WEST LAFAYETTE — The pain was apparenton the face of Lake Central’s Jessi Kiefor.
But the senior left fielder maintained perspective after the Indians’ 5-2 loss to Decatur Central in Saturday night’s Class 4A state championship game at Purdue’s Bittinger Stadium.
“This is what we’ve been looking for all season,” Kiefor said. “We really wanted it to go our way. And six other times (in the postseason) it did and this time it didn’t.
“It’s a big game, and someone wins, someone loses. It was exciting playing in it. It’s a good way to end my senior year.”
Kiefor — a Ball State recruit who is one of seven senior starters for Lake Central (29-5) — won the tournament’s Mental Attitude Award. She returned after she was involved in a scary car crash in August.
“It fits me well — I really did go through a lot this whole year,” Kiefor said. “It’s nice, but a blue ring would’ve been nicer.”
And Lake Central nearly secured its fourth state title. Instead, Decatur Central (32-4) won its first.
“You go into retrospective mode,” Lake Central coach Jeff Sherman said. “You think about the great things we accomplished throughout the course of the season.
“You can’t help but be anything but proud of the girls in that dugout, especially those seven seniors. We aren’t even playing in this game without their efforts on and off the field.”
After Lake Central scored two runs in the sixth to grab a 2-1 lead, Decatur Central answered with four in the bottom of the inning. The Indians committed three errors, with the Hawks getting a walk, single and double. All four runs were unearned against senior Alexa Pinarski (22-3).
“Decatur Central put some pressure on us there, they made some plays,” Sherman said. “All credit to them. That’s a great softball team. They made good contact from the fourth inning on and made it tough on Pinarski.”
Decatur Central didn’t get a hit against Pinarski until the fourth, a pair of infield singles. A hit batter loaded the bases and a walk forced in the game’s first run.
Sherman praised the toughness of Pinarski, a Columbia recruit.
“She easily could’ve given up double-digit runs, but she made big pitches in those pressure situations,” he said. “We knew the power of their lineup. We did nibble a little bit. We tried to make some girls get themselves out and that’s probably why you saw a few more walks than you normally do. But she made big pitches when she had to.”
Lake Central rallied for two runs in the sixth. Senior center fielder Cheyenne Mathas drew a leadoff walk and Wisconsin recruit Gabi Carra, who had two hits, also walked. With two outs, senior shortstop Rylee Platusic — a Purdue recruit playing on her future home field — blooped a two-run single to right.
“I’m so proud of her,” Sherman said. “I know she wanted nothing but to put us ahead there. And what a great at-bat. She gave us a chance.”
Lake Central was without junior catcher Olivia Peterson. The Indians leadoff hitter, who is a Minnesota recruit, suffered an injury on the game-saving play at the plate in the semistate final win against Noblesville. After that game, she said she hurt her right hand.
Sophomore Alexis Johnson started behind the plate, with senior right fielder Amanda Noblett batting leadoff instead of ninth.
“Alexis Johnson did a great job,” Sherman said. “She was phenomenal.”
Lake Central was the state runner-up for the third time. The Indians also finished second in 2015 when the current seniors were freshmen.
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“There are teams that only dream of playing games like this and our seniors are incredibly lucky to have been part of this twice,” Pinarski said. “Even though it isn’t how we wanted it to end, it was great to come back here.
“I’m incredibly proud of this team and everyone’s hard work. We all wanted to be here and you could see it every day at practice, every game, every pitch — everyone wanted to put in the work.”
Twitter @MichaelOsipoff