Lady Warriors slip past Plainview, into semifinals

SULPHUR - Hits were at a premium Friday for the Northside Christian Lady Warriors in their Class C quarterfinal contest against No. 6 seed Plainview.
  But when the Lady Warriors needed them most, Zoie Hanagriff was there to provide for them.
The junior first baseman logged two of the Lady Warriors' four hits, both doubles, and drove in a pair of runs, helping lift NCS to a 3-1 victory at Frasch Park. 
  The victory put the Lady Warriors into Saturday's semifinal round against St. Joseph. The winner played later in the day for the state championship.
  "Zoie had a big day for us," said her father and NCS head coach Ryan Hanagriff. "Their pitcher was really doing a good job of keeping us off balance; so those two hits were huge for us." 
Zoie Hanagriff doubled in the third inning to plate Kathryn Zaunbrecher, who had reached base on an error, and she doubled again in the sixth to drive home Meghan Jones, who had singled. 
  Hanagriff then stole third base and scored when Sydni Guidry executed a suicide squeeze to perfection. 
  "The execution on the squeeze play was timely," said Hanagriff. "We needed it desperately in that inning and Sydni did a great job of getting it down." 
  Defensively, the Lady Warriors were flawless, which wasn't the case in an earlier playoff game when they had four errors in the first two innings.
  "Our defense really showed up today and did their job," said Hanagriff. "We didn't make any errors and that helped keep us in the game and gave our offense a chance to win it." 
  NCS pitcher Madisyn Clement gave up one run in the third inning when Kloe Fee led off the frame with a double, moved to third base on a passed ball and scored on a groundout by Mackhanzi Richard.
  In the bottom of the seventh, Clement, who scattered five hits and struck out four, walked the leadoff batter on four straight pitches, but quickly regrouped and struck out the next two batters before getting a groundout to shortstop Leah Monte to end the game.
  "Madisyn had a good game," said Hanagriff of Clement, who also had one hit on the day. "She was hitting her spots and she was able to keep them off balance for the most part." 
  The Lady Warriors, last year's Class C state runnersup, took on St. Joseph's yesterday in a semifinal contest, but results of that game were not available as of press time.
  "We had the opportunity to watch them (St. Joseph's) earlier in the season and they are good," said Hanagriff of the Lady Eagles. "They have a good pitcher that works the outside of the plate, but she's not overpowering.
"And the top of their lineup is pretty good; they put the ball in play and they are aggressive on the bases. We know a little about them and we've got a game plan for them for sure."