Hanover Central junior Payton Antkiewicz has an uncanny ability to compartmentalize.
Her sister Sienna is a teammate. More to the point, their father, Sam, is their coach.
“I kind of forget he’s my dad during the games,” Payton Antkiewicz said.
The trio make the dynamic work. Payton Antkiewicz, a pitcher, and Sienna Antkiewicz, a sophomore second baseman, are central players for the Wildcats (20-2), who are ranked No. 8 in the Class 3A state coaches poll and finished their last season in the Greater South Shore Conference by sharing the title with Illiana Christian.
Hanover Central, which closed the regular season on Thursday by holding off Highland 7-6 at home in Cedar Lake, opens the postseason on Tuesday in the semifinals of the Highland Sectional, with that game almost assuredly a rematch with the Trojans (15-10).
Payton Antkiewicz will be a primary option to get the ball. She and sophomore Elle Mowry have been a formidable combination atop the Wildcats’ pitching staff.
Payton is 9-2 with a 2.01 ERA with 83 strikeouts and 38 walks in 52 ? innings. She went 10-4 with a 3.22 ERA with 95 strikeouts and 45 walks in a team-high 74 innings last season.
“She’s been doing awesome, but she’s made great strides since last year with her composure and command on the mound. … She’s had some great outings this year,” Sam Antkiewicz said. “When she’s on, when she’s throwing strikes, she’s almost unhittable. She gets a lot of weak ground balls. As long as her command is there, she can do really good things.”
Sienna Antkiewicz has flourished in her first full-time varsity season after getting one at-bat as a freshman. She’s hitting .438 with two homers and 23 RBIs.
“She’s been nothing but awesome at second base,” Sam Antkiewicz said. “She makes all the plays, and her bat has been a pleasant surprise this year coming in as a sophomore and stepping right in. She’s gotten some key hits and made some key contributions to the offense. She’s been a really big part of our success this year.”
Sienna Antkiewicz didn’t necessarily anticipate being so productive.
“It’s been good to be able to show what I bring to the team and just be able to help us win games,” she said.
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The sisters have a strong relationship. Sienna Antkiewicz is the more assertive of the two, Sam Antkiewicz said.
“We get along pretty well most of the time,” Payton Antkiewicz said.
Their bond extends to the field.
“We understand each other without saying what’s wrong,” Sienna Antkiewicz said. “If she’s mad on the mound, I understand what’s going on and talk to her about it.”
All three tend to leave softball talk at the field, however. Sam Antkiewicz said coaching his daughters is “not always ideal,” but they’ve struck a balance.
“There are just some things you have to approach in a different manner because you have to go home after the game,” Sam Antkiewicz said. “But you want to make sure they’re working hard and they’re not taking anything for granted. Sometimes I try not to be too hard on them either, knowing I can’t just assume they can take it just because they’re my kids.
“There’s that fine line when I want to push them and challenge them, but I need to be careful how I do that because we do need to go home at the end of the night.”
Sam Antkiewicz was a standout catcher at Thornwood in Illinois. He won a state title as a senior in 1991 and then played at Valparaiso, where he became a team captain and MVP and earned all-conference honors.
He expressed concern about the external pressure and expectations faced by coach’s kids, but they’ve managed. He’s in his fourth season as Hanover Central’s coach after he was an assistant for three years on the staffs of the previous two coaches.
“I never really expected it,” Sam Antkiewicz said. “I was a baseball coach here when I started, and I sort of transitioned to softball because I was coaching them when they were little. I didn’t know if it would come to fruition that I’d still be coaching when they got here. But it happened, and here we are, and every year seems to be better.”