including us, as soon as a pitcher makes a mistake and leaves the ball down the middle, it’s going to be gone.’
“So it’s something that her and (catcher) Madi Wainwright really worked on in the offseason, and she took to her pitching coach in the offseason. That was one thing they really, really dug into, was hitting her spots. She really grew in that aspect.”
Such pointed to other ways she developed this season.
“I don’t think it’s anything physical,” she said. “It’s all the mental side of the game — just one pitch at a time, one batter at a time. I’ve always known I throw hard. Most of my life, I was told, ‘Oh, you throw so hard.’ I was like, ‘Thanks.’
“But I worked on more of my spin. As you get older, the speed will obviously catch up to you because the hitters can hit speed. They can train for that really easily. But if you have spin and you have speed, that’s very deadly.”
Tovar also praised Such for her leadership skills, particularly with a pitching staff that included two freshmen, a sophomore and a junior.
“She stepped up in a major way,” Tovar said. “She would help them whether it was a confidence thing, giving them confidence, or if they ever needed help with anything. They would ask her, and she would be like, ‘Yeah, let me help you. You’re hitting your spots, but maybe just a little bit more outside.’ Or like, ‘Girl, you have this,’ just with that confidence.
“She was the captain of our pitching staff this season. It’s hard to be a leader when you’re a freshman or a sophomore. I’m not saying it can’t be done, but when you’re an upperclassman, people and players listen better. There was huge growth in her leadership.”
Such also embraced that responsibility.
“As a pitcher, you always have that sort of leadership role,” she said. “But as an upperclassman, I really wanted to show the young people on our team like, ‘Oh, hey, I got you, and I know you got me.’ I don’t really look at age that much, but we put in a bunch of freshmen this year, and they acted like they’ve been here for a couple of years, and I was very proud of them.
“I just tried to be like, ‘Hey, this is how we do it here.’ Not in a mean way or anything, but just making sure we all had it straight and we had the right mentality and knowing your defense has your back and your hitters have your back, including me.”
That sort of chemistry helped propel the Indians to their first state title since 2004.
“I’m just really happy to be successful for my team, knowing that my teammates had my back and that our culture brought us all together,” Such said. “I feel like that was a big thing for us. During the games, you would notice that a lot, the culture shift. So for us winning that state title, knowing that we all love each other just like sisters, that meant the world.”
Such was a central part of that process.
“Maddie’s been very instrumental this year, especially when you include her offense,” Tovar said. “She did wonderful in the games she pitched, and then the postseason, she was just incredible.
“For her to be able to do both, she’s just so athletic. That was a major factor this season in how far we went.”
