Click here to goto the McKinney North Lady Bulldog Web Site
The Forney Lady Rabbits beat the McKinney Lady Bulldogs Wednesday night 6 to 3 at Plano West Stadium. The Lady Bulldogs got to Britney Benedict in the first inning for two runs but Benedict retired 14 of the next 15 batters to shut down the Lady Bulldogs. The Lady Rabbits came back in the 3rd inning and took a 3 to 2 lead. Brogdon opened the 3rd inning with a walk and Sarah Bell reached on an error. Brogdon scored on a single by Casie Campanello and Bell came home on a fielder's choice. Kallan Thompson singled in the third run. In the 6th inning, McKinney tied the game at 3 to 3 but could not hold off the Lady Rabbits in the top of the 7th. The lady Rabbits loaded the bases with singles by Ashley McCarroll and Erica LaFlore. Mallory Mitchell reached on a fielder's choice to load the bases with no outs. Then Shelby Brogdon hit a double to the left field wall and the Lady Rabbits scored three runs to take a 6 to 3 lead. In the bottom of the 7th Britney Benedict was flawless striking out the last batter while the Forney fans stood cheering. Benedict allowed just four hits and struck out eight in the victory. The Lady Rabbits will play game 2 Friday night at 7 p.m. again at Plano West High School.
Ashley McCarroll
Shelby Brogdon
North-Forney Region II final begins today at Plano West
By Travis Summers, MCKINNEY COURIER-GAZETTE
Cheesy nicknames have always been a part of the sports landscape.
Allow me to try and give the McKinney North softball team a new tag for this year’s impressive playoff run, “the B-keepers.”
The Lady Bulldogs were eliminated from the 2006 postseason by Brittany Barnhill, who North head coach Debbie Evans has often referred to as, “B.B.”
The weird thing about this playoff run is that against Mesquite Poteet in the regional quarterfinals, the Lady Bulldogs faced pitcher Bradie Baker, another “B.B.” Take that a step further as this week’s regional final opponent Forney utilizes the arm of Britney Benedict on the mound.
“That’s just weird to me,” sophomore shortstop Kathy Shelton said of the coincidence. “I would never have thought about it unless you brought it up. Last year we lost to a B.B., I think it would be nice to defeat a pair of B.B.’s this year.”
Forney enters the regional final with a 33-8 record after ousting Midlothian, 2-1, in a close series this weekend. As far as Forney’s Benedict is concerned, North will have to continue some offensive momentum it built from last week’s regional semifinal victory against Arlington Seguin. After only producing three runs in the quarterfinal against Lindale, the Lady Bulldog bats came alive against Seguin to create 12 runs in two games.
“She has a really good curveball that’s deceptive because it comes in looking good and will move outside the strike zone,” Evans said. “She also throws a pretty good drop-speed curve ball. Some of those are pitches you don’t normally see from your average pitcher.” North has some postseason experience against Benedict. The Lady Bulldogs faced the Lady Jackrabbits two years ago in the playoffs and roughed up Benedict for 10 combined runs in the two games.
“I just remember we jumped on [Benedict] early and had a couple of big innings to win both games,” junior Amanda Parsonage said. “We’ll try to do the same thing this week that we did then. We know what she throws. We’ll just try to see it and hit it.”
The Lady Bulldogs experienced the best season in program history with last year’s appearance in the regional finals. Equaling that accomplishment this year is nice, but heading into this season the goal at North has always been to improve. And that mean’s planning a trip to Austin for next week, something that will only happen if the Lady Bulldogs can again take down Forney.
“It would just be an amazing feeling,” Shelton said. “No one from North has ever gone that far. We made it this far last year but lost, so to go that extra step and get farther this year would be the most amazing feeling.”
A series win would also allow North to give out another pair of “B’s” to the Lady Jackrabbits — as in, “bye-bye.”
Game 2 Friday, May 25, 2007 Plano West High School 7 p.m.
