BENICIA HIGH’S McKenna Gregory was named to the Cal-Hi Sports First Team as a multipurpose player

Benicia High’s McKenna Gregory was recently named to the Underclassman First Team as a multipurpose softball player by Cal-Hi Sports.

Gregory, who was a Second Team multipurpose player selection in 2015 after her sophomore season, was bumped up to First Team after a 2016 junior season that saw her go 19-7 with a 1.37 earned-run average and 173 strikeouts in 143 1/3 innings pitched. Gregory also hit .430 last season with six homers and 26 RBIs.

“It’s really exciting,” said Gregory, who will begin her senior year at Benicia High this fall. “I’m pretty proud.”

“There’s a lot of talent in California so that’s a huge honor,” said Benicia softball manager Kristin Grubbs. “For her to get it as a multipurpose player, which is for hitting and pitching, that’s huge. In this day and age of softball, a lot of pitchers don’t hit. But McKenna is a great all-around player and there’s no way I’m not having her bat in the lineup.”

Gregory often hit in the clean-up spot and pitched every inning during last season’s Sac-Joaquin Section Division III playoffs. She threw a no-hitter against El Capitan in the first game of the playoffs (her second no-hitter of the year) and hit a pair of home runs in the first game against Ceres in the championship round.

Gregory is already committed to Michigan State University after graduating from Benicia.

“Being named All-State doesn’t really change anything, but it’ll be nice to tell the coaches at Michigan State that I made the First Team,” Gregory said.

“It shows that all of her hard work and dedication to the team is being recognized outside of our city, outside of our league and outside of our section,” Grubbs said.

Teammate Shelby Thompson, who graduated this past spring, was a Second Team selection in 2015 and is nominated for the 2016 All-State team.

The Lady Panthers have reached the championship round in all three of Gregory’s seasons with the team. Gregory is hoping Benicia can make it 4-for-4 next spring.

“I’m really excited about my senior year,” Gregory said. “We’re all excited because we have a lot of good players coming back.”

“It’s always a nice situation to have somebody coming back who’s already had so much success,” Grubbs added. “If she’s as good next year as she was this year, we’ll be sitting pretty. If she posts even better numbers, I expect to win the championship.”

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