Athlete of the Week for Monday, March 27, 2023

Name:     Ally McBride

School:   Catholic High School

Year:       Junior

Sport:      Softball

Position:  Pitcher

About Ally:  

Ally was dominant in the circle, tossing a two-hit, 14-strikeout shutout of Mount de Sales Academy in the Cubs' return to the A Conference.

She also swatted two homers and drove in four runs in the 8-0 triumph.

“I felt really on in practice yesterday,” Ally said after the game. “So I was excited to see what this game would bring.”

“The thing about Ally is, it begins with her preparation before the game,” Catholic coach Derrick Adams said. “It’s her discipline, her attention to detail, her drive to have that little extra. And the thing about it is, when you get to a certain level, it becomes more of a mental thing, and that sharper edge is her mental focus on the game — she has that. When you have a kid like that, I can trust her with things I wouldn’t normally trust other kids with.”

Ally said that her three-run blast in the second came after she didn’t swing a similar offering in the first.

“I got up again and knew that I would go after it if I saw another one like that,” she said, noting that her opposite-field homer in the fourth was because she “let her hands go with the bat to go the other way” on an outside pitch.