Lake Central sophomore MaKayla Van Vossen’s action produced the opposite reaction during the Class 4A regional at Hobart on Thursday.
First, that worked against her. Then it worked for her and the Indians alike.
“I was swinging for the fences and kept popping everything up,” Van Vossen said. “And then when it was 3-2, I decided I just needed to get a base hit. Once I just calmed down and relaxed, that’s when I came out of my shoes.”
Indeed, Van Vossen hit a go-ahead two-run homer in the sixth inning, propelling Lake Central to a 14-6 win against a spirited Hobart.
“I knew I had to somehow get a run in,” she said. “Once I calmed down and relaxed, that’s when I hit the home run.”
Van Vossen’s opposite-field, two-run shot to left-center snapped a 5-5 tie as Lake Central (32-1), which will play defending state champion Penn (26-6) in the semifinals of the West Lafayette Harrison Semistate on Saturday, put up nine runs in the final two innings. The second baseman went 4-for-4 with five RBIs against Hobart (19-8).
“She’s a stud,” Lake Central coach Yvette Tovar said. “She is a stud. She’s looking to hit every time. She’s so eager. Sometimes we have to tell her to relax a little bit, settle down and find your pitch.”
Van Vossen also had an RBI double in the first inning to plate the game’s first run, a run-scoring single in the second and a run-scoring single in the seventh, an inning in which the Indians sent 11 batters to the plate to push across six runs.
“I just went up there with a lot of confidence,” she said. “I knew I had to score some runs for my team in those big moments. We were tied or we weren’t up yet, and I just knew I had to step up.”
Lake Central junior shortstop Taylor Schafer wasn’t surprised.
“It’s her plate discipline,” Schafer said of Van Vossen. “The fact that a lot of our players have played at the highest level, it allows us to be better hitters when we come to high school.”
Schafer and Van Vossen hit back-to-back homers in the sixth to give Lake Central an 8-5 advantage. Schafer, an Ohio State commit, went 4-for-5 with two RBIs.
Lake Central sophomore first baseman Tegan Tripp opened the seventh with her first homer of the season in a game in which the Indians needed such an output as the Brickies displayed their power. Hobart cracked four homers, including two by junior catcher Emili Knestrict.
After Lake Central scored two runs in the first, the Brickies responded in the bottom of the inning with Knestrict’s solo homer and sophomore designated player Riley Weber’s two-run shot to grab a 3-2 lead.
After the Indians regained a 5-3 edge, Hobart senior shortstop Keirys Click, an Illinois recruit, and Knestrict connected for back-to-back homers to tie the score in the fifth.
“We came into this game knowing the top of their lineup had the ability to hit the home run off of either one of our pitchers,” Tovar said. “We just had to stay focused in every inning — get another run, get another run. We were getting hits on top of hits. Their scores were coming off of home runs.
“We can’t play down any of the teams that we’re playing because they’re all out for the Indians. We just have to stay positive and play our game.”
After Hobart’s consecutive homers, junior first baseman Taylor Lopez and Weber followed with consecutive singles. But Lake Central junior pitcher Sofia Calderaro got out of the inning, and Lake Central’s bats again came alive.
“Our team is pretty good about staying calm about that stuff because we know what we have to come back,” Van Vossen said. “We’re all very calm about it, and we push each other through it. If one person fails, we just pick each other up.”
Schafer agreed the Indians know they can respond.
“We all got nervous, but it’s what we do with our imagination,” she said. “We did good on bouncing back and coming back stronger.
“We have good hitters throughout the whole lineup. It’s not just our top that’s stacked or our bottom that’s stacked. We go all throughout. We all contribute.”
Lake Central, which won its second straight regional title and third in four seasons, lost 5-1 to Penn in the semistate final last year but won 5-4 in the teams’ matchup on March 28.
“It means a lot,” Schafer said of winning the regional title. “As a team, it’s just one step closer to the end goal, being state, being out on top.
“The job’s not done, and we’re looking to get it in semistate.”
