ST. JOHN | It was over early. Done. Death. Kapute.
But someone forget to tell the Chesterton Trojans, or more specifically Megan Tymorek, that the Class 4A Regional at Lake Central was all but completed in the first inning after the Indians scored four to take a 4-0 lead.
L.C. had outscored the Trojans 17-3 in two regular season wins.
"We weren't even supposed to win our sectional," Chesterton coach LouAnn Hopson said.
Chesterton scored eight runs after two were out in the top of the fourth inning and won 10-8 against the heavily favored Indians (26-3).
The Trojans (21-10) will play Huntington North (20-7) in the Lafayette Harrison Semistate on Saturday. First pitch is at 10 a.m.
"I don't even know what to say," said Tymorek, who hit a three-run homer in the fourth to give her team a one-run lead. The junior pitcher would hit a solo shot in the sixth for a little insurance.
She also kept a potent Indians' lineup at bay after Chesterton's middle-game comeback.
"We know we can always come back," Tymorek said. "We just stayed positive when we were down 4-0."
This ultimate Rocky tale wasn't without some hard questions. L.C. started freshman pitcher Annabel Karberg, who had been brilliant, but by the fourth inning the Trojans had her timed.
Chesterton got seven hits and L.C. committed three errors to pour gasoline on the two-out rally.
"The key to a big inning is to be able to stop the bleeding," L.C. coach Jeff Sherman said. "For a short period of time we couldn't do it. We were hoping we could make some plays behind (Karberg).
"We want back and forth the whole inning on whether we should make a change."
Lily Del Toro replaced Karberg with two outs in the fourth and only allowed one run in the final 3 1/3 innings.
Tymorek was 2-for-3 with two runs scored and four RBIs along with the two bombs that landed in another zip code. Eight Trojans scored a run, showing the depth of their lineup.
"It's up there," Hopson said of where this win sits in her long career. "It's up there. When we beat (L.C.) in 2006, we beat them both times during the regular season. This one is right there at the top."
Lake Central's Kayla Bishton was 2-for-3 with two runs scored and three RBIs along with a triple and home run. Morgan Moseley added two hits and two RBIs in the loss.
"We still had a great season," Sherman said. "Did it end like we wanted it to? No. But we did a lot of great things. We just have to come back next year and try to be better."
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