By Jeremy McDonald
Jeremymcdonald73@gmail.com
NEWBERG, Ore.– The Lady Dragons 16U squad settled in after a rocky first inning defensively to open the NAFA Northwest Nationals at Darnell Sports Complex.
After surrendering a two-spot in the bottom half of the inning, Tawney Snair (Central) and Mahayla Benoit (Dallas) cleaned up the little things with the walks and the defense behind them held Surfside to no-hits over the next four innings. It gave their bats an opportunity to continue their trek in the Pool Play opening game.
“It’s definitely going to start us off strong, with the mats on the mound it’s a little harder to work with, but me and Tawney overcame it pretty well,” said Benoit.
Benoit has been working on her pitching over the last year and it’s been paying off big time for the incoming junior. Receiving all-league honors as an infielder as a second-teamer in a stacked Mid-Willamette Conference, Benoit is hoping to become more of a Jack-Of-All-Trades for Dallas High School this upcoming Spring and adding more depth to the Dragons pitching staff behind Maddi Jones.
“This has been a really big summer, just massive improvement and I’m excited to see this Spring. It’s going to be fun,” said Benoit.
The Lady Dragons, who led 6-2 after the first inning, pulled away. The Lady Dragons scored six unanswered runs. Benoit and Dallas teammate Ashaley Trine each hit home runs, both coming back-to-back in the top half of the third inning. Hannah Crowe (Dallas) drove in two runs with two hits with Riley Bennet (Dallas) leading the squad with 3RBI’s.
Leah Fink had a multi-RBI day for the Lady Dragons with 2RBI’s as the squad will return to Darnell Wright Sports Complex Friday morning for a pair of games to wrap-up Pool Play.
Photos By Jeremy McDonald
