Bilina a hit for Andrew

Mother McAuley's Stevie Bradich (left) beats the throw to Andrew's Lauren Henning at first during regional action Wednesday afternoon.
(Art Vassy/SouthtownStar)

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Poor Amanda Bilina just couldn't get out of the way of wayward softballs on Wednesday.

During warmups before the Class 4A Stagg Sectional semifinal against Mother McAuley, the Andrew senior first baseman was nailed by some throws from her own outfielders.

"They kept hitting me in the ankles," she said. "I was all bruised up ... and I was mad."

Then, in her first at-bat, Bilina took a fastball in the forearm from Mother McAuley pitcher Katie Sears.

That didn't just make her mad ...

"That made me extra mad," Bilina said with a laugh after Andrew's 2-1 victory.

One softball that didn't hit her was thrown by Sears with Andrew teammate Brooke McDermott (single) on second base and one out in the bottom of the third inning. Bilina took the outside offering and ripped a double down the right-field line, driving in McDermott with the game's first run.

Moments later, pinch-runner Jill Johnson came around to score on a base hit to center field by Julie Love.

Those would be just enough runs for Andrew right-hander Megan Schapiro, who struck out three en route to a five-hitter.

No. 9 Andrew (19-8) will play No. 4 Stagg (25-7) in the regional title game at 10 a.m. Saturday.

Before scoring the two runs, the Thunderbolts saw two golden opportunities go by the wayside. Sears used an effective changeup to strand the bases loaded in the first and to leave a runner on third in the second.

"It's frustrating when you get multiple girls in scoring position in the first two innings in this type of situation," Andrew coach Jim Holba said. "I didn't know much about (Sears), just from what I've heard. But I thought we had the ability to put up big numbers. I had a feeling today that we were going to hit the ball."

Sears recorded her fourth strikeout to end the third, then was moved to the outfield. She was replaced in the pitching circle by Jackie McGivern, who retired nine of the 10 batters she faced, six of them via strikeouts.

"Jackie did a great job coming in in relief," Mother McAuley coach Colleen Kilduff said. "It's nice to have the Katie-Jackie differential in speed. Katie has that changeup and Jackie's got a nice fastball. It'll be tough to lose Jackie for next year."

The Mighty Macs (13-10) had baserunners in three of the first five innings, but didn't break through against Schapiro until the sixth when Stevie Bradich singled, went to second on a Natalie Gannon sacrifice and scored on a base hit by Sears. Christine Durco followed with a hit, but Schapiro evaded further damage by getting Des Aramburu and Colleen Sullivan on flyouts.

Mary Youpel reached Schapiro for a leadoff single in the seventh, but pinch-runner Emily Liston only got as far as third. Schapiro retired Bradich for the final out on a grounder to shortstop Kate Mollohan.

"It got a little tense, but things wound up going our way," Schapiro said. "I'd heard a lot of good and bad things about (Mother McAuley), so I didn't really know what to do. But my changeup is usually my best pitch so I took that and used it to my advantage.

"I didn't have my best outing today, but with my defense behind me we were able to come through."