Photo by Victor Tapia
Lady Panther Katie Craig lays down a bunt that scores Sierra Johnson from
third base during the 16-6 win over Wills Point in the Class 3A Region II bi-district
round at Wylie. For additional photos follow this link
csmedia.mycapture.com/mycapture/category.asp

Team excels in all parts of game in bi-district win

By David Jenkins
Staff Writer

The Lady Panthers used aggressive base running and timely hits last Saturday while beating Wills Point 16-6 in the opening round of the Class 3A Region II playoffs.

The game was played at Wylie High School.

“Our base running and execution on the bunts worked just the way we had planned in practice,” head coach Craig Deputy said. “The first run scored was on four consecutive bunts. I’m very happy with the execution.”

The Lady Panthers face 16-3A’s top seed Pittsburg in an area-round matchup 7:30 p.m. Friday at Canton High School.

“If you give up six runs in the next game, it’s going to be tough to win,” Deputy said. “They have three girls that are strong, which was just like Wills Point. Pittsburg has a couple of girls that can hit the ball. Aside from that they have the same type of pitching. We played them last year and it was a good game. I really don’t know much about them this year though.”

The Lady Panthers totaled 13 hits and gave up six against Wills Point. Both teams committed three errors.

Princeton scored runs in the second (one), third (four), fourth (four) and sixth (seven) innings.

Putting forth strong showings at the  plate were Katie Craig (run scoring ground out), Janine Godwin (RBI single and a triple), Jordan Strickland (run scoring fly out), Chanin Naudin (RBI single), Sierra Johnson (RBI single), Presley Stanley (RBI triple and one double) and Shelby Ballenger (RBI single).

“I’m very happy with a few players and those are (Presley) Stanley and (Sierra) Johnson,” Deputy said. “They told me they were going to come out and hit the ball and they did just that.”

Picking up the decision was Shelby Ballenger, who pitched a complete game, struck out 11 and issued four walks.

“She did a good job for us,” Deputy said. “She did throw a few too many pitches though. When she is on top of her game she gets a lot of ground balls and our defense does the rest. Overall, I thought she did a good job.”