WEST LAFAYETTE
Center Grove’s softball team only managed one run during Saturday night’s Class 4A state championship game — but with senior Abby Herbst in the pitching circle, that’s all the Trojans needed.
Herbst pitched a three-hit shutout, striking out 12 batters in the process, to lead Center Grove to a 1-0 triumph over Leo and its first crown since 2015. The Trojans had been eliminated at semistate each of the last two years.
"It’s incredible," senior shortstop Piper Belden said after the win. "There are no words to explain this feeling that I have. This past week of practice and everything has just worked so well, and to pull it off here was just absolutely incredible. This was a whole team effort today."
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The Trojans (28-3) got the game’s lone run in the top of the first inning when Lexi Fair’s deep fly to right field was dropped and allowed pinch runner Sydney McConnell to score from second base.
Center Grove survived two fielding miscues of its own in the first inning, then settled into a groove.
Herbst was locked in a pitchers’ duel with Leo’s Ashley Miller the rest of the way. She struck out five of the next seven hitters she faced after escaping the first, then whiffed six of the last 10 Lion hitters to close it out. She didn’t allow a hit until the fourth, working around a one-out single, and Leo never advanced a runner past second base.
"I knew that they were a solid team and I knew that they had solid pitchers," Herbst said, "so I was just trying to stay calm and know that it was going to be a pitchers’ duel again. So I just kept my level head the entire time and went with my good stuff, and it was working."
First-year coach Alyssa Coleman became the first in state history to win championships at two different schools. Coleman led Speedway to the Class 2A crown last spring.
Center Grove improved to 7-4 in state title game appearances.
For more on the Trojans’ victory, see page B1.
