A strong wind blowing in probably prevented Crown Point’s Ashlyn Kita from rounding the bases for a second time on Tuesday night.
Instead, the junior third baseman settled for a run-scoring double in addition to her three-run homer during the Class 4A regional championship game against Chesterton.
“I was just up there making sure I had confidence and just swinging at my pitches,” Kita said.
That has been the DePaul recruit’s approach all season. A force since she was a freshman, Kita went 2-for-4 with four RBIs as the Bulldogs beat the Trojans 7-2 in Crown Point.
Kita is batting .533 with eight homers and 42 RBIs — all career and team highs — for Crown Point (28-4), which is ranked No. 4 in the state coaches poll and will play No. 12 Fort Wayne Carroll (23-5-1) in the West Lafayette Harrison Semistate semifinals at noon Saturday.
“My confidence has definitely gotten better,” Kita said. “I’ve been working on that over the last three years, and it’s finally coming through. I really always want to come through for my team, and it’s finally working.”
Kita doubled in the game’s first run in the first inning, and she crushed a three-run homer to center field in the fourth to give the Bulldogs a 7-0 lead against the Trojans (13-12), who were coming off their first sectional title since 2019.
“She’s a monster, man,” Crown Point coach Angie Richwalski said. “Every at-bat, I’m drifting into left field, and whoever my runner is at third base, I’m like, ‘Don’t let her kill you because the ball’s going to come off the bat a thousand miles an hour. So I’m going to be over here in left field, and you just stay right there and keep your helmet on.’
“She just hits it so hard and so fast. It doesn’t shock me when it goes out; it shocks me when it doesn’t because she’s just a tank and she’s so strong and she’s so fast. She really puts in the work and grinds it out. You can read in her face — when she doesn’t hit it out, she’s happy about it, but you can see the chip on her shoulder that she didn’t quite get all of it.”
Crown Point junior center fielder Scarlette Tegtman, a Providence recruit, celebrated her birthday by going 4-for-4. She also scored twice, each time on a hit by Kita.
“She’s been doing really well,” Tegtman said. “She’s a very key contributor to our wins. She’s been very successful.”
Ashlyn Kita has followed in the footsteps of her older sister Brinkley, who graduated from Crown Point in 2022 and plays at Ball State.
“It runs in the family,” Richwalski said. “Her sister was like that, too, where she could put anything out at any moment.”
The last time Crown Point had won a regional title was 2022.
“It’s crazy,” Kita said. “I’ve dreamed of this since freshman year. I’ve always wanted to make it this far, and we finally have the team to do it.”
Crown Point cleared a major hurdle by upsetting Duneland Athletic Conference rival Lake Central in a sectional final. The Bulldogs didn’t suffer a letdown against another conference foe after decisively sweeping the Trojans in the teams’ two regular-season games.
“It’s awesome,” Richwalski said. “It’s hard to get here. We have such a tough sectional, then to get out of that sectional and then to get through this, it’s a tall order. We have the guns to do it, though. As long as they’re playing and doing what they’re capable of, the sky’s the limit.”
Kita has confidence too.
“Since we got past sectionals, we need to keep going and keep going strong,” she said. “I feel very good. Since we got past Lake Central, we have this need to get past teams, and I think we’ll be able to.”
