Mundelein whips Wheeling to earn shot at Barrington
The Mundelein softball team took a little while to get rolling against Wheeling in its Class 4A regional play-in game.
Tied 2-2, the No. 13-seeded Mustangs exploded for 6 runs on 4 hits in the bottom of the third en route to a 12-2 victory in five innings over No. 18 Wheeling.
Mundelein (13-16) will host No. 1-seeded Barrington (30-3) Tuesday at 4 p.m. in the semifinals.
A 2-run single by Mundelein senior Kaitlin Yoder (3-for-4, 5 RBI) drove in Justina Doll and winning pitcher Hillary Bunnelle to give the Mustangs a 2-0 lead after one inning.
The Wildcats (3-27) got on the scoreboard in the top of the third when No. 9-hitter Kristen Durbin singled off Bunnelle's glove with one out.
Scout Scanlon put down a sacrifice bunt, but when the throw to second base went into center field, Durbin scored on the play.
Scanlon advanced to third on the Mundelein miscue and scored on a wild pitch to tie the score 2-2.
"We don't like to have letdowns. Whether we play Wheeling or Barrington, we bring the same face," said Mundelein coach Ted Juske, whose team had 10 hits.
"We still had our share of sloppy play, and when you get to regionals you can't make mistakes."
The Mustangs broke the game open against Wheeling starter Tori Menelle when Doll led off the bottom of the third with a double to center. Yoder drove in Doll with a one-out RBI single to left for a 3-2 lead, and Jordan Lundsten also singled to left.
A walk by Michelle Mithcem was followed by an RBI single by Melissa Diaz before Katy Durr reached base on 1 of several Wildcats' errors.
With Wheeling trailing 6-2, Sejal Shah replaced Menelle on the mound. A dropped fly ball in center brought home Diaz and Durr for a commanding 8-2 lead before Shah retired the final two batters to end the inning.
"We let too many runners get to second on basehits and we couldn't find any holes today," said Wheeling coach Beth Anderson, whose team was held to 2 hits.
"Tori Menelle came back after being out for two weeks with mono, and we didn't play well behind her."
Yoder reached on an error and scored on Mithcem's RBI single for a 9-2 lead in the fourth before Mitchem scored on a two-out error for a 10-2 advantage.
Bunnelle reached base on a two-out error in the fifth inning before Yoder ended the game with a 2-run homer over the fence in right-center to end the game.
"It was nice to start the regional off with a nice hit and I'm really looking forward to playing Barrington," said Yoder, who has 3e homers this season.
"We played really well as a team today, we came together and we all contributed."