top of page

Chesterton softball season ends on an upswing Tuesday night in Crown Point, where Bulldogs eliminated the Trojans 7-2 in a regional title game played in packed stadium, after Trojans’ first sectional championship since 2019

Chesterton-122_edited.jpg

Junior shortstop Lila Miller flexes with the ball that she hit over the fence in left field in a 7-2 loss to host Crown Point in the regional title game. (Tom Keegan/photo)

Tom Keegan
Onwardtrojans.com

Chesterton’s final softball game of 2025 started like the season did. That’s not good. The game ended more like the season did. That’s so much better.
Host Crown Point needed all seven innings to put away the Trojans, 7-2 in a regional title game played with a packed stadium of spectators watching Tuesday night.
During DAC play, the Bulldogs swept two games from Chesterton by a combined 25-3 score, both games shortened to six innings.
Crown Point looked to be on its way to more of the same Tuesday when it scored in each of the first four innings to take a 7-0 lead. Then junior Hannah Florian replaced freshman Peyton Cherep in the circle and tossed three shutout innings for Chesterton.
And lest anyone forget what developed into this team’s identity, shortstop Lila Miller hammered a two-run home run over the fence in left in the top of the seventh. Just the second hit of the game for the Trojans, it came against Crown Point ace Paige Liezert, who followed Lexi Smith (four shutout innings) to the circle.
Chesterton’s first sectional championship team since 2019 finished its season with a 13-12 record, which is quite an accomplishment considering the Trojans were 1-5 to start the season.
The quickest way to demonstrate the extent of Chesterton’s in-season improvement is to compare how the Trojans did in the regular season against the three schools they faced in the postseason.
In the regular season, the Trojans went 1-4 vs. Hobart, Valparaiso (1-1) and Crown Point and were outscored 45-25.
In the postseason, the Trojans went 2-1 and outscored the same three schools 29-22.
The Trojans clubbed six home runs in the three postseason games, pushing their total to 23: Cherep 5, Florian 4, Olivia Milton 4, Jillienne Pittman 3, Lexi Smith 3, Alexia Franco 2, Miller 2.
Erin Cochran, assisted by Wally McCormack and pitching coach Lexi Benko, was uplifted by her team’s postseason performance.
“I hate losing, but how they played today, you know, a couple of errors here and there, but how they played and never gave up, all that kind of stuff, I cannot not be prouder of this team and this program,” first-year head coach Erin Cochran said. “Losing five out of our first six games and then coming through and winning our sectionals and then playing Crown Point, who 10-run ruled us the first two times compared to losing 7-2, making it seven innings, it’s a win.”
Having pitchers who amass huge strikeout numbers remains so key to winning softball games not only because it keeps runners from advancing but also because it takes pressure off the defense by not requiring it to make as many plays. The Bulldogs take a 28-4 record to the semi-state round with a pitching staff that averages 12.3 strikeouts per seven innings. The Trojans averaged 6.25.
The Trojans banked on the long ball to compensate for the shortage of strikeout pitchers and none of the team’s 23 circuit clouts, bombs, round-trippers, dingers, four-baggers, long balls, taters, moon shots, blasts, deep shots, yonders, gonzos, jimmy jacks, or whatever nickname you prefer for home runs, came against a better pitcher than Liezert, who entered the game with a sub-1.00 ERA.
Miller put a lot of research into facing her and it paid off.
“She’s a really good pitcher, but I have been watching our game film for the past few days and looking to see what we can adjust and I started to pick up what they were calling and the order they were calling it, so I knew what was coming at me and I knew I had to be aggressive and just hit the crap out of the ball,” Miller said. “She likes to pitch inside, and watching the videos you can see that on Game Changer. I knew it was coming in, so I knew I had to turn on it quick and Coach McCormack has been telling us the past week that we need to get loaded early and just hit it, a two-strike approach.”
Miller also stood out in the field early in the game. Speedy Crown Point center fielder Scarlette Tegtman, a skilled practitioner of the slap-hitting technique from the left side, hit a ball into the hole between short and third that seemed headed for the outfield. Miller back-handed the ball skillfully and fired an accurate throw to first, but it was too late.
Food for thought for softball purists: If a shortstop can make that terrific a play and not be rewarded for it, is 60 feet between bases the right distance, or is it too short?
“I love the backhanded plays,” said Miller who played against Tegtman in travel ball and is familiar with her speed. “They’re fun.”
So are home runs.
“I saw the pitch and I just fired my hips and went for it,” Miller said. “I was running to first and I didn’t see the ball, then I heard cheers and I looked and saw it was over. I didn’t really know it was over until I turned at first.”
The ball was retrieved for Miller on a night that included multiple examples of good sportsmanship, including Crown Point coach Angie Richwalski signing the home run ball for Miller and the Chesterton players stopping their postgame huddle in shallow right field, turning to face middle of the diamond, and clapping for the Bulldogs as they received their regional championship trophy.
Crown Point moves on to face (Fort Wayne) Carroll in a semi-state game Saturday, and the Trojans move onto their offseason, their confidence and spirits buoyed by knowing that following instruction with tireless practice brings about the sort of positive changes they experienced.
“I’m really excited for how far we’ve come,” said Miller, the starting shortstop since Day 1 of her Chesterton career that has one year remaining. “We used to be down about ourselves and about our mistakes and not be able to brush things off. But I think this sectionals and regionals run, we have done a really good job at brushing off whatever happened, flushing it and focusing on the next pitch. This is the farthest any of us has ever come with Chesterton softball. We had a really good run.”

bottom of page