It was really windy Thursday in Mokane.

North Callaway, who went into the Class 2 District 3 Tournament semifinals as the No. 5 seed, lost to top seed Fayette 6-1 as the Lady Falcons extended their winning streak to 19 games by outhitting North Callaway 10-4. The Ladybirds were trailing 2-1 until a four-run sixth inning but had two long fly balls knocked down by the wind when they were down by one run. North Callaway ends its season at 9-17, and Fayette moves to 24-2.

Ella Slater finished 2-for-3 with a double and a run scored on an RBI single by Olivia Knoepflein in the second inning. Knoepflein hit a ball hard out to center field, which ended up being caught by the center fielder. Team home-run leader Kymorie Myers destroyed a pitch that ended up in the right fielder’s glove that was positioned above the fence after the wind affected it.

Head coach Mariah McKee said she is proud of the team played, including the seniors as McKee was able to put all of them in what was their final softball game. Lilly Shafer pinch hit in the final at-bat of the game after being out with a knee injury until the final week, when she tallied two hits.

“We hit the ball hard, but we just found the other team’s gloves and the wind,” McKee said. “Lauren Speight pitched one heck of a game. She kept them off-balance.”

Speight allowed two runs in the first inning but was able to last until the sixth inning, when she put the two runners on and was lifted for Ellie Bedsworth.

This past week, three Ladybirds were selected for the Eastern Missouri Conference team, including junior Corynne Miller and the freshman Myers for the first time and senior Jalyn Leible for the second time. Miller made the first team after leading the team batting average, on-base percentage, hits and stolen bases, and Myers and Leible each made the second team after ranking first and second in home runs and RBI.

North Callaway stays back to get ahead, defeats South Callaway 15-5

The Ladybirds did their homework for their first-round district game Wednesday.

The assignment for North Callaway was to solve South Callaway southpaw McKenzie Laughlin, who pitched against the Ladybirds in South Callaway’s first two wins in the battle between the Callaway County teams. North Callaway scored seven runs on 11 hits in those two losses and followed that with 15 runs on a season-high 19 hits in a 15-5 five-inning victory to start the Class 2 District 3 Tournament held at South Callaway High School in Mokane.

North Callaway started quickly with five runs in the first and eventually scored seven runs in the third inning. Ellie Bedsworth finished 3-for-4 with four RBI, Ella Slater went 2-for-4 with four RBI, Kymorie Myers was 2-for-2 with an RBI double, a two-RBI home run, a walk and a hit by pitch, and Corynne Miller tallied four hits and two RBI from the leadoff spot. Lauren Speight allowed three runs on nine hits in five innings but struck out three and didn’t walk anybody.

Head coach Mariah McKee said Laughlin and her changeup was a big focus in the team’s preparation. The top three Ladybird run producers on Wednesday — Bedsworth, Myers and Slater — went a combined 4-for-18 in the previous two South Callaway games that Laughlin pitched and the team overall only struck out twice after tallying 14 in the first two meetings.

“I think seeing her twice really helped,” McKee said. “We prepped really hard, at the end of last week through the beginning of this week, really working on staying back and driving the center of the ball. We know she has a pretty deadly changeup, so we really worked hard on staying back and driving the ball square.”

North Callaway squared up five hits in the first inning, including an RBI double by Myers that hit off the fence and an opposite field screamer by Bedsworth to make it 5-0. The inning ended when Miller, who led off the game with a single, lined a pitch into the shortstop’s glove.

South Callaway (13-13) resembled the team North Callaway struggled with in the bottom half of the inning, when the Lady Bulldogs drew within two runs after solid hits by Alaney Miller and Reagan Arrowood. With one swing in the second inning, Myers almost restored the lead back in full after hitting her team-high third home run of the season.

It was the third inning when the Ladybirds really cleaned up as it was 9-3 North Callaway with two outs and two runners on for Myers. South Callaway intentionally walked the freshman to face another freshman, Slater, with the bases loaded. This didn’t go well for the Lady Bulldogs as Slater smoked a pitch to the gap to clear the bases as part of a 12-batter inning for North Callaway.

“(Myers’) first at-bat, she hit right at the fence, and her second at-bat, hit a two-run home run so they didn’t want any part of her anymore after that,” McKee said. “I have my 4 hole hitter, Ella Slater, who can come in and hit the ball just as hard. I’m really proud of her. She did a great job of stepping up and being like, ‘OK, then I’m going to hit the ball.’”

After McKee’s freshmen cleanup hitter wiped the slate clean, Bedsworth came through again with another two-RBI single. The senior first baseman gave the Ladybirds that additional impact bat from the bottom of the order with her four RBI after going into Wednesday with six RBI and one in her previous 12 games.

“She’s playing like she’s leaving it all on the field, and that’s how she should play,” McKee said. “She’s a senior, and she’s leaving everything she’s got. I couldn’t ask for anything better.”

Cross country

North Callaway finishes with four medals in Centralia

Not only did North Callaway take home four medals Tuesday, three also appeared in the top 10.

In the Centralia Invitational, Brendan Reinhard and Tristan Young finished seventh and ninth, respectively, out of 74 runners in the boys 5,000 meters, and Pressley Schmauch was eighth out of 68 runners in the girls 5,000 meters. Grace Rasmussen gave the Ladybirds another medalist after placing 18th to fall within the top 20.

Reinhard ran to a time of 18:03.5, and Young had a time of 18:13.5 to pace the boys that finished third in the team standings with 98 points. Centralia won the team prize with 22 points, and South Shelby’s Noah Wilt was the individual champion after racing to a time of 16:47.3.

Schmauch finished with a time of 21:43.8, and Rasmussen had a time of 23:09.2 to lead the girls’ fourth-place finish at 107 points. Centralia won the team crown at 23 points, and the Lady Panthers’ Jozelynn Bostick won the individual title with a time of 19:25.

Volleyball

Ladybirds lose in four to Bowling Green

For the second time this season, North Callaway went to four sets against Bowling Green.

For the second time, the Ladybirds lost in four (14-25, 22-25, 25-21 and 22-25) on Tuesday atj home. 

Libero Riley Blevins led with 12 digs, and and outside hitter Rylee Horstman had six kills.

North Callaway had a forfeit win Thursday against Chamois to move to 11-15-1 and will now take its 1-6 Eastern Missouri Conference record to Wright City on Tuesday. The Lady Wildcats were the only conference opponent the Ladybirds defeated this season.