Lafayette area top plays: Baseball, volleyball and softball for May 1-17
Check out the Lafayette area top plays of the week, hosted by Twin Lakes baseball players Mason Brummett and Carson Wagner.
WEST LAFAYETTE ― Harrison sophomore Mallory Duell had her eyes gazing at the smart phone being held by her coach Kelsi Clark watching her older sister Whitney play for Trine University in the NCAA Division III softball championships.
Whitney walked during her at-bat against College of the Redlands, and Mallory ― at least for the time ― could discuss Harrison’s massive eruption on the scoreboard in the second frame.
A redemptive arc completed in 56 minutes and the IHSAA Class 4A sectional championship never in doubt.
Duell and Harrison erupted with an offensive splurge and scored 11 runs, all of them coming with two outs in the second inning for what became the knockout blow to beat Kokomo 11-1 in five innings.
“Hitting is contagious,” Clark said. “And it was obvious that they just needed to see someone put a barrel on the ball and give them the confidence to know they can do that too.”
Harrison (10-12) will host Noblesville on Tuesday, June 3 for the 4A regional title. The Raiders are also the hosts for the IHSAA 4A semi-state round on Saturday, June 7.
Duell hit one of her team’s four, 2-RBI base hits as Harrison had four doubles during its rage at the plate.
“We’ve been working in batting practice all season on being able to hit both fast and slower pitching,” Duell said. “Being able to work on that every day at practice and just getting our timing down has been really important this season.”
Harrison won its fifth sectional title in six seasons after being stunned on a game winning hit against Logansport, 1-0, last season.
Senior Alex Waitkoff, who was a member of last year’s team, set the tone with first baseman Anna Hainje at second and first baseman Lanie Shallenberger at third.
Waitkoff lined a double to left field, and the ball in the eyes of Harrison’s lineup became more hittable.
Eight consecutive base runners followed, and Harrison continued to hammer line drives off Kokomo pitcher Anna Lees.
Waitkoff roped another double and finished with four RBIs and two extra base hits as Harrison sent 14 hitters to the plate in the second. Waitkoff had appeared in 14 games and was hitting .471 coming into Thursday night.
“I just come in every practice trying to get better at what I can do and working as hard as I can to improve,” Waitkoff said.
Not to be overshadowed on offense was the performance of senior pitcher Lilly Kiefer. She tossed five innings and allowed zero earned runs with five strikeouts and no walks.
“I feel like after losing sectionals last year and then not having the best start to the season, it motivated us to work harder and focus,” Kiefer said.
Harrison lost eight straight games between April 16 to May 3. The streak began with a loss to 2024 Class 1A state champion Rossville and snowballed into more shortcomings against Fishers, Noblesville, Westfield, an extra inning loss to Logansport, Zionsville, Lake Central and Crown Point.
Harrison ended its losing streak with a win against Lafayette Jeff on May 8 and are now starting to find its rhythm late in 2025.
“It’s a tough schedule and we earned it,” Clark said. “I feel good about our offense, and our pitching has been phenomenal for the last two games. That was going to be Lilly’s game. She was very efficient pitching. Her changeup was phenomenal.”
Dunk watched the game end with third baseman Della Bossung who turned a game ending 5-4-3 double play. The program seems to be turning a corner for the better as it can now look ahead to Tuesday.
“We told ourselves we needed to be locked in this week for practice, and we’ve been holding each other accountable,” Dunk said.
Ethan Hanson is the sports reporter for the Journal & Courier in Lafayette. He can be reached at ehanson@jconline.comon Twitter at Ethanahanson and Instagram at ethan_a_hanson.
