Softball: Beecher gets past Tinley Park with four-run fifth

Updated: March 30, 2012 7:42PM

It was hard to decipher who Beecher coach Kevin Hayhurst was more upset with Friday against Tinley Park: The first base umpire or his players, who didn’t seem to want to make a routine play.

But in the end, the final call went Hayhurst’s way after a ground out to first in the bottom of the seventh ended a come-from-behind 6-3 win.

His players? They got better too, making up for four errors with their bats, which rallied with four runs in the fifth to erase a 3-1 deficit.

“They kept their heads up and knew they could come back and they hit the ball hard,” said Hayhurst, whose team improved to 4-2. “I was happy to see us come back.

“Those close calls sometimes don’t go your way and you have to deal with that and I was glad to see us come out with the win.”

Three unearned runs — two in the second, one in the third — against Bobcats pitcher Sarah Crews dug her team a two-run deficit heading into the top of the fifth.

A pair of RBI singles by Megan Gliva (2-for-4, run scored) and Rachel Lee sandwiched around an RBI double by Savannah Soppet (3-for-4, double, three RBI) accounted for a four-run fifth for the Bobcats. Briana Bowler (2-for-4, two runs scored) and Jenna Petrelli (2-for-3) singled and scored in the inning.

Titans coach Wendy Podbielniak lifted her starter Sarah Gillespie with one out in the fifth for Maranda Stroz, who faced two batters and gave up two hits before Podbielniak brought Gillespie back in.

“Missed signals, real bad base running,” said Podbielniak, who had a runner thrown out at home in the fifth for the third out, and another caught stealing for the third out in the sixth. “We ran ourselves right out of the game, and I have no idea where our cutoffs were going today.

“We have some young kids, and we are making some young mistakes at the varsity level, which will put me in my grave.”

Cosette Tomita had a triple and a run scored for the Titans (7-4), while Stroz added a double.

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