H.S. Softball: China Spring too much for Westwood in bi-district matchup

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April 28, 2012

H.S. Softball: China Spring too much for Westwood in bi-district matchup

By JUSTIN RAINS Palestine Herald-Press The Palestine Herald-Press Sat Apr 28, 2012, 10:00 PM CDT

CORSICANA — The Westwood softball team knew it would be up against a strong China Spring team in its bi-district playoff matchup Saturday.

What it ran into was an almost perfect Lady Cougars squad.

Behind a six-run first inning and a near flawless performance from pitcher Mollie Kinlaw, China Spring topped the Lady Panthers, 10-0, in five innings.

“I feel like the girls’ were rattled and they made a bunch of errors they shouldn’t have made,” WHS coach Jenna Jenkins said. “We just started off with a bad inning and it didn’t put us in the right frame of mind for the rest of the game.”

China Spring’s first seven batters reached in the bottom of the first, with the first six all coming around to score.

Katie Andrie, Haylee Williams and Anna Viers led off the inning with three-straight singles, with Andrie scoring on Williams hit and both Williams and Viers scoring on a double by Kinlaw in the clean-up spot.

Amelia Cluke then reached on an error, and a subsequent throwing error on the play allowed Kinlaw to score and Cluke to move all the way to third.

She would then score on a single by Amanda Fulp, who would steal second on and score on a two-out single by Andrie in her second at-bat.

The Lady Cougars appeared to add a seventh run at the end of the inning, when it appeared as if Emily Wood, who had reached on a walk, scored on an infield single by Williams before Andrie was put out trying to go from second to third on the hit.

But, that run was never credited to China Spring on the scoreboard. It would prove not to matter.

“We’ve had some issues coming out strong and we’ve really worked on being aggressive at the plate,” China Spring coach Christina Ochoa said. “We’ve worked on getting a little bit more imagination in the girls’ minds as far as making things happen offensively.”

The playoff appearance was the first for Westwood since 2009, and Jenkins thought it showed in her team’s play early on.

“The first inning they were very nervous,” she said. “After the first couple of innings, they calmed down a lot and really played good defense the rest of the game and limited China Spring.”

The Lady Cougars added three more runs in the second, with another coming in the fourth.

All the while, Kinlaw continued to roll.

The China Spring sophomore retired the Westwood lineup in order over the first three innings, and allowed her only hit in the fourth when Alex El-Cassabgui hit a ground ball up the middle with two outs.

“Molly has grown a lot over this last year,” Ochoa said of her pitcher. “She went through a lot last year as a freshman and has really grown and she was dominant. She was poised, just like she has been all year.”

Over the game’s five innings, she struck out seven, and El-Cassabgui’s single was one of only two to leave the infield. The other came off the bat of Westwood’s Courtney Stanhope immediately following El-Cassabgui’s single.

Stanhope hit the ball on a rope to left field, but it went directly to Kristen Vramick, who made the catch to end the inning.

The loss ended the Westwood careers of El-Cassabgui, pitcher Lexy McGuire, second baseman Rachel Abke and centerfielder Emily Mackie.

The team had reached the postseason when the quartet were freshmen, and Jenkins credited them with helping guide the program back to the playoffs.

“We couldn’t have done it without them this year,” Jenkins said. “They’re great leaders and they really helped bring us to this point.

“I told them going to the playoffs is a step in the right direction...and they played a huge role.”

China Spring (21-8) moves on to face Lufkin Hudson in the area round. Hudson was the champion of District 18-3A.

Westwood ends the season with an 18-10 overall record.

Grapeland opponent set

The top-ranked Grapeland softball team will open the playoffs this weekend in Nacogdoches as they take on Shelbyville.

Sheblyville won two games Saturday over Brookeland to overcome a 1-0 deficit in the team’s best-of-three series.

The Grapeland/Shelbyville matchup will also be a best-of-three, with Game 1 set for 7 p.m. Friday in Nacogdoches. Game 2 is at noon Saturday, with Game 3 to follow if necessary.

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H.S. Softball: China Spring too much for Westwood in bi-district matchup

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