Softball: Savvy Kinsella hits three-run home run to put Andrean into semistate finals
By Steve T. Gorches 648-3141 or sgorches@post-trib.com June 2, 2012 7:30PM
Savannah Kinsella celebrates with teammates after hitting a three-run home run in the third inning in Saturday’s semifinals against Yorktown at Twin Lakes High School. | phot by Barbara Allison~for the post-tribune
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Updated: July 7, 2012 8:12AM
MONTICELLO — One swing is all it took for Andrean to advance to Saturday’s final of the Class 3A Twin Lakes Semistate.
One swing from the girl whose last name is the same as the main character of the well-known baseball movie “Field of Dreams” as Savvy Kinsella blasted an outside fastball well over the right-field fence for a three-run home run to lead the 59ers (26-4) to a 3-2 victory over Yorktown.
And it really was a dream hit for Kinsela since it was her first homer of the season.
“I had three or four last year, but that’s my first this year,” she said. “It felt really good. I’d been working all week with Ron Bickel (her private hitting coach) on outside pitches and it felt just like one of the swings in the cage.”
The blast came after a walk to Cat Murah and single from designated player Katie Crandol — who was playing thanks to a hunch from coach Brooke Baker-Runyon. It turned out those were big runs after Yorktown scored a couple runs later.
“I was so excited for Katie and Cat because they got on base to make it a three-run homer,” Kinsella said.
Baker-Runyon was especially impressed with that assessment from Kinsella since it fits perfectly with the first-year coach’s team-first mentality.
“I’ve told the girls all year to build off each other and the good things they do because it’s a team sport,” she said.
The key defensive play of the game came in the top of the seventh after Yorktown (25-8) had scored those two runs to make it interesting.
Yorktown’s Grace Lumpkin led off with a hard-hit ball to deep shortstop and Andrean’s Brenna Boyle not only got to the ball, but made a perfect throw to first to get the all-important first out.
“That was a game-changer,” Baker-Runyon said. “Honestly, that might have been the biggest play of the game.”
