By TR HARLAN

Three games in three days.

The Chesterton softball team picked up back-to-back Duneland Athletic Conference wins on Wednesday and Thursday, so it only seemed natural to make it three in a row with a 2-0 victory over Crown Point on Friday.

“I’m pleased with the way we played,” Chesterton coach LouAnn Hopson said. “We’re not naïve enough to think ‘oh boy.’ We have young kids and they are going to continue to be up and down.

“But, every time we play well against a quality opponent, it boosts their confidence.”

The Trojan put both their runs on the board in the first inning with two outs. Catie Armstrong started things with a single and went to third on a double off the left-center field fence by Amanda Gough.

Sam Bozak’s infield single scored Armstrong and moved Gough to third. She scored on a single to left field by Taylor Harlow.

“I thought we would get some more runs, but we were fortunate to get a couple early and make all the plays we needed too,” Hopson said.

The Trojans would threaten to add to the lead in the fourth inning when Heather Overla tripled with two outs, but was stranded, and in the fifth when two runners reached with one out.

“I think the win (Thursday against Portage) boosted everyone’s confidence and brought up our spirits,” Armstrong said.

And two runs on the board was all Armstrong needed as she allowed just five hits and struck out five in picking up the complete-game victory even though her pre-game warm-up was less than stellar.

“(Asst. Coach) Dan (Lynch) came over and said, ‘I just want to warn you that (Catie’s) down there having a fit because she’s all over the place’,” Hopson said. “If you throw a couple of good pitches early and the defense makes a couple plays, you just settle down and everything’s fine.”

“I was throwing the ball and nothing was breaking,” Armstrong said of her warm-up. “I didn’t have any power on my fastball. Bad warm-up, great game.”

Crown Point only threatened twice, once in the fourth inning when Gough made a diving play at shortstop to end it, and another in the sixth inning when third baseman Alexis Paz threw behind a runner for an out.

“A week ago we weren’t playing poorly, we just didn’t make the heads up defensive plays we’ve made this week,” Hopson said. “That’s our seniors. We talked to them about stepping up. We needed some extra effort outs to kill the other team’s rally.

“A lot of that with Alexis and Amanda is experience. They’ve been through this before and it’s nice to be able to count on.”

And one night after her team recorded nine fly ball outs, Hopson was happy to see the Bulldogs forced to hit the ball on the ground.

“Any team will tell you that you’re at your best when the infield’s just having to field ground balls,” Hopson said. “Early in the year, we’d get an early lead and implode late. It’s nice to hang on a couple nights in a row against teams that are capable of scoring runs.”

The Trojans finished the first half of the double round robin DAC schedule tied for second at 5-2, one game behind league-leading Lake Central (6-1).

“The mission at the beginning of the season was to just keep getting better,” Hopson said. “I am happy with where we are at right now. If we are able to keep playing like this, we’ll get a chance to collect our share of our wins.”

Chesterton 2, Crown Point 0

AT CHESTERTON

SCORING BY INNINGS

Crown Point 000 000 0 – 0 5 1

Chesterton 200 000 x – 2 9 0

2B – Amanda Gough (C). 3B – Heather Overla (C). Pitching Summary – Crown Point – Taylor Perry (6 IP, 9 H, 5 K, 0 BB); Chesterton – Catie Armstrong (7 IP, 5 H, 5 K). WP – Armstrong. LP – Perry.

Posted 4/21/2008