59ers rally for inspired victory

Updated: May 2, 2011 11:34PM

MERRILLVILLE — It was emotional and motivational all at the same time.

Seeing their teammate Katie Crandol for the first time in two weeks after she battled a serious personal medical situation that kept her from the team was all Andrean needed on Monday in order to overcome Munster 3-2 in come-from-behind fashion.

Though Munster (9-5, 5-3 NCC) managed double-digit hits (10) and led 2-0 on a two-out single by Kori Kirby after three innings against Ball State-bound Nikki Steinbach, it was their defense that let them down in the fifth inning.

“Our inability to field the little game hurt us today,” Munster coach Beth Thornburg said. “Hopefully we learn from it and later on we make the right decision.”

Ironically, not executing the bunt on offense also hurt Munster’s chances of putting up more runs on the board. Thornburg nevertheless found a lot of positives, especially the way her starting pitcher, Carly Murphy worked against the potent 59ers offense in keeping them to only three hits.

But with so much excitement and emotion after seeing their teammate back on the bench for the first time in weeks, it was just a matter of time that one of the area’s best teams would break out with at least one big inning.

And sure enough, the fifth inning was that inning for the 59ers.

A leadoff double by Megan Bridgeman, Andrean’s second hit of the game, was just enough offense for the 59ers to get things going in the right direction.

Mary Debartolo came off the bench to pinch-hit and laid down a nice sacrifice bunt, but reached base when the throw to first went wide for the first of two errors in the inning. Maddie Lesch came up next and reached on a tailor-made fielder’s choice, but the second error allowed Bridgeman to score from third to make it 2-1.

Savvy Kinsella kept the rally alive with an RBI single as Debartolo tied the game. Steinbach helped her own cause by drawing a walk to load the bases for clean-up hitter Kelly Ryan. And that’s who delivered the game winning hit, a solid single to center sending home Lesch to complete the comeback.

“Seeing our teammate for the first time today was very motivational,” said Ryan of delivering the game-winning hit. “I just wanted to stay relaxed and I got the count in my favor and whatever happened, happened. But thank goodness it went in my favor this time.”

Steinbach (8-1) did the rest keeping the Mustang bats in check over the last two innings. Even though it wasn’t her best performance of the year, she made the big pitch when she needed it.

“We just wanted to win this game so bad for our teammate and we really missed her while she was gone,” she said.

Munster had runners on first and third in the seventh inning with two outs, but Munster’s Sarah Simchak lined out to left field to end the game.

Taylor Michalski went 3-for-4 with a pair of singles and a double for the Mustangs, while Briana Zunica was 2-for-4 with a triple.

© 2012 Sun-Times Media, LLC. All rights reserved. This material may not be copied or distributed without permission. For more information about reprints and permissions, visit www.suntimesreprints.com. To order a reprint of this article, click here.