McKenna Gregory and Grace French combined on a five-inning no-hitter as Benicia High’s varsity softball team closed out the Solano County Athletic Conference season with a 15-0 victory at American Canyon on Tuesday.

Gregory struck out six in three innings of work while French struck out two in two innings. Neither pitcher walked a batter, and an error was all that prevented a perfect game. American Canyon’s lone base runner was thrown out trying to steal second base.

Shelby Thompson led Benicia’s offensive attack, going 3-for-4 with three runs and a RBI. Nataschia Wibben went 2-for-3 and drove in two, Jina Skidmore scored three times, and Gregory and Annika Johnson each had two hits.

Benicia led only 2-0 after two innings but broke the game open with five runs in the third inning and four runs in each of the next two innings.

The Lady Panthers (18-4 overall) went 13-2 in SCAC play, finishing second behind the Vanden Vikings (16-1, 14-1). Vanden won 2-of-3 meetings between the two teams this season.

Benicia’s regular season isn’t over. The Lady Panthers travel to Sheldon High in Sacramento on Friday. The Lady Huskies are 23-2 overall this season and ranked No. 17 in the state.

“I wanted to face some stiff competition at the end of the year to get us ready for the playoffs,” said Benicia manager Kristin Grubbs. “We need to build some confidence knowing we’ve seen some good pitchers and know what to expect. This is our last chance to work on some things before the start of playoffs.”

The Lady Panthers are expected to get seeded into the Division III bracket for the Sac-Joaquin Section playoffs, which begin May 17 at the Sacramento Softball Complex. Benicia won the Division II championship in 2014 and 2015 but had last year’s Section title taken away due to an ineligible player.

Sharing is caring!