Chesterton High School softball has advanced to the final game of the Merrillville sectional with a stunning upset of No. 8 Crown Point.

Coach LouAnn Hopson’s Trojans stayed tough behind the pitching of Taylor Harlow and Tarra Fine.

Crown Point opened the scoring with their only run in the 4th.

In the 5th the Trojans struck back. Kathleen Maple reached base on a 2-out single, followed by Justine Vogie on an error, which allowed Maple to go to third. Sammie Howard doubled to the right center fence to drive in the run.

In the 6th, again with two outs, Heather Overla doubled. Harlow singled to left bringing Overla home for the lead.

In the final inning Crown Point got the tying run to second with one out. Vogie came in from deep left to catch a foul ball at the fence for out number two. Sam Gross caught a sinking popup behind her for the final out.

“Tarra worked a fine two innings” in relief, Coach Hopson said. “She did what we asked her to do.”

“Taylor did a nice job as well, scattering four hits. She and her defense worked out of jams in both the 6th and 7th.” Hopson said.

“We managed to control our strikeout count offensively to just 6. We had 5 hits, but 10 balls hit hard.”

“Defensively,” Hopson said, “Maple had a nice game, she grabbed two or three balls in short center field. Jaren Lynch cut off a couple up the middle as well. Justine, Heather and Ryan [Bozak] were all busy in the outfield and all played solid.”

The Trojans will play in the Sectional Final at Merrillville High School today at 4:30 p.m. against Portage. Additional coverage of last night’s and today’s game will appear in Monday’s Tribune.

AT MERRILLVILLE

SCORING BY INNINGS

Chesterton 000 011 0 - 2 5 4

Crown Point 000 100 0 - 1 6 2

Pitching: Taylor Harlow (5 IP, 2K, 1 BB)

In relief: Tarra Fine (2 IP)