Bison girls seek repeat trip to state softball meet

Wednesday, October 6, 2010

McCook High School head softball coach Jason Cochran would love a repeat of last year's district tournament championship -- although Cochran hopes his Bison girls can take an easier route to a district title than they did in 2009.

McCook will compete with five other teams in the Class B-6 District meet at the Scottsbluff Softball Complex Thursday and Friday, Oct. 7-8. The B-6 District champ advances to the Class B State High School Softball Championships at Hastings Oct. 13-15.

The Bison, 16-9, are seeded second in the district meet behind 22-3 Cozad. McCook and Cozad drew first-round byes. The Bison will see action Thursday at 3:15 p.m. CDT on the south field in Scottsbluff against the Scottsbluff-Alliance winner. Cozad also meets the Gering-Chadron first-round winner Thursday at 3:15 p.m. on the north field.

In last year's district tourney played in snowy, cold conditions in Chadron, McCook was upset by Lexington in first-round play, as the Minutemaids claimed a 4-3 win. The Bison then made a brilliant run through the elimination bracket, winning four straight games to claim the district title and advance to state.

Fourth at GNAC tourney

The Bison are coming off a fourth-place finish at the Greater Nebraska Athletic Conference tournament Oct. 2 in Norfolk.

McCook faced three Class A teams in the GNAC meet, beating Norfolk 7-4 in the first round, then losing a 12-11 decision to Columbus in the semifinals after watching the Discoverers rally from a five-run deficit in the bottom of the seventh inning. McCook then lost to North Platte in the third-place final.

While the Bison surely would have cherished a berth in the GNAC title game -- against Scottsbluff, no less -- Coach Cochran said this week's district tourney is much more important than conference.

"Not taking anything away from Columbus -- they struck the ball well," Cochran said of the last-inning barrage. "It was just one of those games, kind of like Lexington last year (in districts). It's unfortunate, but it happened.

"I have a five-second rule -- you forget about it after five seconds. We kind of lingered on it with North Platte, and so it better be over now. They have to refocus, and there's nothing we can do to change the past. We've just got to play."

Bison pitching ace

McCook will rely on senior pitcher Kelsey Gillen, the ace of the staff. Gillen has worked about 140 of McCook's 151 innings this season. Gillen has a 15-8 record with a 1.99 earned-run average. Kelsey has allowed 163 hits and 100 runs, with 32 walks and 64 strikeouts.

The Bison are batting .319 this fall as a team and averaging over six runs scored per game while allowing an average of just under five runs per contest.

Gillen leads McCook hitters with a .500 average, with three home runs, 12 doubles, 36 hits and 38 runs batted in. Senior Amanda Einspahr is hitting .397 with 29 hits and a team-high 36 runs scored. Senior Erin Premer is hitting .338 with 26 hits, four doubles, a triple and 17 RBI. Sophomores Madison Chitwood (.348 average, three doubles, 10 RBI) and Megan Ruppert (.324, seven doubles, three triples, 16 RBI) have also been leaders at the plate for the Bison.

Defense key to success

The McCook coach thinks his team's defense will be the key to success at districts.

"Just play our game -- we're seeing the ball (batting), we're striking the ball the best we've ever have," he said. "Pitching has been great. If we can keep the (scores) down and have rest in between games, Kelsey will be fine. It's just our defense. We need to shore up the defense. It's a good defense, but we haven't hit our peak. We keep having more than one error a game, and we can't have that. We've got to focus and we definitely can't have back-to-back errors."

Hopefully the Bison and the rest of the B-6 District field won't face the miserable weather conditions that hit last fall's district competition. The weather.com forecast Thursday and Friday in Scottsbluff is calling for a 30-percent of isolated showers each day, with a high temperature of 81 Thursday and 75 Friday.

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