WHITING | Making contact in the postseason hasn't been the easiest thing for Whiting pitching star Mel Dumezich. As great as her fastball and riseball is, smacking a big hit hasn't come easily as the month of June grows warmer.

In the 2006 state finals -- a 3-1 win over Lafayette Central Catholic and a 3-0 win over Lanesville in the championship game -- she had one hit, combined. One hit.

And last year, the junior and her team were no-hit by Lakewood Park Christian in the Class A Caston Regional opener.

"That motivated me to say the least," Dumezich said. "None of us wanted that to happen again."

After winning the Whiting Sectional over Washington Twp., where she struck out 20 Senators, one thing was on her mind, "I'm still mad we got no-hit," she said of the Lakewood game.

Through four playoff games to date, Dumezich is tearing the cover off the ball. She is 7-for-10 with nine RBIs and nine runs scored, which is on par with her outstanding regular-season numbers. Heading into tonight's Class A state semifinal against Frontier, Dumezich is hitting .626 with 68 runs scored and 52 RBIs.

Dumezich cites two reasons for her improved hitting. First is hitting coach Jan Carusso, who works with her on the fundamentals once a week after her pitching lesson. Second is a set of contacts that has clarified the round object flying toward her. Despite being told by eye doctors for the past two years that her sight was fine, something didn't seem 100 percent right.

A diagnosis of 15/20 vision finally came. Her contacts changed all that, which is a reason for her exploding offensive numbers, even in June.

"Coach Carusso has taught me a lot about choosing which pitches to hit," Dumezich said. "Hitting outside pitches, inside pitches, all of them. He's helped me to really extend my arms, to know which way to take it and what kind of pitches to hit."

Dumezich was the majority of the Oilers' offense the last two years. If she didn't hit, neither did anyone else.

This Whiting team, however, is raking. Yes, Dumezich has 15 home runs, but with Amanda Blackwell's six long balls and Sam Plavec's four dingers, the Oilers are extremely dangerous.

"Mel is a special kid who just happened to come to Whiting High School," Oilers coach Paul Laub said. "She's worked extremely hard at everything to get to where she is today. I've seen some kids who've gotten publicity because they were given some God-given ability, but they never worked to get better.

"Mel has worked for everything she's gotten. She's played travel ball, gone to pitching and hitting coaches. She has a great family who've helped her achieve some great things."

Laub, also Whiting's athletic director, said he's taken phone calls for much of spring from strangers, people who wanted to see where Dumezich would be playing next. Laub said that's what kind of presence she is -- likely to be ranked among some of the Region's best athletes ever some day.

"People just want to see her play once," Laub said. "I've never had that before."

Another aspect that has helped Dumezich's hitting is her maturity as a pitcher. As a freshman she led the Oilers to state on raw talent. Now, with nearly three full seasons of varsity experience, Dumezich knows how to pitch from a higher mental plane. This allows her to focus on her hitting more, she said.

She now looks at hitters and where their hands and elbows are. This gives her the ability to know whether to throw the ball high or low. And unlike two years ago in Indianapolis, the power pitcher is picking up a little craftiness. With two strikes, she'll try to get batters to swing at bad pitches.

It's no longer just about throwing 65 mph fastballs down the middle of the plate.

"I'm understanding the game a lot more," she said. "It's a (mental) game. I want to make them swing at a bad pitch so I'll throw a bad pitch in certain situations."

All this dominance, 456 strikeouts in 175 innings or 2.5 Ks an inning, is letting her grip the bat a little tighter and take a thunderous cut.

"I like to do both, pitching and hitting," Dumezich said. "I don't want to be good at just one thing. If I was good at hitting and (stunk) at pitching, I wouldn't be happy. You can always improve yourself. You can always get better. I don't ever want to be satisfied with what I've done."

That gives Laub and Dumezich a chance to win their second state title in three years with an undefeated record, a feat unmatched in IHSAA history. In fact, Whiting's 2006 crown and Hamilton Southeastern's title last year are the only unblemished championships in 23 years of them in Indiana.

"She's hitting in the playoffs this year because her pitching has gotten so much better," Laub said. "She's the complete player, not that she wasn't awesome before. She's just taken it to another level and we're so glad she's on our team."