Newcastle beats McGuiness, 11-0, and stays unbeaten at 15-0
The Newcastle Racers fast-pitch softball team kept its perfect record unblemished on Monday afternoon with a solid 11-0 victory over the McGuinness Fighting Irish.
The pre-game festivities were dedicated to Newcastle’s only senior, Terra Funk. She was honored before the game and was the Racers’ starting pitcher. She went the distance in shutting down the Irish.
The Racers scored eight runs in the bottom of the first inning. After McGuinness’ pitcher walked the bases loaded, McKenzie Wagoner knocked them all in. Catcher Shannon Pursell’s sacrifice fly to score Taryn O’Brien made it 5-0. Maebree Robertson’s two-run inside-the-park home run made it 8-0.
“I felt good out there,” Funk said. “I knew we would come out and score. So, that helped. My defense helped me out a lot, too.”
Newcastle is now 15-0 overall and 6-0 in District 4A-4 play. McGuinness dropped to 2-6 overall and 0-6 in district play. Newcastle head coach Mike Crossley was pleased with his team’s performance, especially after coming off a weekend tournament at Bixby.
“I know in the past that we’ve had some tough ball games following a big tournament like we had at Bixby this weekend,” Crossley said. “You have a tendency to have a letdown because you’re tired and such. I know they’re not the strongest team but it wasn’t a bad game to have. We still jumped out 8-0 in the first inning. We went through the motions after that.
“You have to hand it to McGuinness. They knew that they were probably going to get beat but they still showed up and played hard. You have to respect that and I was proud of how our girls acted towards them. Tomorrow and Thursday, though, are two tough ones for us.”
Indeed, the Racers have a tough road ahead of them. They played district foe Tecumseh (10-9, 3-3) at home on Tuesday afternoon. They played Bethel (11-11, 3-3) today (Sept. 13) at 5 p.m. Then, on Saturday, they play at 1 p.m. in the Dale Festival against Class 5 No. 1-ranked Kiowa.
“We’ll have to be ready to play and we will be,” Crossley said. “Our girls know what’s at stake. As we get closer to the playoffs, our focus will go up more. I noticed that this past weekend when Skiatook got us down and we had to come back twice to win that game. We hadn’t played that much because of the rain but you could see our focus and determination. We turned it up a notch and that can win you a lot of games. But, we have some really tough ball games ahead of us and I’m excited about that.”
At the Bixby Tournament, Class 5A Skiatook took the Racers to extra innings before losing to Newcastle, 4-3. They beat Class 6A Jenks, 2-0, behind another no-hitter from Wagoner – her fourth of the season. The Racers also beat Mullen (Colo.), 11-1, at the rain-shortened Bixby Tournament.
“We’ve got Tecumseh and Bethel and Dale twice,” Crossley said. “We also have Mustang and Shawnee coming up on the schedule. We have Long Grove coming up again and we go to the Oklahoma Christian tournament in Edmond. Mustang, Deer Creek, Sand Springs, and Owasso will be in that. It’s full of scorpions up there! We’ll get battle tested but we’ll be ready for it. We’ve had some battles already but I’m ready for that game-after-game-after-game stuff to get us ready for the playoffs.”
Crossley was pleased with his team’s performance at Bixby last weekend.
“We played pretty well this weekend,” Crossley said. “We played real good defense. We didn’t swing the bats as well as I would have liked. But, our defense played well and our pitchers were really good. McKenzie threw a no-hitter against Jenks and it was one pitch away from being a perfect game.
“I thought it was a strike but the umpire called it a ball. That was the only base runner they had and she walked her with two outs in the last inning. The next girl lined out to second. Jenks is a good ball club and it was a good outing for McKenzie.”
Perhaps the highlight of Monday’s game against McGuinness was before the first pitch was even thrown. The Irish had four players – Liz Fankhauser, Lexi Cunningham, Jill Cunningham, and Paola Grella – perform the “National Anthem” for the pre-game festivities, much to the delight of Newcastle’s fans.
“They sang it when we went to their place,” Crossley said. “I saw one of them at home plate before this game and asked if they wanted to sing it again. She said ‘Sure’ and I knew that she had three teammates who had helped her. They are just good people over at McGuinness. For them to show up and get after it even though they might know it will be tough on them, you have to respect that.”
McGuinness head coach Jim Gasso said those four girls were more than happy to perform for the Racers. Gasso (whose wife, Patty, has led the Oklahoma Sooners softball team to four national championships) was proud of his team’s support.
“We have a lot of young players,” Gasso said. “ We only have one senior and the others are underclass-men. They’re learning how to make their adjustments and how to be more competitive. We are young and we’re just striving to get better every time we play. Those kids are tremendous singers.
“At the beginning of one of our first practices this year, they told me they were going to be a little late because they had choir practice. I said ‘Okay, well sing the song that you’re going to sing.’ Normally, when you call someone out like that, they won’t sing because they’re scared. But, they did. They do that at some of our events at our school, too. They’re really talented.”
“Our girls know what’s at stake. As we get closer to the playoffs, our focus will go up more.”
-Coach Mike Crossley