Kornacki: Montemarano Flashes Power, Leather and a Smile
5/28/2016 12:00:00 AM | Softball
May 28, 2016
By Steve Kornacki
ANN ARBOR, Mich. -- She flashed some power, flashed some leather and, of course, flashed that great smile.
Lindsay Montemarano, the "spark plug" on the University of Michigan's softball team, did it all in Saturday's (May 28) 5-3 win over Missouri. The victory in the first game of the NCAA Super Regional puts the Wolverines one win away from clinching the best-of-three series.
Montemarano's two-run home run, her ninth of the season, gave Michigan pitcher Megan Betsa some room to breathe in the fifth inning and was the game's biggest hit.
"I think I ran pretty fast around the bases," said Montemarano, a junior from Seaford, New York. "I was pretty excited. I don't normally run very fast when I hit a home run, but I was really excited to get home to my teammates and celebrate with them.
"It's always great because you're doing it for them, you're doing it for everyone, and everyone's out there fighting. I was just looking to put a good swing on a good pitch. I wasn't looking for a perfect pitch. I don't even know where it was. It was just somewhere in the zone, and I attacked it. I focus on putting good swings on good balls because I can't control where it goes, but I can control my at-bat."
There's a focus and tenacity to Montemarano that rubs off on her teammates, and she's central to supporting the theory Wolverine head coach Carol Hutchins has about teams with the most fight winning the most in the postseason because every team remaining has talent.
Montemarano gave Michigan a 5-2 lead, and the Tigers made it a two-run game with a solo homer by catcher Kristin Mack in the sixth.
So, it came down to the seventh inning and a two-run lead to protect for the win. The Wolverines got the first out when center fielder Sierra Lawrence came in on a sinking liner hit by Amanda Sanchez and dove head first to make the catch.
Then, with one on and one out in the bottom of the seventh inning, Montemarano bolted to her left, snagged a sizzling one-hopper and got a force out at second base.
"Hutch kept telling me to play behind the bag on her -- constantly reminding me," said Montemarano of defending Missouri's Chloe Rathburn, who hit a two-run homer in the third inning. "I expect everybody to hit the ball hard at me, and how Megan throws the ball, I'm expecting it to come at me.
"So, I was just ready to make a play when I had to make a play."
Had Montemarano been playing even a couple steps closer toward home plate, that ball would've gotten by her for a single.
The game ended with All-America second baseman Sierra Romero diving near the bag to steal a single and then tagging second base with the ball in her glove for the final out.
Then it was time to smile.
The Wolverines knew, however, that it wasn't time for that really big smile, the one that comes with winning a series like this and advancing to the Women's College World Series.
There's no denying that smiling and having fun is a really big part of college softball. Teams sing and dance, and Montemarano is right in the middle of that, too.
Last year, she orchestrated the team mimicking the actions of making a pizza as they reached different bases on the diamond after hits. That earned her the nickname "Monte Pizza" on a team that reached the championship game in the World Series.
This year, she gets in front of the dugout before each game, and her teammates line up in front of her, parallel to the first-base line. Each one approaches her for a different hand shake, bump or other such show of friendship and joy.
"She definitely brings a spirit," Romero said of Montemarano. "She also has that sass about her. She owns her spot at third. That's her spot, and she's going to do any and everything to make sure that ball doesn't get by her. She works really hard in practice, day in and day out. I didn't think that ball was going to get by her for a second."
Every second on the diamond matters for Montemarano, whether it's being in the proper position to make the big play, focusing on every pitch or making sure she gets every pre-game handshake just right.
Missouri coach Ehren Earleywine told reporters after the game that he had three messages for his team before the game, and one of them was: "Don't let Michigan have more fun than you."
So, fun is an objective in softball, and Montemarano is the No. 1 purveyor of that for the Wolverines.
There is nothing more fun than winning, though, and Montemarano helped determine the game's outcome with both her bat and glove.
"That's why we put her out there," said Hutchins. "We have a lot of confidence in Monte, and she gets it done for us regardless of where she hits in the order."
She had three RBI in the game thanks to getting hit by a Paige Lowary pitch with the bases loaded in the three-run first inning and has knocked in seven runs in four NCAA tournament games.
Montemarano, hitting .321 with 39 RBI, bats seventh in an offense that leads the nation with 8.3 runs per game. She also was the only Michigan player on a talented defense to be named to the Big Ten All-Defensive team.
"She plays fantastic defense for us," said Hutchins, "and was a big spark plug for us today. She's a very good softball player. She always has been. She gets better every year, and that's all we can hope for."
She's a gamer with plenty of flash.
