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(NISD | CONTRIBUTED PHOTO) The Graham Leader is recognizing Mattie Dollar as the Ladycats athlete of the week. The lone athletic representative left for Newcastle has had a strong postseason to qualify for the state championship in Dodd City. -
(ALEX HAVARDANSKY | THE GRAHAM LEADER) The Graham Leader is recognizing Bruin Wright as the Steers athlete of the week. Wright made a key defensive play in center field to keep the game scoreless and be a spark plug for Graham’s five run third inning explosion.
There aren’t many spring sports left for this academic year, but there’s still enough to highlight some stellar performances.
Steers baseball continued to stay hot and advanced to the regional semifinals. Meanwhile the Ladycats tennis team still has a lone representative heading to the state tournament in Dodd City.
For the final time this year, The Graham Leader is recognizing Mattie Dollar and Bruin Wright as the Athletes of the Week.
Mattie Dollar, Ladycats Tennis
It has been quite the journey this season for Dollar. She advanced all the way to the state tournament based on her performance at the regional championships in Richland.
Things took off for Dollar in the postseason at the district championships in Mineral Wells. She won the girls singles tournament at that stage by overcoming all challengers, including from high profile schools like Woodson.
Dollar got to work again during the regional championships where she flashed brilliance. Dollar won her first round matches 6-0 and 6-1 respectively against Iredell.
In round two, Dollar went up against Mount Palm High School and dispatched them quickly once again with final scores of 6-1 each in both of her matches.
Dollar ran into some trouble against Ector but ultimately proved victorious, grinding out 7-6 and 6-3 matches to make her way to the championship match of the tournament.
Despite coming up short in said championship match, the fact that she qualified meant she was the runner up in the girls singles tournament, advancing to the state championship. The Newcastle ISD Facebook page put out a statement about her performance.
“Mattie Dollar won second at Regional Tennis today and qualified for State Tennis Next Week,” the post stated. “Great job, Mattie.”
All eyes for Newcastle will shift to Dollar as she heads to Dodd City as the sole representative of her school remaining this academic year.
Bruin Wright, Steers Varsity Baseball
The lone team remaining on the sports calendar for Graham stayed hot Friday, May 9 and took down the FW Castleberry Lions 7-3 to keep their season alive once again.
The team took control of the contest in some very unconventional ways. They scored five runs in the bottom of the third all without needing a hit to bring them in.
The team was also very impactful defensively keeping things scoreless up until the final inning of play when things were already out of reach.
One of the early spark plugs on defense in the game was Wright. The senior has spent much of his time this season moving back and forth between pitching and playing in the outfield.
This game, Wright was able to flash the leather from center field. In the top of the third, the Steers were in danger of surrendering early momentum to the Lions with a runner at third and a flyball hit into center field.
Wright made the catch in the outfield which caused the third base runner to tag home leading to a perfect throw from Wright to catcher Tripp Mahaney. Mahaney tagged the runner out to the thunderous reaction of the Graham crowd.
The team was able to eliminate the base running threat and keep things scoreless an inning before their five run eruption.
“It was a big swing in momentum right then,” Head coach Allen McGee said. “Proud to have him as a Graham Steer.”
As the team travels to play El Paso Riverside over the weekend, they will need more key contributions from senior leaders like Wright to try and advance once again.
