STATE BOUND! Caston tops Cowan 5

FRANKFORT — The talented group of Caston girls athletes fulfilled their destiny and have taken the Comets to the promised land: the IHSAA State Finals.

Caston held off Cowan 5-3 Saturday night to become the first team in school history to win a semi-state championship.

No. 7 Caston (22-4) plays No. 1 Tecumseh (24-9) at 4:30 p.m. Saturday in the Class A state championship game at Bittinger Stadium at Purdue University in West Lafayette. No. 4 Cowan finishes 23-6.

"Let's finish it," Caston junior Isabel Scales said.

The Comets came out swinging again in a big tournament game, jumping out to a 3-0 lead on Cowan in the top of the first inning.

Addison Zimpleman drew a leadoff walk and Scales singled to put the first two runners on. Kinzie Mollenkopf followed with an RBI single to left center that was bobbled allowing Scales to also score on the play and Mollenkopf to move to second and make it a 2-0 game. Kylee Logan grounded out to first for the first out and Mollenkopf moved to third on the play. Alexa Finke followed with an RBI squeeze bunt to make it 3-0.

Mollenkopf was coming off a one-hit shutout with 13 strikeouts earlier in the day during a 9-0 semifinal win against Kouts. She was again cruising right along against Cowan before running into some trouble in the bottom of the third.

McKenna Minton, a Purdue Fort Wayne recruit, hit a two-out double to right center. Aryonna Bynum followed with an RBI single just past a diving Scales and Zimpleman and into center field to make it a 3-1 game. Mollenkopf then walked starting pitcher Tatum Rickert to put two runners on. Miranda Bowling followed with an RBI single to right to make it 3-2 and the throw got past the catcher allowing both runners to move up to scoring position. But Mollenkopf got Taylor Young to pop out to second baseman Zimpleman to get out of the inning.

The Comets got the two runs right back in the top of the fourth. Bailey Harness hit a one-out bloop single to get the rally started. She was bunted to second by Haley Logan for the second out. Macee Hinderlider followed with an RBI triple to right center. Zimpleman followed with an RBI double to left center to make it 5-2.

Mollenkopf was again cruising right along until running into some trouble in the bottom of the seventh. No. 8 hitter Cheyenne Carter hit a one-out single up the middle. Mollenkopf then walked the No. 9 hitter, Jenna Current, to put two runners on with one out.

Caston coach Jon Burks sensed it was time to make a change and made a bold decision in putting Zimpleman in to pitch. Zimpleman's only work on the mound this postseason was one inning when the Comets had a 20-1 lead against Fremont in the regional championship game.

Zimpleman got Minton, one of the best hitters in the state who represented the tying run at the plate, to fly out to center for the second out. Center fielder Harness made a nice running catch on the play and Carter scored from third to make it 5-3 as there was a passed ball earlier in the sequence. The Comets appealed to third that the runner left early before tagging but to no avail.

Zimpleman then got Bynum to ground out to second baseman Mollenkopf for the third and final out that started an epic semi-state championship celebration for the Comets.

"I was actually going to start Addison in the second game but Kinzie came up to me and she's competitive and the trust and respect we have for each other, she says, ‘Burks, I want it.’ I said, ‘You’ve got it then.’ And she did fine for 6 1/3 innings," Burks said.

After Mollenkopf allowed the Nos. 8 and 9 hitters on base with the top of the lineup coming up for the fourth time, Burks brought in a fresh Zimpleman, who got the next two hitters in order.

"When I was talking to her, she said, ‘Burks, we’ve got this. Burks, we’ve got this.’ OK, I get it, OK. So that's when I made the change and she was ‘give me my mask, let's get this over with.’"

Mollenkopf got the first 40 outs of the day on a day that was 88 degrees and sunny. She got both wins on the day and Zimpleman got the final two outs for the save in game two.

Zimpleman said she was happy to get the final two outs.

"It's kind of better than throwing a seven-inning game," she said. "Kinzie worked her butt off though. I’m going to give her kudos. The Kouts game she pitched great. This game you could tell she was tired but she never told anybody, but she just went out and she balled out."

Zimpleman gave the Comets a fresh arm on the mound and made it look easy.

"It definitely is not easy. I don't want people to think that," she said. "I knew my teammates had my back going into that hard position because anybody can say that is a very hard position to come into because you’ve waited all game and you’ve got to come in now in a clutch moment. But I knew my teammates had my back no matter what and I just had to do my job. If they hit it I knew my teammates were going to go get it. So that's just the way I looked at it."

Harness made a great running catch for the second out of the inning or the final outcome could have been different. She said she was actually shading Minton towards right center and had to make the catch in left center.

"I was a little worried because I was on the other side because she had just beat Alexa [Finke] and I in the outfield, so we were trying to pinch. So once she hit it I was just trying to hurry up and catch it," Harness said.

Mollenkopf might have carried the Comets as far as she could before Burks made his bold decision. Mollenkopf has been locked in all tournament both on the mound and at the plate.

"I knew coming in for us to make a good run that I would have to be very sharp and my team just expects that of me and I know that," she said.

Mollenkopf will play at the next level at NAIA Huntington University. She credited her pitching coach, former Huntington U. and Logansport High School great Molly Long for helping her.

"I need to thank my pitching coach Molly Long because she's gotten me to this point," Mollenkopf said. "But at the same time we’ve been very blessed by the Lord just to be able to come here every day and play the game that we love. I know there could not be a tomorrow in this uniform for me so that's the main push. I know that I’m going to play further than this but it's just something about the high school uniform that you just don't want to hang it up."

Mollenkopf kept Cowan off balance for 6 1/3 innings. She allowed three runs on six hits and two walks, striking out seven.

"We were trying to mix in some changeups and just be very offspeed and then fast, offspeed, fast," she said. "I don't have any words right now. It's just crazy because we’re just making so much history and it's just great."

She went 2-for-3 at the plate with an RBI and run scored.

"I just really wanted to have a breakout senior year and it's happening but I could not have done it without coach Burks and coach [Greg] Zimpleman and this whole family," she said. "It's just crazy that we get to have this. It was just great playing as a team and this family. We just come every day and we’re like, this is our next step, we’ve got to get here first and our motto was first out of every inning. We’ve got to get the first out and that happened the majority of the time. But when we got deeper into the game it got a little bit tougher and I just thank Addison for coming in and just giving me the last two batters. It was just phenomenal."

Hinderlider went 2-for-3 including the RBI triple.

"Two-out triple by Macee, that was big, especially after they scored two runs," Burks said.

Zimpleman added the RBI double and Scales, Harness and Kylee Logan each added a hit. Finke added an RBI.

Rickert, an Earlham College recruit, allowed five runs (four earned) on eight hits and three walks, striking out five in seven innings.

Minton went 2-for-3 to lead the Blackhawks at the plate.

The Caston fan base showed up for their team. It was estimated that there were more Comet fans at the semi-state than the other three teams combined.

"The whole community, the school corporation, I mean look at all these people," Burks said. "I’m not going to get home until midnight, 1 o’clock. It's just awesome.

"These girls work hard all season, going to their after practice, going to their coaches that teach them stuff and whatever. Just the hard work, the dedication, it's finally paying off. We’ve got a trust, respect type relationship and when you have that they’re going to play for you and I’m going to coach for them."

It's a group that has experienced heartbreaking sectional losses in softball, basketball and volleyball before their breakthrough this spring.

"It's definitely made us want to work harder," Harness said. "We’re all hard workers anyway but it made us just give us more drive.

"We thought since we won regionals it was surreal. We have been wanting this in every sport we’ve played for such a long time and it's the same group of girls, we’ve grown up with each other and it's just incredible that we’ve finally gotten this done."

"We’ve been working for this," Scales said. "We’ve been shot down so many times and this year to finally get past sectionals and then get this all on top of it, it just means so much to everybody.

"It feels unreal. This has always been a dream since I was little and this team, I wouldn't want to do it with anybody else but this team right here."

The Comets are just one win away from their ultimate goal: a state championship.

"It's been a dream since I was super little and everyone's locked in and everyone's invested and we’re just here to have fun at the end," Zimpleman said. "We’ve all loved this game since we were small so let's just continue to do something big."

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