McCaghren strikes out 10 as Danville beats Hatton
Mar. 1—HATTON — On Monday, Danville's McKinley McCaghren had 11 strikeouts in the win over Grissom. On Thursday, the Lady Hawks went to Hatton to face the defending 2A state champions, and the freshman struck out 10 in the 9-3 win.
"McKinley pitched well. She's pitched real well for us this year. We had a lot of people step up and get hits, and I thought we ran the bases well," said Danville head coach Christy Ferguson. "We were seeing the ball well early on and then slacked off. But McKinley kept us in the game with her strikeouts, so it was a sort of balanced attack today."
McCaghren shut out Hatton for the first three innings while the Lady Hawk offense opened up. In the second inning, they had an eight-run scoring burst that saw them go up big.
"Our offense has helped out because people have stepped up and I'm not carrying as much as I did last year," McCaghren said. "I don't feel so much pressure because my offense is producing and I can enjoy pitching."
The Lady Hornets finally caught some steam at the bottom of the fourth with two consecutive base hits. A few successful Hatton bunts got two past home to make the score 8-2.
"I was just glad they were able to win because Hatton is a good team, and I was just proud these girls came out to compete and we got a W under our belt." Ferguson said.
In the top of the fifth, Danville loaded the bases and Karsyn Echols walked home for the final Lady Hawk run to make it 9-2. Hatton scored in the bottom of the fifth to make it 9-3. But McCaghren picked up three more strikeouts, and the Danville defense sealed up the win.
"These girls have really bought into everything we're doing and they know in order for us to go to Oxford, we've got to play the best teams, and Hatton is one of those teams," Ferguson said. "I think the experience we had going to the state tournament last year really fueled our spirit."
McCaghren won the pitching battle. In seven innings she faced 29 batters and struck out 10 while giving up five hits. On the other side of the plate for Danville, Adily Alberti had four base hits and an RBI. Emily Lacy had a pair of RBI's on two doubles, and Kirstyn Robinson had an RBI on two base hits.
For Hatton, Arlie Rae Armstrong had two doubles and two RBIs. Hannah Berryman had an RBI on a base hit.
