Chesterton senior softball star Hannah Florian hopes that history repeats itself and she swings a beastly bat vs. nemesis Valparaiso in sectional semifinal Wednesday at Valpo

Tom Keegan
Onwardtrojans.com

Willie Mays, Mike Schmidt and Albert Pujols wore out plenty of organizations, but particularly showed no mercy on the Cubs. Same for Babe Ruth and the White Sox.
Maybe it’s something in the uniforms that brings out the beast in hitters when they face certain teams. More likely it’s something they just don’t like about certain opponents. Chesterton senior softball star Hannah Florian, is no different. She sees green and she’s like a bull raging at the sight of red.
You don’t hit .347 with seven doubles, a triple and four home runs without making more than one team pay, but Florian does have a way of doing her best against her school’s chief rival.
Chesterton (12-9 overall, 10-4 in the DAC, third place) travels to play sectional host Valparaiso (15-9-1, 8-6, fourth) Wednesday in a semifinal that opens postseason play for both schools. It will be the sixth game between the schools in the past two seasons.
In the five games, four Chesterton victories, Florian is 8 for 19 (.421) with 2 doubles, three home runs, seven runs and 8RBI. Two of the home runs were game-winners.
Florian’s walkoff, two-run home run lifted the Trojans to an 11-9 win in the semifinals of the Chesterton sectional last season and the hosts knocked off Hobart in the final.
This season, in a road game May 13, Chesterton trailed Valpo 3-2 in the fifth inning when the Vikings called time with two runners on base and Trojans assistant coach Wally McCormack had a quick chat with Florian.
“Wally just told me to hit the ball,” Florian said.
So she repeated those four words over and over and added an exclamation point to the end of them: “I was like, just hit the ball, just hit the ball and get ahold of it. And then I was just thinking to myself, like, if it's there, then go.Don't second-guess your swing. And then I hit the first pitch. And it was a three-run home run.”
And the score remained 5-3 the rest of the way.
The location of the pitch was not ideally suited to her preference but she trusted her swing and knocked it over the fence.
“It was pretty high,” Forian said. “It was at about the letters. Normally, I like ’em low. The walkoff was a low pitch, but I guess it was right there and I didn't want to doubt it.”
So she gave it a ride and took a trot.
Looking back on that day, Florian chuckled at the text message she received from a former coach of hers: “You own Valpo!”
If only it were that easy.
She knows there will be nothing easy about defeating a Vikings team that, as is the case with Chesterton, is rich with power hitters.
“It’s hard to beat a team three times, but that’s our goal,” Florian said. “I’m very excited for the game. I know our team’s staying focused, trying to do it again.”
Florian agreed that the teams have similarities, saying, “They have really good
hitters and so do we. And we just go back and forth at each other over and over. I think we’re better, but I think we both have a lot of people who hit home runs. That’s what makes Valpo difficult. They have a lot of talented hitters.”
The key to the game, from her viewpoint: “I think just the little things, like not making simple mental errors, and focusing on how we baserun, how you want to tag up on a ball, or, like, not getting thrown out, and not not allowing extra bases on defense.”
OPS (on base+slugging) captures a hitter’s productivity better than any single statistic. Both teams have four hitters apiece with an OPS over 1.000, which explains why they both put up a lot of runs. Chesterton averages 9.24 runs per game, Valpo 8.64. Chesterton has 22 home runs and a team OPS of 1.045. Valpo has 27 home runs and a 1.034 team OPS.
The best hitters in the game, ranked in order of their OPS: 1. Jill Pittman (CHS) 1.489; 2. Elizabeth Kosek (V) 1.424; 3. Lexi Smith (CHS) 1.283; 4. Delilah Kincaid (V) 1.277; 5. Morgan Higgins (V) 1.264; 6. Florian 1.136; 7. Kylie McMillan (V) 1.091; 8. Kaydence Ford (CHS) 1.039; 9. Olivia Milton (CHS) .983; 10. Payton Cherep (CHS) .963; 11. Lila Miller .939; 12. Maddie Nichols (CHS) .911.
Florian, who splits pitching duties with Cherep and also can play first and third base, thinks adrenaline pumping faster than usual at the sight of Valpo, works to her advantage.
“I think that's a huge part,” she said. “I normally do well in high-pressure situations, trying to stay calm and focused on what I need to do.”