One of the main cogs in the Pell City Lady Panther softball machine from 2008 will have a chance to show her stuff to a statewide audience this week.Senior-to-be Morgan McClure is one of 17 representatives playing for the North in this week’s North-South All-Star Softball game, scheduled for tonight at 6 p.m. at Metro Kiwanis Sportsplex.
McClure was one of two pitchers — along with rising sophomore Alli Hall — who helped carry the Lady Panthers to 18 wins during the 2008 regular season.
Maybe her most memorable moment came during a March game against Oxford, when the young pitcher took a line drive off her leg, but remained in the game, finishing with nine strikeouts.
“She’s just a tremendous competitor,” Pell City head coach Terry Isbell said after that game, a 4-0 victory. “You saw her get hit with the ball and she didn’t want any warm up pitches. She just got back out there and did her job. She’s just tough. She’s just a competitor.”
The 5-7 McClure is among rare company this week, along with players from around the state in the all-star game.
Being an upperclassman is a somewhat unusual spot for McClure, a pressure she felt even as a sophomore.
“I guess being considered an upperclassman makes me feel really awkward because I’m so used to being the little dog looking up to the big dog and now it’s like people are looking at you,” she said in 2007.
Still, she didn’t have to carry the load all by herself in ’08 – she and Hall combined to pitch consecutive extra-inning games down the stretch.
“The longer you pitch, the more your body wears down,” she said after a shutout performance.
First pitch for tonight’s game begins at 6 p.m. Thursday’s action includes volleyball and basketball, with the football game concluding things on Friday.
