As a sophomore, Jaylynn Brown struck out a school-record 19 to send Centralia to the district championship game.

As a senior on Saturday, Brown struck out a school-record 20 to send Centralia to the Class 3 District 4 championship game on Monday against district and state No. 1 Chillicothe (29-2) at 6 p.m. Monday. The No. 2 seed and state No. 3 Lady Panthers (27-6) defeated No. 3 seed Mexico 5-0 in Mexico.

Brown allowed one hit and one walk but kept rolling through Mexico’s lineup after striking out eight of the first nine hitters. When Brown ended the game with a strikeout, she said she had head coach Liz Bostick check if she reached 20, and it was announced to the team during the postgame huddle.

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“I definitely think the spinning was working really well today,” Brown said about facing Mexico (21-9), who averaged 8 runs per game this year. “Sometimes, it’s hit-or-miss, but today, it was really on. Me hitting my spots helped, too.”

Two games prior in the regular season finale at Bowling Green, Brown became the 16th softball player in Missouri to reach 1,000 career strikeouts. She said she is “really honored” to be among that small group after working hard over the past couple years and thanked her teammates for helping her prolong her playing career.

Brown has reached 1,047 strikeouts, as of Saturday, in mostly three years. As a freshman, she didn’t pitch a lot for varsity and didn’t think at the time that she would have so much to celebrate. The next year, Brown pitched in the state championship game. 

“I had a huge jump in the summer before my sophomore year,” Brown said. “The whole time, my freshman year, I was never expecting any of this to happen. I always had a goal, but I never realized how much I could do after that.”

Bostick said Centralia had seen Mexico this season and won 11-0 in six innings at home. She added Centralia has played Mexico at least once every year but also pointed to Mexico’s 16-0 win in the first round against Macon for reference. Meanwhile, Bostick said Mexico had trouble with Brown’s up-and-down movement, and she particularly had “a very tight spin” that she located well.

“We moved the ball around a lot,” Bostick said. “I was able to look at some stuff and looking at swings here obviously is something we can do. She spun the ball very well and used pitches that worked well for her.”

Centralia scored one run in the third inning on an Ealynne Bostick sacrifice fly for a 1-0 lead but gained some separation in the next inning. After Mexico changed pitchers from Kaitlyn Krietemeyer to Sammie Gipson following a two-out Karli Andersen single, Brooklyn Hardin and Avery Bruns hit back-to-back home runs to put the score at 4-0. Hardin was 2-for-3 with two RBIs from the No. 7 spot in the order. 

Bostick said Mexico’s first pitcher, Kaitlyn Krietemeyer didn’t allow much hard contact and was keeping Centralia in check. The Lady Panthers kept hitting balls in the air, managing to get some to drop in the shallow outfield, while dealing with her slower velocity. 

“(Gipson) threw very well against Macon, so we got to see what she threw,” Bostick said. “I told the girls what she had thrown before. Throwing a little harder kind of helped us. We struggled with (Krietemeyer). She did a great job of keeping us off balance.”

Brown said she knows, when she doesn’t hit, her teammates will come through. She also knows when her teammates crush the ball.

“I saw it go and was like, ‘I know that’s gone,’” Brown said about both home runs.

Chillicothe is expected to counter with its own all-state pitcher Landry Marsh, who didn’t pitch in the regular season meeting like Brown. Bostick said it should be “a best of the best” between two of the top three teams in the state.

“It’s going to be a state championship game that people can see right here in Mexico instead of having to go all the way to Springfield,” Bostick said. “I know (Chillicothe head coach Lee Rucker) is going to throw everything he can at us, and we’re going to do the same.”

After Saturday’s game, Brown has the Clarence Cannon Conference career strikeout record that was previously 1,030 set by Palmyra’s Taylor Baxter. Brown sits at 12th all-time in Missouri behind Portageville’s Taylor Tiffany and her 1,056 strikeouts. Records aside, the University of Missouri commit Brown will focus on doing her best on Monday to secure the program's second district championship in two years.

“In my mind, I’m just trying to spin the ball the best I can and hit my spots the best I can,” Brown said. “If the ball gets hit, I know my team has me. It’s fine. I got the next girl.”