Freshman Ally Compton offered a glimpse into the future before she had played a game for Munster.
Coach Jill Perez is fond of sharing an anecdote involving Compton and standout senior pitcher Emily Siurek, a South Dakota State recruit.
“We were having an intrasquad practice,” Perez said. “Emily Siurek was pitching, and Ally hit a home run off of her.
“Ally was so nervous. She was like, ‘I hit it off a senior. Everyone’s going to hate me.’ And then Emily, as Ally’s running the bases, comes up and hugs her and is like, ‘I’m so proud of you. That’s what you should do.’ That just showed how much of a team leader Emily is. It just created a really welcoming environment for Ally.”
It also foreshadowed Compton’s impact on the Northwest Crossroads Conference champion Mustangs (20-10), whose game against East Chicago Central in the first round of the Class 4A Lake Central Sectional was postponed to Tuesday. A key contributor all season, she has kicked it into another gear in the past couple of weeks.
Compton has set the program record with 14 home runs, blowing past the nine hit by Rebecca Radtke in 2016. It’s the highest total in the state for a freshman this season, according to MaxPreps. Eight of Compton’s homers have come since May 6 as Munster piled up a program-record 36 to surpass the previous mark of 28 set in 2021.
“It was really nice breaking the record,” Compton said. “It was really cool. I would never think I would break it as a freshman. It’s always been something in the air, like, ‘The record’s nine.’ But it’s crazy to break it my freshman year. I never thought it would happen until I started getting hot and started getting so much more comfortable.
“In the middle of the season, I was starting to get more comfortable with the team and my teammates and the overall environment around me. I started settling in and feeling a lot more confident and better with my hitting.”
Compton entered Tuesday batting .427 with 35 RBIs, both team highs, while splitting time as a designated player, third baseman and pitcher. In the circle, she was 5-2 with a 2.33 ERA, 65 strikeouts and 29 walks in 48 innings.
Perez described Compton’s season as “awesome” and her recent stretch as “incredible.”
“And she’s doing this against really good teams,” Perez said. “We don’t play any bad teams. She’s killing it.”
Compton projects a sense of maturity and poise, but she didn’t necessarily feel that way at the outset.
“I was kind of scared at the beginning of the year,” she said. “I was just a scared little freshman coming in. But the team was really welcoming and nice to me, and that helped a lot with my confidence at the plate.”
Siurek can tell the difference.
“She was quiet in the beginning,” she said of Compton. “But she’s finally opened up to herself. She’s a great athlete. I hope I’m a role model for her because she’s going to be a great athlete in the upcoming seasons. She’s going to be great all around.”
Compton also played volleyball for Munster’s junior varsity team and, in her second season competing in wrestling, won a regional title to advance to semistate.
“I just like being active,” she said. “If I don’t, if I’m not playing a sport, I get bored.”
Compton is part of an athletic family that includes her father, C.J., who was a standout football player, wrestler and baseball player for the Mustangs.
Compton is a member of a talented freshman class that has bolstered a team that returned just three starters from last season. Munster and top-ranked Lake Central could be on a collision course to meet in the sectional final on Friday, with the Indians having taken a 3-1 decision in the teams’ season opener on March 20.
As the postseason opened, Compton hoped to continue her roll.
“I’ve just been seeing the ball really well,” she said. “Just working on my mechanics, timing pitchers up and just having a good approach with making sure I’m only hitting that one pitch that I want and laying off anything I don’t want until I get two strikes. My approach is helping so much, and my confidence is helping so much.
“Our energy is just so high. We’re always cheering in the dugout, which helps the hitters have confidence at the plate. It’s overall a really good environment.”
