By Robert Morgan | Published Thursday, April 23, 2009
It was just a month ago that the Chico High School softball team struggled to get more than a handful of runs. However, April has been much kinder to the Lady Dragons, and district teams have been paying the price.
Boyd discovered Monday night how lethal the Chico bats have become in the final stretch of the district race. The Lady Dragons scattered 11 hits and capitalized on four walks to earn the season sweep over the Lady Yellowjackets with an 11-0 win in six innings via the mercy rule.
The game was up for grabs through four innings of play as Chico crawled in front 3-0. However, things turned sour for Boyd in the fifth when the Lady Dragons scored eight runs in five hits and four walks to blow the game wide open.
"Chico really hit the ball well, and we could not get anything going against their pitching," said BHS coach Brandon Hopkins. "We struck out way too many times, and we only struck them out once. My hat's off to Chico; they look like they are going to get the third playoff seed."
The win pushed Chico to 8-4 in district play with two games to go against Jacksboro and state-ranked Brock, while Boyd slipped to 4-8.
After a scoreless first inning, the Lady Dragons got things going with solo runs in the second and third innings. Senior Jessica Coffman delivered the biggest hit when she ripped an RBI single to left field to score Malori Moss and make it a 2-0 ball game.
Boyd had a chance to make a lot of noise in the bottom half of the third inning when Shelbi Tidwell got a hit and her teammates got back-to-back walks to load the bases. However, Coffman was solid from the circle and struck out the final batter to get out of the jam with no runs.
Delani Long, Stephanie Stephens and Moss made several crucial defensive plays to keep Boyd scoreless.
The Lady Dragons erupted in the fifth inning and forced Boyd to change pitchers. Rachel McKinley came through with the first of many clutch hits when she doubled to left field to score Shanna Fatheree to make it 4-0.
Moss and Coffman followed and Kaci Walker was hit by a pitch to load the bases. All three scored on a double to center field by Hannah Avants, which put Chico in front 8-0.
Nikki Weatherly and Fatheree walked to load the bases once again. McKinley smashed her second double of the inning when he drove the ball into the top of the center field wall to score three runs and put Chico ahead 11-0.
The Lady Yellowjackets needed two runs in the fifth inning to avoid an early end to the game. Danielle Foster got on base with an error, but Boyd did not get any base runners as Coffman had two more strikeouts.
