<p>The offense wasn’t clicking on all cylinders for the Center Grove softball team on Tuesday night.</p>
<p>Fortunately for the Trojans, Abby Herbst and the defense were – just like they have been all season</p>
<p>The junior hurler turned in a four-hit shutout as the Class 4A Trojans kept their season alive with a 2-0 regional victory over Shelbyville at home on Tuesday evening.</p>
<p>“All that matters is you’re going on, and the fact that people just aren’t scoring runs on us,” Center Grove coach Russ Milligan said.</p>[sc:text-divider text-divider-title="Story continues below gallery" ]Click here to purchase photos from this gallery
<p>Center Grove (29-1) will host a semistate on Saturday. The Trojans play third-ranked Castle in one semifinal game, while Decatur Central and Cathedral will meet in the other. The two winners will clash at 7 p.m. with a trip to the state championship game on the line.</p>
<p>After steamrolling the Golden Bears (22-8) in regional play last year, Center Grove had a more difficult time Tuesday. The Trojans managed just five hits — three of which came from sophomore third baseman Kaci Finchum, who had been dropped into the No. 8 spot in the lineup after a recent slump.</p>
<p>"I’m used to being up higher in the lineup," Finchum said, "so them bumping me down kind of shook me up, but it just made me want to work harder."</p>
<p>Finchum got the home team on the board in the second inning when she roped a two-out double down the line in left to plate Clara Andersen, who had led off with an infield single.</p>
<p>Herbst, who struck out five without a walk in the pitching circle, helped herself at the plate by driving in the game’s only other run in the third. The Wisconsin recruit singled just inside the right-field line with two out, bringing Piper Belden around from second.</p>
<p>From there, Herbst kept the Golden Bears at bay, allowing just one hit over the final four innings.</p>
<p>"I have full confidence in my team that we’re going to score," she said. "I know that if we get a leadoff hit, we’re going to move them over and hit them in. The lack of offense that we’ve had lately does put a little more pressure on me, but I trust them."</p>
<p>True to form, Center Grove scored both times that it got the first batter of the inning on base.</p>
<p>Shelbyville hurler TeAnn Bringle took the loss but did manage one noteworthy accomplishment when she struck out Trojan shortstop Jordyn Rudd in the third inning. That was just the fifth time Rudd had whiffed in her four-year career and the first time since April of 2016 — a run spanning an incredible 75 games.</p>
<p>Despite the offensive struggles so far in the postseason – Center Grove has just eight runs in three postseason games after averaging nearly 10 per game during the regular season – Milligan and his team remain confident, thanks in large part to the pitching of Herbst and the gloves behind her.</p>
<p>“The fact that we’re not flinching on defense says a lot,” Milligan said. “I don’t know why we’re flinching so much on offense, but we’re not flinching on defense. There were some tough plays.</p>
<p>“We’re about as sound as we can get, and as long as we stay like that, somebody’s going to have to be really exceptionally good hitters to drop more than a couple of runs on us.”</p>
<p>The Trojans met their end in the semistate semifinal last spring, but they’ll have the benefit of home-field advantage on Saturday – not to mention an ace who’s in a better place mentally.</p>
<p>“I’m a completely different pitcher than I was last year,” Herbst said, “so I’m ready to keep my team in the games and I totally trust that we’re going to get the job done on Saturday.”</p>
