Lady ‘Dogs start third straight title chase today at state softball tourney
Posted on Saturday, May 10, 2008
URL: http://www.nwanews.com/nwat/Sports/65050/
Fayetteville never made it a habit to drop games in the regular season, and head coach Jason Shirey sure doesn’t want to start a new trend in the state tournament today as the Lady Bulldogs start their quest for a third straight state championship.
Every team in the 7 A-West fell to the Lady Bulldogs this season — the second year in a row they’ve gone through conference without a loss. There were stumbles in tournaments with two losses to Bentonville and a run-rule trouncing at the hands of Class 3 A Elkins, but experience has Fayetteville riding high after a fifth straight conference championship.
Fayetteville (27-3 ) hopes to keep that going in earnest against Cabot at noon today on the campus of Arkansas Tech in Russellville. Cabot garnered the fourth seed out of the 7 A-Central and defeated Rogers, 3-1, in the first round Friday to advance.
Three games await Fayetteville, which had a week off to prepare with a first-round bye, to capture a state record third consecutive state title.
And in wait, the coaches are antsy. So are the players.
“ They’ve been good in practice, ” Shirey said of his players. “ I think the coaches are the ones that are struggling. We’ve been pushing them and they’ve been swinging the bats well. ”
The preparations have been completed, and a week after the Lady Bulldogs faced their stiffest gut check of the year in a 4-2 win on the road at Van Buren in nine innings, Shirey is confident in his team.
“ At this point, goodness gracious, we’ve been at it for five months plus the offseason, ” Shirey said. “ If we don’t know it by now, it’s too late to be putting stuff in and things like that. I trust the kids they know what they’re doing and I let them play. ”
Junior Amanda Summerford will take the pitcher’s circle once again for the Lady Bulldogs today against Cabot. While compiling a 20-2 record on the mound this season, she’s managed to build one of the state’s top ERAs at 0. 32. She’s also struck out an average 11 batters in each appearance this season.
For her, one game sticks out the most out of her 20 wins that have mostly featured run-rule wins — the Van Buren road trip last week.
“ Emotionally and physically, it prepared us a lot for state, ” Summerford said. “ There’s going to be close games like that in the tournament. There’ll be extra innings. It’s going to be very emotional. We have to be focused and I think that game helped a lot with that. ”
The junior struck out 10 batters and gave up three hits in that game, while her teammates found a way after struggling at the plate against one of the top pitchers in the state, Kelsey Williams.
In the state tournament, Shirey said, every team has an ace.
“ Van Buren pushed us. I think a close game like that showed a lot of good, ” he said. “ They had an opponent that wouldn’t drop and they put them away. That’s encouraging to me. ”
It was the closest conference game for Fayetteville on its course to winning 38 consecutive conference games. Sophomore Jessika Booher stepped up big late in the season, but so has most of the lineup at some point this season, Shirey said.
Lauren Caldwell has been the most consistent at the plate, hitting. 523 in the leadoff spot. Morgan Keller leads the team in RBIs with 33, while Ca ldwell leads in r uns scored with 35.
The players aren’t satisfied, yet, Summerford said.
“ We just need to go in and make routine plays and play like we know how, ” she said. “ You just want to show up and dominate, really. ”