By Lewis Bagley, Special to IHSAA.org
WEST LAFAYETTE – Cathedral’s Anna Moore knew this was her time to come through for her team.
Trailing Hanover Central, 2-1, in the fourth inning of the Class 3A championship game, Moore came to the plate with two on base. She hadn’t had a chance like that in a while.
“At semistate last week against New Palestine,” Moore explained, “they would just walk me with runners on. I said to myself ‘this time, I’m going to do this for my team.’”
One swing later, Moore slapped a pitch to the gap in left center field, scoring the tying and lead run and the Irish held on for a 5-4 win over the Wildcats to claim the Class 3A title.
Moore, a Purdue-recruit playing on her future home field at Bittinger Stadium, later scored herself and the Irish completed a four-run outburst to take a lead it didn’t relinquish.
The state title is the first in softball for top-ranked Cathedral and long-time head coach Tony Matthews, who hit the 250-career win mark with last week’s semistate triumph over Evansville Memorial.
Cathedral (29-2) had previously qualified for the state finals in 2001 and 2003.
“We knew this would be a battle,” Matthews said just before his team gave him a Gatorade bath. “Hanover may have lost a lot of games this season, but they were climbing at the right time and we knew it would be a battle.”
The Wildcats entered their first state finals since winning the 2A title in 2004 and came through a rugged schedule with 12 losses.
Nevertheless, HC took the lead in the third inning when Sienna Stilley slammed a two-run home run to left center. The blast was the 17th of the season for the senior catcher – the third-highest total in the state.
The Irish broke through in the fourth, then added what proved to be the winning run in the fifth when Kelsey Beres singled in courtesy runner Ellis Land with two out. Land ran for pitcher Sidney Feczko, who led off the inning with a single.
It stayed 5-2 until the top of the seventh as Hanover (18-13) didn’t go quietly.
With one out, Adeline McMahon and Kaden Poppe drew walks and, an out later, Rebecca Ferguson cut the lead to 5-4 with a single to center.
“Yes, my heart was definitely in my throat,” Matthews admitted. “When you walk a couple of kids, it usually comes back to haunt you.”
However, Feczko recovered to strike out Nora Edgerton and the celebration was on. Feczko finished with 10 strikeouts and the victory gave her a 20-1 final record.
“We kept chipping away in the seventh inning and we told the kids to just hang in there,” HC coach Sam Antkiewicz said. “We were thrilled and grateful to be here and we just lost to a really good team.”
Indianapolis Cathedral’s Anna Moore receives Mental Attitude Award
At the conclusion of the game, Anna Moore of Cathedral High School in Indianapolis was announced as the recipient of the Mental Attitude Award for Class 3A Softball.
The award is annually presented to a senior participant in the state finals who best demonstrates mental attitude, scholarship, leadership, and athletic ability and is nominated by her principal and coach.
Anna was a member of the Holy Cross Council Medical Club, Student Athletic Board, and Guardian Angels (Group to help students who have lost loved ones). She was a four-time All-City 1st team honoree and made the All-State team as a junior. Anna also was lauded as Academic All-State. She has an impressive .517 batting average as a leadoff hitter in her career and ranks number 5 all-time in Indiana in runs scored (175).
Anna coaches an under-8 softball team and leads Anna’s Celebration of Life Foundation which supports children with disabilities.
Anna is the daughter of Nancy Moore of Indianapolis, IN and will attend Purdue University to study Engineering while playing softball for the Boilermakers here at Bittinger Stadium.
Indiana Farm Bureau Insurance presented a $1,000 scholarship Cathedral High School in the name of Anna Moore.