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McKinney North rallies to sweep area softball series
By Travis Summers, McKinney Courier-Gazette
WHITEHOUSE n With seven hits in the first four innings, it didn’t make much sense that the McKinney North softball team only had one run, especially when Whitehouse had four runs on only a pair of hits during that stretch.
That discrepancy eventually worked itself out, however, as the Lady Bulldogs rallied back and scored seven runs in the fifth inning for an 8-4 victory to complete an area-round series sweep at Whitehouse Saturday.
“I told them [after the third inning] that we had left more runners on base than we had all year,” North head coach Dan Sedgwick said. “I knew we just needed to give a couple more innings and things were going to bust loose. I just knew it was going to happen.”
North (22-6-2) cut that lead in half in the top of the second on a triple from freshman Haley Wagner that scored senior pitcher Ashliegh McLean.
For the second time in the first three innings, North failed to capitalize on a one-out, bases-loaded situation in the third. That failure was magnified in the bottom half of the frame when Whitehouse scored two runs on a double from senior Jordan Knight to give the LadyCats a 4-1 lead.
“We weren’t getting the runs in when we needed them like they did,” said North’s Lindsey Post, who had a pair of singles in the first three innings. “We had some plays out in the field that hurt us and put us in the spot we were in.”
The Lady Bulldogs quickly dug themselves out of that hole in the fifth with their monster seven-run inning.
That scoring spree began when senior Amanda Parsonage doubled off the left field fence to drive in Amy Kilpatrick and Meghan Knowles and cut North’s deficit to one.
It was a big hit for Parsonage, who had been 0-for-5 in the series before the double, including a strikeout in the third inning with the bases loaded.
“I was faced with another bases-loaded situation and I knew I needed to do something to get us going,” Parsonage said. “I told myself that I was going to hit the ball no matter what. I was going after it.”
McLean tied the game with a single in the next at-bat, and North took the lead for good on a balk from Whitehouse pitcher Cagen Medlock.
That one-run lead wasn’t enough for the Lady Bulldogs, however, as they added one run on a single Tayler Burnside and two more on a fielding error from Whitehouse.
“We knew the other team thought they had the game won, but we’re a fighting team,” Post said. “We always come back. We knew what we needed to do and we’ve got the experience to come back from a situation like that.”
That fighting spirit is why Sedgwick never panicked when his team was finding frustration at the plate in the early innings.
“I’ve said it a thousand time, but this team will never quit,” Sedgwick said. “They are very,very,very clutch in pressure situations. I don’t totally expect them to always come back, but it’s getting close to where I do.”
After North built its 8-4 lead in the fifth, McLean took over inside the pitcher’s circle. The senior ace gave up three hits in the final three innings and struck out four to record the victory.
The Lady Bulldogs now advance to the regional quarterfinals, at which they will face the winner of the Mesquite Poteet-Paris North Lamar series.
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