Softball

Community defense, Glasgow bomb converge to 7-5 win vs Louisiana

Community R-6 didn’t have a bad inning Tuesday.

The Lady Trojans defeated Louisiana 7-5 at home thanks to the game-winning three-RBI home run hit by Brooklynn Glasgow, a 3-for-4 performance and three runs scored by Sarah Angel, two RBI from Jocelyn Curtis and seven innings with two earned runs tossed by Paige Painter. The victory is revenge for the 9-8 loss sustained by Community to these same Lady Bulldogs in a Round Robin on Saturday in Louisiana.

On Saturday, Community had a 5-3 lead early that slipped away after allowing six runs in two innings made possible by a few Lady Trojan errors. Community finished Tuesday with five errors but prevented Louisiana from scoring more than two runs in an inning with a few standout defensive plays, head coach Kody Asquith said.

“Tonight, we showed play on defense,” Asquith said. “We didn’t really have anything that got away from us, like we’ve had in a couple innings in the past this season. Every team is going to have those innings. We played pretty solid defense and we hit the ball pretty well. You have them nights where you can put both of them together and then you come out on top.”

Louisiana had already tied Community at 1 in the third inning and still had the bases loaded and nobody out. The Lady Trojans had committed two errors in the inning then played not only clean defense, but outstanding defense. 

Angel fielded a ground ball before firing to the catcher Glasgow, who then quickly released the ball to third baseman Olivia Kuda to complete the play. The Lady Trojans loaded the bases with nobody out in the bottom of the third inning and had two outs with nobody across the plate still. Curtis found a hole to the right side to make it 3-1.

Another error gave Louisiana another run and put them in position to tie the game with a runner at third base. The Lady Bulldogs thought the fly ball was deep enough to center field, but Kayla Jett threw a strike to Glasgow, who then applied the tag for the double play.

“I would consider (the Jett outfield assist) a big momentum change early,” Asquith said. “I thought we’d come out on top anyways, but that pushed us over the top a little bit because that was a huge play.”

This week, it was announced that Community is the No. 3 seed in the Class 1 District 7 Tournament to be hosted by No. 2 seed, and the Lady Trojans’ opponent at 7 p.m. Tuesday, Class 1 No. 4 Silex. After Community (11-12) plays at Marion County on Thursday for the regular season finale, Asquith said he likes where his team is after Tuesday’s win.

Look for the full story in the Oct. 8, 2022, edition of The Mexico Ledger and on the website on the same day.

Leible hits team-high homer, leads North Callaway to 11-1 win at Mark Twain

Senior Jalyn Leible joined her freshman teammates at the top of the home run leaderboard Tuesday.

Leible hit her second home run of the season, which gave her the team-high along with freshmen Kymorie Myers and Ella Slater, and drove in four RBI in North Callaway’s 11-1 win in six innings at Eastern Missouri Conference foe Mark Twain. Slater and Myers were each one base short of the round-tripper as they hit triples, and Slater finished with three RBI.

Lauren Speight kept the Lady Tigers (6-16, 3-6) to five hits, an unearned run and a walk in six innings wil striking out seven. Mark Twain’s Bronwyn Harding allowed four earned runs on seven hits in five innings while issuing five of the seven Ladybird walks.

“It was an excellent job by Lauren in the circle,” head coach Mariah McKee said. “Our batters were very selective at the plate. We took several walks on full counts, and they were borderline so they did a real good job at the plate.”

The Ladybirds scored five runs in the second inning for an early comfortable lead, highlighted by Leible’s three-RBI home run, and clinched the early victory with five more runs in the sixth inning, when Slater cleared the bases with her triple.

North Callaway junior varsity won 9-0 in four innings. 

North Callaway (7-15, 5-4 EMO) goes back to its state-ranked schedule — the Ladybirds played three state-ranked teams in four games a week ago — by traveling to Class 3 No. 9 and Eastern Missouri Conference foe Bowling Green (17-8, 8-1 EMO) on Thursday.

Lady Panthers scattered hits not enough to defeat state-ranked Hallsville, lose 7-2

The offense was there for Centralia on Tuesday, but the runs didn’t emerge.

The Lady Panthers finished with nine hits at home in a rematch with Class 3 No. 4 and district foe Hallsville — one short of the Lady Indians total — but lost 7-2 after dropping the third-place game in a tournament 5-2 to Hallsville. Madysen Lucas and Meredith Blakemore each hit a home run for Hallsville while Harper Sontheimer picked up her second long ball of the season and in as many games.

Tilly Fox finished 3-for-4 and was the only Lady Panther with multiple hits. Centralia had three pitchers throw, with Kaelyn Walters starting with eight hits and four runs in four innings and Meredith Wright and Madi Johnson finishing the final three innings with an earned run on two hits.

Walters tied the game at 1 in the second inning on a pop fly that dropped in only to leave two runners on base in a one-out situation. Hallsville (19-3) had a 4-1 lead in the fourth inning, thanks partly to a two-RBI home run by Lucas in the third inning, and Centralia had the bases loaded with two outs after Jozelynn Bostick was hit by a pitch. The Lady Panthers had two more runners on with two outs in the fifth inning after Fox’s single but didn’t score. 

Sontheimer homered to lead off the seventh inning, but Centralia was only able to muster two more hits against Haley Martin, who struck out seven in three innings of relief.

Centralia (15-12, 5-2 CCC) hosts Clarence Cannon Conference foe Palmyra (10-13, 3-3 CCC) on Thursday. 

It was announced this week Centralia will be going into the Class 3 District 4 Tournament as the No. 5 seed and will face No. 4 and Class 3 No. 10 Southern Boone at 7 p.m. Oct. 12 at Nathan A. Toalson Bicentennial Park in Centralia. If the Lady Panthers win that game, they could face No. 1 Hallsville, who play No. 8 Moberly at 5 p.m. Oct. 12, the next day at 5 p.m.

Wright City’s Clubb one hit short of cycle in Van-Far’s 10-5 loss

Lydia Clubb was one of a few Wright City hitters Van-Far had trouble with Tuesday, but she made the biggest impact.

Clubb went 3-for-5 with a home run, triple and double while Van-Far had two hits in the final two innings following the two-RBI home run from Clubb that made it 7-3 in the sixth inning. The Lady Wildcats had eight extra base hits.

Out of Van-Far’s 10 hits to match Wright City, Carmen Wilburn finished 3-for-3 with two runs scored, Dalana Gay finished 2-for-3 with a double and RBI while going seven innings in the circle, and Reeve Woodall had two doubles and an RBI. 

Whenever the Lady Indians came close to catching up with Wright City (8-15, 3-6 EMO), the Lady Wildcats went for extra bases to widen their lead. An RBI triple in the third inning followed Gay’s RBI single in the first inning, a two-run double followed Woodall’s RBI double in the third inning, and then Clubb’s home run followed McKenna Engh-Hoffman’s RBI groundout in the fifth inning.

The Lady Indians finished with nine errors to allowed three unearned runs while Gay surrendered 10 hits and three walks while striking out four.

Van-Far (5-14, 1-8 EMO) hosts Eastern Missouri Conference foe Clopton (11-5, 7-1 EMO) on Thursday. The Lady Indians found out this week they will be the No. 4 seed in the Class 1 District 7 Tournament hosted by Silex and that Thursday’s game will be a preview of districts as they face No. 1 seed Clopton at 5 p.m. Tuesday.

Girls tennis

Mexico girls advance to district championship match

Mexico will have another shot at Palmyra today.

The No. 2 seed Lady Bulldogs defeated No. 3 Moberly 5-1 on Tuesday in the semifinals of the Class 1 District 7 tournament at North Point High School in Wentzville. No. 1 Palmyra defeated No. 5 North Point 5-0 — following the Lady Grizzlies’ 5-2 victory Monday against No. 4 Fulton.

Mexico met Palmyra earlier this season Sept. 13 on the road, losing 5-4.

Against Moberly, the pairs of Estrella Lopez and Jocelyn Garcia  and Lani Blair and Claire Hudson gave Mexico doubles wins by respective scores of 8-0 and 8-3 in No. 2 and 3 doubles. Moberly took the third doubles match 8-2 against Katie Gooch and Jyllian Whitworth, but the Lady Bulldogs earned the necessary five points after singles victories from Garcia (6-0, 6-0) at No. 3, Blair (6-2, 6-1) at No. 5 and Messiah Simpson (6-4, 7-5) at No. 6.

"We had a strong start winning two out of three doubles," head coach Kim Costley said. "The singles were playing well, and we are hoping to carry that forward into (today)."

Before the match was called, Lopez was winning her No. 2 singles match 6-4, Whitworth was leading 6-3, 4-1 in the No. 4 match, and Gooch was coming back in the second set 3-1 of the No. 1 match after losing the first one 6-2.

The Lady Bulldogs face Palmyra in the championship match at 3:30 p.m. today in Palmyra.

Cross country

CR6’s Jennings sets season PR at Hermann Invitational

Community R-6’s Callie Jennings fell in the standings Tuesday at Hermann but finished under 30 minutes for a season-best.

Jennings finished 53rd out of 57 runners in the girls 5,000 meter run at the Hermann Invitational at Loutre Shore Country Club. She ran to a season personal-best time of 29:26.19. 

Hermann’s Katy Menke won the race with a time of 19:14.29.