Crumly’s bat powers Minooka past Providence Catholic

NEW LENOX – For the third time in three days Saturday, the Minooka softball team traveled to New Lenox.

For the first time in those three days, the Indians came home with a win, 13-3, thanks to a career day by first baseman Addisonn Crumly.

After losing to Lincoln-Way West 10-8 on Thursday and Lincoln-Way Central 8-0 on Friday, Minooka visited Providence Catholic on Saturday morning and fell behind 1-0 in the bottom of the second when the Celtics’ Bella Olszta hit a solo home run.

Then, Crumly made her presence known.

With two outs in the top of the third, Minooka got singles from Gracie Anderson (2 for 4, double) and Karli McMillin (2 for 4) before Crumly slugged an opposite-field homer to left for a 3-1 Minooka lead. Jaelle Hamilton followed with a solo home run to put the Indians (4-2) ahead 4-1.

Turns out, Crumly was just getting warmed up.

After Providence (2-2) rallied with a pair of runs in the bottom of the third to make it 4-3, Crumly led off the top of the fifth with a rocket over the right-field fence. The Indians loaded the bases before an RBI single by Addie Stehlik. An out later, Anderson reached on a fielder’s choice and McMillin reached on an error, loading the bases for Crumly, who hit a grand slam to center for a 12-3 Minooka lead.

“I’ve never had a game like this,” Crumly said. “Not even in Little League. Things went well for us today. It was a little easier to hit today than it was yesterday [facing Lincoln-Way Central’s Bella Dimitrijevic].

“When I came up with the bases loaded, I thought it would be cool to hit a third home run, but I wasn’t trying to hit one. Any time you try to hit a home run, you usually pop it up, so I was just trying to hit it hard. Everyone did their job today, and we have a powerful lineup when we do that.”

After getting no-hit and striking out 18 times Friday against the Florida State-bound Dimitrijevic, Minooka responded by collecting 18 hits Saturday. Hamilton (double, home run) and Olivia Boyd (2 doubles) each had three hits, while Anderson and McMillin had two each.

“We got hits in bunches,” Minooka coach Mark Brown said. “Once we get going, it’s kind of contagious, and Gracie Anderson did a great job of getting us going with a big double early. And of course, Addisonn had a historic day. We’ve had a few people hit three home runs in a game, but never four. She had a chance her last time up, but it didn’t happen.

“We were just happy to come to New Lenox and get a win. Any time you play a school from this town, you know you are going to be in a good game, so you have to come to compete. We did that very well today.”

Olivia Vittori had a two-run double for the Celtics, while Mia Sanfratello had a pair of doubles.

“We are a very young team,” Providence coach Jim Holba said. “We shot ourselves in the foot and made a couple of errors that kept their big inning going. We can look pretty good at times and pretty bad at other times.

“These girls are going to improve as they get more used to the speed of the varsity game. Minooka is a good team, and we knew coming in that they had some big bats. But we gave them some outs and they took advantage. We just need to be more consistent.”