By Robert Morgan | Published Thursday, May 14, 2009
A two-week break because of the swine flu scare and one of the best pitchers it had seen all year was not a good combination for the Chico High School softball team when it faced Ponder.
The Lady Dragons, who scored 75 runs in its last six games, never found home plate in Saturday's Class 2A bi-district playoff game at Boswell. They struck out 14 times and never strung together enough hits to make up for one bad inning in a 6-0 loss.
"Their pitcher was awesome. We struggled against her, and she definitely carries that team," said Chico senior Rachel McKinley, who is her team's and Wise County's leading hitter. "With the UIL changes in schedules, it felt like the game was rushed. Our defense was good, but we could have done better. This does not take away from our season, though because after a rocky start we did what nobody thought we could do - win and get to the playoffs. And we did both."
Ponder used a five-run second inning to score the first runs of the game and set the tone for the rest of the night. That's where they got four of their nine hits and capitalized on two of Chico's five errors to take a 5-0 lead.
The Lady Dragons settled down after that and played like the team that won six straight games to earn the school's first playoff spot in any sport since they last did it in 2006. Senior pitcher Jessica Coffman threw the first four innings, and freshman Malori Moss went three innings and allowed one run before leaving the circle with a sore shoulder in the sixth.
Lion pitcher Ashley Anderson handcuffed a Chico batting order that averaged 12 runs a game in the second half of district play. She struck out 14 batters and allowed five hits along the way that were scattered among the seven innings.
"We played well but made too many mistakes to win against a quality team like Ponder. After that second inning where we gave up four unearned runs, we really settled down and fought hard but could not get the big hits when we needed them," said CHS coach Mike May. "It was a tough loss, but I'm still proud of our girls and the way they handled themselves during this game and the entire season."
Freshman Hannah Avants had the most success against Anderson as she went two for three at the plate. Senior Delani Long, junior Kaci Walker and Moss scattered singles along the way but were left on base.
