AUBREY — Last year, when Aubrey beat Tom Bean and star pitcher Megan Mitchell to advance to the Class 2A Region II semifinal, it was all on the arm of Lady Chaparral pitcher Kylie Roos.

When the Lady Chaps (27-2) swept Tom Bean last week to advance to the regional semifinal against Maypearl tonight, Aubrey skipper Shon Ranton threw a changeup to the Lady Cats.

DRC/Gary Payne

Aubrey High School softball pitchers Kasey Carlock, left, Kelsey Reding and Kylie Roos make up the Lady Chaparrals’ rotation.

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In this year’s playoff run, the defending Class 2A state runner-up has two aces to throw at opponents, not to mention a third pitcher who went 8-0 in the regular season.

“The last game they [Tom Bean] didn’t have any idea,” said one of Ranton’s two aces, Kasey Carlock. “We played Tom Bean last year and Kylie pitched both games, but then this year she pitched the first one and I pitched the second one. They weren’t expecting that at all.”

Ranton has three pitchers he’s comfortable throwing in a game where one great one is usually all that’s needed.

Carlock, a junior, is 9-0 on the season with an ERA of 0.52, Roos is 10-2 with a 0.73 ERA, and senior Kelsey Reding, who’s played shortstop throughout the playoffs, went 8-0 with a team-leading 0.47 ERA in the regular season.

While the fastball-changeup combination is the basic formula of pitching in baseball and softball, Ranton literally executes it with his pitchers. In fact, the season distribution is so even between Roos and Carlock that Carlock has pitched just one-third of an inning more than Roos this season.

Roos, a junior with 155 strikeouts, is the team’s power pitcher, and Carlock with 129 strikeouts is the craftier one, with superb movement and a number of different pitches in her arsenal.

Ranton said the combination makes it difficult for the opponent to predict what it will see, especially in a best-of-three series.

“They’re both strikeout pitchers,” Ranton said. “Kylie’s a power pitcher. When she’s warm, it’s 60-plus [miles per hour], and whenever a team gets used to seeing that, they think they’ll come back and try to catch the speed. Well, now you have Carlock and she has a lot of movement and deception on her pitches.”

Reding pitched her freshman and sophomore years before moving primarily to shortstop last year, when Roos became the team’s main pitcher after moving from Pilot Point after her freshman year.

This year, Reding is one of the team’s top hitters with a .365 average and 32 RBIs to go with her perfect record in the circle, even though the last time she pitched was in the second-to-last game of district.

While she’d like to be pitching, Reding said she just wants to return to the state tournament.

“At this point, once you’re in the playoffs, it’s all about winning,” the senior said. “They [coaches] told me I might get a chance [to pitch], but all that really matters to me is winning.”

Reding said that from a hitter’s perspective, seeing a team with more than one good pitcher could be intimidating, especially in a playoff series setting. Aubrey played just one series last year but has played a series in every round this postseason.

“I think it is [intimidating],” Reding said. “It would intimidate me seeing another team with that many pitchers at our skill level. It is a disadvantage for hitters because they don’t know what to expect. They can prepare for one pitcher and they get another one, and there might even be another one they don’t even know about. I think we have a big advantage when we play a series.”

Roos, who’s hitting .489 with 43 RBIs, said after a few at-bats against a pitcher, hitters can begin to get a feel for what they’re seeing, but against a team like Aubrey, it’s difficult for opponents to get used to the pitching in a best-of-three series.

“It’s a big advantage for us because offensively, we get to see the same pitcher with six to eight at-bats, and by then we should be hitting them pretty good,” Roos said. “We have several pitchers, so they have to readjust every game. It makes them beat us twice instead of just a one-game playoff. It usually forces the best team to win.”

ADAM BOEDEKER can be reached at 940-566-6872. His e-mail address is aboedeker@dentonrc.com .