The plans for Friday morning`s first Class AA state semifinal softball game were simple.
Morton coach Jim Kulawiak told his team to be aggressive. Moline coach Bob Seitz`s advice was to relax.
Everything else, both men reasoned, would take care of itself.
Morton listened, Moline didn`t. The attention paid off for the Mustangs
(37-0-1), who earned a title-game berth with their 6-0 victory over Moline at Mineral Springs Park. In Friday`s other semifinal, Belleville West (23-9)
beat Thornwood (32-7) 4-3 on Debbie Smith`s 11th-inning single.
Morton scored all its runs in a bizarre first inning and managed a mere three hits in the remaining five frames. Moline (22-3) never recovered from the Morton blitz and had to settle for Friday night`s third-place contest, which like the title game was called because of rain. The third-place game will resume at 9:30 a.m. Saturday, with the Morton-Belleville West title game following immediately afterward.
”I was happy that we came out aggressive at the plate and on the bases,” said Kulawiak. ”We forced them into a few mistakes and put the pressure on from the beginning.”
Moline starter Kelly Mulcahy, who had to leave Thursday`s 4-3 quarterfinal victory over New Trier after 2 1/3 innings because she was called for nine illegal pitches, had even worse luck Friday. She faced the first two Morton batters, both of whom singled, and had three illegal pitches called by third-base umpire Pat Creek.
Moline put itself up a creek with three errors in the first, allowing four unearned runs.
Moline junior Jill Richards, who gained the victory in relief of Mulcahy Thursday, was the victim of six Mustang hits. Four of them came in that crazy first inning.
”I don`t think I was prepared this time,” Richards said.
Why, after having problems with Mulcahy`s so-called hop off the mound Thursday, did Seitz go with her Friday?
”The other coaches and I decided last night that Kelly got us here, so we would stick with her,” he said.
Smith`s winning hit for Belleville West came after a 2-hour-35 minute rain delay. It was the second-longest game in Class AA history, bested only by a 13-inning Rich Central-Loves Park Harlem contest in 1983.
