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Ending on a high note: East victorious in final game
BY Chris O’Dell, codell@acnpapers.com
The 2011 season didn’t go quite the way the Plano East softball team expected.
After dominating their non-district schedule, the Lady Panthers endured several losing streaks and entered Thursday night’s game with Lewisville at 6-7 against District 8-5A competition.
But although the Lady Panthers have been eliminated from playoff contention, the team ended the season with a bang Thursday, defeating the Lady Farmers 7-0 in front of their home crowd.
East was led by junior pitcher Holly Kern, who tossed a complete game shutout on the mound and drove in three runs at the plate.
“[Kern] is a perfectionist, an athlete and a competitor,” Kalhoefer said.
Kern surrendered just four hits and one walk while fanning nine batters en route to the seven-run victory.
“She did great,” Kalhoefer said. “She has gotten really frustrated with herself at times this year because she’d put together six great innings but not be able to finish it off in the seventh. This was her chance to say ‘I’m still a good pitcher in this district.’ And she did that tonight.”
After a scoreless first inning, East got on the board during the bottom of the second after Lewisville sophomore pitcher Chloe Campise issued two free passes to sophomore catcher KK Stevens and senior second baseman Missy Reitz.
After a single from sophomore third baseman Ashleigh Hinshaw during the next at-bat, junior outfielder Chandler Cink roped an RBI single up the middle to break the scoreless tie.
“They hit the ball hard tonight,” said Lori Alexander, Lewisville head coach. “They were hitting the gaps up the middle all night.”
Although the one run would ultimately be enough for Kern, the Lady Panthers would go on to score in three of the next four innings after taking the 1-0 lead.
The biggest inning for East came in the fourth when Cink got another RBI hit, setting up Kern’s two-run inside-the-park home run.
With a runner on second, Kern roped a Campise pitch past a diving attempt from senior second baseman Hannah Barnett. When junior centerfielder Haley Howerton also failed on a diving effort, Kern was able to make her way back home for a two-run homer.
“Although they were getting hard hits, we had a couple of mistakes in the field that hurt us,” Alexander said.
The three-run inning would spell the end for Campise’s outing, allowing her to last just four innings on the night. The sophomore surrendered four runs on nine hits while walking two and striking out none.
The Lewisville bullpen didn’t fair any better either.
After Campise exited the game, the Lady Panthers added another three runs in the fifth and sixth innings to push their lead to seven runs.
Reitz accounted for one of those runs during the bottom of the fifth when the senior smashed a fastball over the left centerfield wall for a solo shot.
“Tonight, you could tell they were ready to show we’re a good team,” Kalhoefer said. “And that things just didn’t go our way this season.”
The win puts East’s final district mark at 7-7. However, the victory also pushed the Lady Panthers’ overall record to 23-8.
“That’s still a big year,” Kalhoefer said. “I haven’t had too many teams win that many games in one season.”
For Lewisville, the 7-0 loss drops the team to 3-11 against District 8-5A competition this season.
“We just didn’t have our best night offensively tonight,” Alexander said.
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