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Lady Panthers book trip to state
BY Kevin Hageland Staff Writer
FRISCO n Only one Plano ISD softball team had ever made the state tournament.
That is until Saturday.
East, which advanced to the Class 5A State Finals in 1995, qualified for state once more Saturday by defeating Flower Mound Marcus, 5-0, and winning the best-of-3 Region I Final series, 2-1.
Plano East pounded out 15 hits Friday night to get a win in Game 2, but the Lady Panthers went the manufacturing route in Saturday’s decisive contest.
After two scoreless innings, East freshman Chandler Cink led off the top of the third with a walk. A sacrifice bunt and single from junior Lauren Peterson then put Lady Panthers at the corners with one out. Marcus sophomore Danielle Blocker, seeing her first time in the circle during the series, managed a strikeout for the second out of the inning but would not escape the frame unscathed.
Blocker could thank East freshman Rachel Scott for that as a single to left field scored one East runner while a Marcus error on the same play scored another to make it 2-0.
“We were right there with [Marcus] in Game 1,” Scott said. “And we found more of the holes in Games 2 and 3.”
The third inning went so well for the Lady Panthers they decided to follow the blueprint once more in the fourth as two hits turned into two more runs. Sophomore Alyssa Jones led off with a bunt single and moved to second on a sac bunt. Another Marcus error pushed runners to the corners and Jones scored courtesy of a wild pitch with senior McKenna Brown at the dish. Another walk to Cink ended the afternoon for Blocker as she was replaced in the circle by sophomore Lauren Whitby, who threw in relief Friday night as well.
A new pitcher didn’t drastically alter the results though as East senior Shelbee Young singled to load the bases before the Lady Panthers scored their second run of the inning via wild pitch. Whitby averted further trouble, but East was now in front, 4-0.
The second half of that score was particularly troubling to Marcus as the Lady Marauders had a golden opportunity to put some runs on the board in between East’s pair of two-run innings.
Marcus sophomores Kacie Hildreth and Jennifer Beardsley led off the bottom of the third with back-to-back singles. A ground out moved the runners to second and third base before a walk to sophomore Devon Wallace loaded the bases with just one out.
“They have a lot of good hitters,” said Taylor Jones, East senior pitcher. “But we were able to pitch around [one of them] and take care of business.”
As had been the case in Game 2, Jones stepped up her game with runners on base. Jones, who threw 27 innings in the series, got a strikeout then induced a ground out to Lauren Peterson to keep the Lady Panthers shutout intact at 4-0.
“My arm is kind of sore,” Jones said. “But now I have all week to ice it.”
Not content with a four-run lead, Jones doubled to left center field with one out in the seventh inning to get in position for another run. East junior Jaclyn Giovannini came in to pinch run and advanced to third base on a Marcus passed ball. The Lady Marauders nearly got out of the inning with a double play, but the second half couldn’t be completed due to an errant throw to first and Giovannini scored to set the final at 5-0.
“Honestly, we didn’t want to be done yet,” Scott said. “As the season has gone on we’ve really gelled as a unit on the field and at the plate.”
Friday and Saturday was the first time the Lady Marauders had lost back-to-back games since the end of February.
East will play in the Class 5A State Semifinals at 5 or 8 p.m. Friday at McCombs Field in Austin.
“This is absolutely amazing; words can’t even describe how I’m feeling right now,” said Karen Kalhoefer, East head coach. “It’s amazing to be in this situation. Our girls are such fighters; they just had the mindset to come in here and win.”
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