59ers regroup to knock off Columbia City

Updated: June 4, 2011 8:48PM

MONTICELLO — Through five innings of Saturday’s Class 3A Twin Lakes Semistate semifinal, it didn’t look good for Andrean.

After giving up only one run in her previous four postseason games, ace pitcher Nikki Steinbach gave up three in the fifth inning to Columbia City.

And the 59ers’ offense kept to its recent pattern of leaving runners on base — they averaged only 1.5 runs per game this postseason.

That is, until the sixth inning when the offense exploded for five runs — all with two outs — while Steinbach retired six of the last seven in a 5-3 victory.

Andrean (24-8) coach Henry Ryan, couldn’t hide his excitement as a hitting guru when his leadoff hitter, Savannah Kinsella, came through once again with a two-out, two-run single to give the 59ers the lead.

“I just had to concentrate on the (pitch) and my team did a great job of getting on base,” Kinsella said. “There was a little doubt, but we’ve come back before.”

The sophomore with the same last name as the main character in “Field of Dreams” has provided the clutch hit before — like a week earlier in the sectional final when she had a home run against Kankakee Valley.

“I’m still a kid at heart — I think I had a little Michael Jordan in me with that jump,” Ryan joked about his fist pumping and subsequent leap in the air from the third-base coaching box when Kinsella blasted her single. “Savvy (Kinsella) was tremendous. She had two tough at-bats, but with two runners on, that was clutch. I’m a Savvy believer.”

So are her teammates, especially Steinbach, who struck out nine and walked one in the complete game.

“I knew the team would back me up,” she said. “We’ve been hitting the ball, but not stringing (hits) together. This was a total team effort.”

After a popout to start the bottom of the sixth, Kaitlin Barajas singled and moved to second on a groundout. She scored on a double from Meghan Bridgeman, who scored on a double by Brenna Boyle. Pinch hitter Hannah Kulesa reached on an error by the shortstop, and moved to second on a wild pitch. That set up Kinsella’s game-winning hit to center field. Freshman Cat Murad added a triple to score Kinsella as an insurance run.

Mississeniwa defeated Western 3-0 in the other semifinal.

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