RAGING BULLDOGS
Lipscomb recruit Kita homers, allows 1 run over 5 IP in relief as Crown Point upsets Lake Central in regional
Something has clicked for Crown Point senior Brinkley Kita.
“Talk about a kid who waited until the end of the season to absolutely show up as much as you expected her to show up,” coach Angie Richwalski said.
Kita, a Lipscomb recruit, hit the decisive home run and got the pitching win as the Bulldogs upset Lake Central 2-1 in the Class 4A Crown Point Regional on Tuesday.
“She’s phenomenal,” Richwalski said. “She’s a great kid. I’m really happy for her that it’s coming together now.
“She’s turned some things around that weren’t going so great early. Now the great thing is nobody’s seen her.”
Kita spread the credit around after Crown Point (18-13) topped Duneland Athletic Conference rival Lake Central (24-7) to win its first regional title since 2019 and advance to the semifinals of the West Lafayette Harrison Semistate against No. 15 Penn (22-9) on Saturday. Kita pointed to others as difference-makers in her performance.
“I feel like I have my teammates behind me,” she said. “Remembering that, knowing they’re behind me, it helps me feel more comfortable. Then I’m all good.”
Kita’s lined shot to left field with one out in the fifth inning snapped a 1-1 tie after Lake Central senior Olivia Balog had retired 11 straight batters.
“I was not trying to hit a home run,” Kita said. “I was just trying to put it in play, and it happened to go out.”
In the circle, Kita went five innings, allowing one run on four hits with five strikeouts and three walks. She entered in relief of sophomore Kendra Steinberg, who opened with two scoreless innings.
The plan from the outset was for Steinberg to get through Lake Central’s order once and have Kita take over in the third, according to Richwalski.
“She’s one who kind of settles in,” Richwalski said. “Once the game gets going, the adrenaline catches up with her and she goes hard. She settled into the game.”
It was similar to Crown Point’s 5-2 upset of Valparaiso in a sectional final. Kita hit the tiebreaking three-run homer in the sixth and pitched the final five innings, allowing one run.
“She’s just in a great mental place right now,” Richwalski said. “She hit some bumps early. She was struggling with the mental side of the game. She’s grown up so much through the season and finally found a place where she’s comfortable and she can just do what she can do. And what she can do is awesome.”
Lake Central, which was the 2021 Class 4A state runner-up and was ranked No. 10
in the final state coaches poll, had runners on first and second with one out in both the fifth and sixth innings. But Kita got the outs she needed, including three strikeouts.
To start the seventh, Crown Point senior second baseman Gabi Serratos made an excellent backhand play on sophomore Jolie Adams, who had a double, a walk and a single in her previous three plate appearances. Lake Central advanced a runner to third with two outs before Kita notched a strikeout to end the game — and the tenure of Indians coach Jeff Sherman.
Sherman, in his 13th season, was approved Tuesday night as assistant athletic director at LaPorte.
“We had lots of opportunities,” Sherman said. “We just couldn’t scratch them across. In the end, that will get you.
“Everybody thinks it’s so simple to sit back and try to hit Brinkley’s change-up. But it’s as good a change-up as you’re going to see in high school softball. That thing moves all over the place. She doesn’t throw it at one specific speed. It’s not as easy as people think it is. Our kids really tried, really worked hard, really battled at the plate.”
Sherman led the Indians to seven sectional titles, five regional titles and three semistate titles, finishing second in the state in 2015, 2018 and last season.
After the game, he spent a few extra minutes with Lake Central’s seniors. He noted four of the seven have been with the team all four seasons and that six plan to play in college.
“They’re part of a lot of great stuff here at LC . ... Their days here aren’t done,” Sherman said. “That’s what we were talking about out there, how I was really happy to go out with a group like that.”
During the regular season, Lake Central had beaten Crown Point 19-11 on April 15 and 6-0 on May 4. The Indians topped the Bulldogs 3-1 in a regional last season.
“It’s a great win,” Kita said. “We were the underdogs. We weren’t expected to go that far. It feels good to be where we are.”
The Bulldogs lost to Penn 6-4 on April 15, the second half of a doubleheader after that 19-11 loss to Lake Central.
“We were so exhausted from playing Lake Central,” Richwalski said. “I hardly remember the Penn game. I hope I took good notes because we were just exhausted. We weren’t at the top of our game when we played. If we play like we’ve been playing, we can come out on the right side of that one too.”