Ava Brown, Montgomery Lake Creek dominate; Nation's top softball team returns to Texas 5A state title
AUSTIN, Texas — With one SEC softball commit standing on third base and another SEC signee stepping into the batter's box, Montgomery Lake Creek — the No. 1 team in SBLive's Power 25 national softball ankings — made its move.
Senior pitcher Ava Brown — a Florida Gators signee — smoked a hard-hit ground ball to the gap between first and second base.
Frisco Heritage's Natalie Lopez plucked the ball out of the dirt and fired it towards home plate, but it wasn't quick enough to beat Lake Creek senior shortstop Maddie McKee — an LSU Tigers signee — who darted to the plate and slid head first ahead of the tag to score.
That infield RBI sparked a five-run rally for the Lions that helped them break the game wide open Friday morning.
Brown and McKee highlighted a dominant performance by the defending state champs, as Lake Creek crushed Frisco Heritage 9-0 in the 5A UIL state semifinals at Red & Charline McCombs Field at the University of Texas.
Photo by Andrew McCulloch
McKee finished 2-for-4 hitting with a double, an RBI, a run scored and a stolen base on a wild pitch.
Brown earned the win in the circle with 10 strikeouts, three hits allowed, one walk and a .120 OBA through 7.0 scoreless innings pitched. She also had two RBI and a sac fly for the Lions offensively.
The loss snaps a five-game winning streak and ends Frisco Heritage's (34-4-1) season after the Coyotes advanced to the UIL state tournament for the first time in program history.
Montgomery Lake Creek (43-1), meanwhile, wins the 84th of its last 85 games with the victory and advances to its second straight Class 5A state title game.
The Lions will return to action to defend their state title against either New Braunfels Canyon (31-0) or Colleyville Heritage (37-7) at 1 p.m. on Saturday, June 3rd, at the University of Texas' Red & Charline McCombs Field in Austin.
