Featured Game: MHS Mounts Record Comeback

contributed by: joearriolajr

By Joe Arriola
Sports Reporter -- TOWNSQUAREBUZZ.com

In five years of coaching softball at McKinney High, Lionettes head coach Jeremy Greenway never witnessed a comeback like he did Tuesday night. Heading into the seventh-inning, his girls were trailing crosstown rival McKinney North by a score of 13-6. With their backs against the wall, the Lionettes' bats came alive and MHS managed to score seven runs, most of which were scored with two outs. After sending the game into extra innings, the Lionettes capitalized on a McKinney North error and junior Lauren McQuestion scored the game-winning run in the bottom of the eighth Tuesday night to give MHS a 14-13 district win.

"That's the biggest comeback victory that I've ever been apart of," Greenway said. "We've been scrappy all year as far as staying in games and not letting them go away without a fight. We have a lot of fight."

The Lionettes managed to score six runs in six innings but Greenway said it wasn't until the crucial seventh-inning that they decided to start hitting the ball.

"I think the girls finally figured out that they had the skills necessary to take care of this [game]," he said.

Tuesday nights win improved MHS' overall record to 9-14 with an 8-3 mark in District 10-4A, and most importantly it put the Lionettes in the playoffs. Greenway said that his team's performance in the seventh-inning is a sign of how dangerous it can be when his girls get momentum and he hopes to see that type of performance in the three remaining regular season games as well as the postseason.

"If we put together innings like the seventh-inning consistently - we're going to be a tough contender in the first round of the playoffs."

Greenway added that the win gives his team some much-needed breathing room in the district standings while North still has to face Wylie and Rockwall in the next week.

"They definitely have their hands full."

In their previous meeting with the Lady Bulldogs, the Lionettes cruised to a 20-9 victory. Since then, the Lady Bulldogs have made several key improvements on hitting and defense and Greenway made his girls aware of this before they took the field.

"Coach Sedgwick has put together his defense a little bit better and North is playing a lot better than they did the first round," he said. "We told our girls it was going to be a fight. But I think they probably had their guard down a little bit."

Heading into the fourth inning, McKinney High held a 5-3 advantage and the Lionettes looked to be slowly building their lead. But with bases loaded, North sophomore Chandler Johnson took a Chelsea Thomas pitch down the middle an knocked it out of the park for a grand slam. And just like that, the Lady Bulldogs held a two-run lead and captured the momentum as they would go on to outscore the Lionettes 6-1 following Johnson's highlight reel slam.

"[Thomas] wasn't spinning the ball like she normally does and North took advantage of that like you're supposed to," Greenway said. "It's kind of interesting to see how your girls respond in that situation. The girls never gave up. They saw the grand slam but they still stuck to the fight and stayed in the game enough to tie it up and go to extra innings."

While the Lionettes have already punched their ticket to the postseason, they still have three remaining games on their schedule including at home versus Richardson Pearce (Fri.), at Wylie East (Tue.) and at home against Highland Park (4/21).