Cheyenne Mathas was not pleased.
The senior center fielder didn’t execute a squeeze bunt, but she atoned for it.
Her groundout to shortstop scored the second run in the third inning Tuesday as host Lake Central edged Chesterton 2-1 in Tuesday’s Class 4A regional.
“I was just really mad,” Mathas said. “I needed to put the ball in play somehow. I just hit it up the middle.”
Lake Central coach Jeff Sherman estimated Mathas had three previous squeeze opportunities during the season and got down the bunt each time. This time?
“She did a great job shortening her swing, getting the bat on the ball, putting it up the middle and giving us a chance to score a run,” Sherman said. “She’s a senior. She knew she had a job to do and did it.”
Lake Central (27-4), which defeated Duneland Athletic Conference rival Chesterton 10-4 and 1-0 during the regular season, advanced to a 10 a.m. Saturday semifinal against Penn (21-6) in the West Lafayette Harrison Semistate.
Chesterton (24-6), which graduates six seniors, suffered five of its six losses to Lake Central and Crown Point.
Despite dealing with an illness, Columbia recruit Alexa Pinarski outdueled Indiana State commit Lexi Benko. Both of Lake Central’s runs were unearned. Pinarski is a senior, Benko a junior.
Senior left fielder Jessi Kiefor, a Ball State recruit, led off the third with a single for the only hit of the inning. Junior catcher Olivia Peterson, a Minnesota commit, and Mathas produced back-to-back RBI fielder’s choices.
“It was a good game,” Chesterton coach LouAnn Hopson said. “We made one mistake and it cost us. And we made some mistakes at the plate and it cost us.
“With the exception of the one mistake, every time they pressured us, we made the play. Pinarski came in with some big pitches when we put pressure on them.”
Pinarski (20-2) woke up Saturday with a sore throat and was coughing all day Tuesday. She drank plenty of fluids and took DayQuil. She wasn’t sure if it was a sinus issue or a cold.
“I tried not to think about it,” Pinarski said. “I tried to stay mentally 100 percent.”
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Chesterton scored its only run in the fourth after loading the bases with no outs. It took a two-out single from sophomore third baseman Cassidy Grimm, the Notre Dame commit’s second hit.
The Trojans stranded a runner on third in the fifth and on first and second in the sixth, including Micaela Iacovetti’s one-out double for the game’s only extra-base hit.
“Their hitters did a great job of taking aggressive hacks against Alexa, but she didn’t give in in those situations,” Sherman said. “She kept battling and threw huge pitches.
“That’s a really good Chesterton team, man. Lexi Benko did a great job in the circle. Fortunately, we had 30 (Pinarski) going and we feel pretty good whenever that’s the case.”
The loss could mean the final game for Hopson as Chesterton’s coach.
The 2010 Indiana Softball Hall of Fame inductee — in her 35th season, the only coach in program history — is retiring as a physical education teacher at Brummitt Elementary School.
It was uncertain if the Griffith and Indiana State graduate — who has led the Trojans to a state runner-up finish in 2006, two regional titles, 10 sectionals and four DAC championships — would still continue as coach.
“I don’t want to talk about it,” Hopson said. “I have no idea.”
Lake Central secured its first regional title since 2015, when it was the state runner-up. Its seven senior starters took pride in winning the final game on their home field — one that opened when they were freshmen.
“It’s unreal,” Pinarski said.