Thursday, May 12, 2005 10:36 PM CDT
Lady Wave survives pregame scare
BY BRIAN NIELSEN, Sports Editor
MATTOON -- That tie score in the fifth inning was only a softball game.
Mattoon players had already dealt with something serious Thursday.
"One of the scariest encounters I've had in the 20-plus years I've been coaching softball or wrestling," Mattoon coach Dave McDowell said.
Word came while the Lady Wave was warming up at the Roundhouse Complex that Kristi Bradley's father, Bert, home this week from his job as the San Francisco Giants minor-league pitching coordinator, had been in an auto accident.
That certainly took the air out of the balloons n figuratively at least n for the Senior Day of Kristi Bradley and three classmates on the team.
The fact Bradley was scheduled to be the starting pitcher became of almost no significance.
"I know Kristi was really emotionally bothered by it, and the rest of us we're feeling the same way," senior Alicia Von Lanken said.
But before the planned pregame ceremonies, the team learned that injuries from the accident were not as serious as first feared.
After being removed from the starting lineup, Bradley eventually entered the game as a reserve right fielder and had a run-scoring bunt single as the finishing touch of a five-run fifth inning in Mattoon's all's-well-that-ends-well 7-2 Big 12 Conference win.
This third win this year over an Urbana team that is now 6-17 overall and 3-7 in the Big 12 might not have been the most impressive performance in Mattoon's 21-4, 8-2 season, but it sure worked under the circumstances.
"Kristi was hurting," McDowell said. "She was scared and not knowing how serious it was. She was running the gamut of emotions. It's Senior Night, it's Honors Night and then she got the unbelievable call that dad might be hurt. He's worked with her since she was a baby on pitching, fielding and batting. It was a very difficult pregame."
Mattoon already had a makeshift lineup resting injured third baseman Lauren Covington, and then Hannah Dow had to replace Bradley as the starting pitcher two days after Dow pitched a five-inning 10-0 win at Danville.
"We pulled it together," Von Lanken said. "I think Hannah did well holding it together at the start of the game."
After two Mattoon errors to start the fourth inning, Dow lost her no-hitter and shutout on Ashley Fletcher's double.
That was Urbana's only hit against the sophomore Dow, who led 2-1 but after walking leadoff batter Shelby Wechel to start the fifth, was replaced in the pitcher's circle by the senior Von Lanken, who had pitched Wednesday's 7-0 win over Monticello.
After two outs, Von Lanken allowed a single by Aimee Houchens to tie the game 2-2.
"I felt I let the team down," Von Lanken said.
She had her chance to make amends in the bottom half of the inning.
After Megan Glosser dinked a double just over the third baseman, took third on an error and drew a throw to third allowing Peyton Roytek to reach safely on a bunt, Von Lanken came to bat.
McDowell called for the No. 3 hitter in his lineup to bunt as well.
"He's a real big bunter," Von Lanken said of the coach, "and it works. Usually, they don't expect a right-handed batter and No. 3 hitter to bunt."
When Von Lanken did, Urbana tried to get Glosser at home plate, but the sophomore was too quick and scored the go-ahead run.
"Alicia knows her job," McDowell said. "She's been a team player. She would love to hit away, but she has taken the role and realizes this is just as valuable as to hit away.
"The fun part was they didn't know what we were doing."
Accordingly, cleanup batter Erica Roberts followed with a run-scoring bunt single before Jenna Bradley's run-scoring single to left field, Hailey Tinsman's run-scoring fielder's choice, Marissa Alexander's bases-loaded walk and Kristi Bradley's RBI bunt hit.
Dow drove in Mattoon's first run with a single in the second inning and Roberts singled and scored on Tinsman's two-out single in the fourth.
Von Lanken allowed only one hit in the last three innings to get the win in relief.
Mattoon's Big 12 title chase is to continue with a 10 a.m. Saturday home doubleheader against Normal with the first game to count in the conference standings.
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