Mexico came close to overtaking Fulton a week ago.

Mexico vs Moberly Photo Gallery

The Lady Bulldogs couldn’t come away with a victory at their state-ranked North Central Missouri Conference rivals but stayed ahead of another conference rival Moberly in a 5-0 win Tuesday at home. Aleigha Henderson and Hannah Loyd were among the Lady Bulldogs with extra-base hits to support a three-hit shutout pitched by Keerstan Ewing.

Head coach Hanna Branch said Mexico (6-10, 3-2 NCMC) just wanted to regain some confidence after a wild game in Fulton that saw the Lady Bulldogs fall behind 10-0, then tie the game and finally lose in walk-off fashion. She said the win is the “morale-boost” the team needed and the “feel-good” win was possible once the Lady Bulldogs felt good at the plate against the slower arsenal of Moberly pitcher Brynn Goins.

“It’s almost harder to adjust to a slow pitcher just because it gives you too much time to think,” Branch said. “A lot of us were starting off popping up a lot. It took us a minute to learn from each other’s at-bats. Once we figured out to get on top of the ball and test the defense with some hard ground balls and hard line drives, the girls turned it on.”

Through two innings, it was nothing but weak contact off Mexico bats before Henderson gave the Lady Bulldogs their first extra-base hit in the fourth inning. Before they could get there, Branch called a play to put a run on the scoreboard.

In the third inning, Scottie Smith drew a walk and then advanced two bases on a bunt laid down by Kaleigh Samuelson. Later on, Samuelson hit a double, but her small-ball play set up Alyssa Miller’s RBI groundout for a 1-0 Mexico lead in the third. Branch said she anticipated Moberly’s defense to struggle with bunt coverage and saw a golden chance to bring Smith to third base when she noticed it was open.

“I felt Kaleigh could be the one to put it down and maybe get on with her speed,” Branch said. “She definitely did a good job of making sure she got it down and got the runner to move. It was a close play at first, but it helped us get momentum and pumped us up to get some runs in.”

Henderson has been “on fire,” Branch said, and the numbers support that statement. She went 3-for-4 with four RBI and a triple and double in the loss at Fulton and then finished 2-for-3 with two triples and two runs against Moberly (5-8, 2-3 NCMC). 

Good energy by teammates leads to a good mood in the dugout which brings good at-bats by Henderson, she explained. Her initial triple in the fourth inning was a ball that just stayed fair down the right-field line and then her second hit the gap.

“I just learned from my last at-bat and saw that I was getting on top of it,” Henderson said. “I tried to stay down, wait on it and got up in the box.”

Hannah Loyd added two runs in the fifth inning with a double to follow her 2-for-4 day at Fulton that included four RBI that were collected with two home runs. Payton Shaw crushed a ball in the fourth inning that died at the fence but wasn’t caught by the Moberly outfielder, which allowed Henderson to score. 

Ewing didn’t allow one extra-base hit by Moberly and stamped out the minimum threats the Lady Spartans did have. The biggest was during the fourth inning when Moberly had runners at first and third base with no outs. A throw to the plate by the third baseman Smith cut down the runner and center fielder Maddy Feger stretched out to make a catch in stride to prevent runs from scoring.

“Keerstan had really good command,” Branch said. “Even when she didn’t get that she wanted, she still stayed mentally strong and stuck to her plan. A lot of the batters were behind on her, and she was doing a good job of keeping a good plan for each batter.”

Mexico focuses on defending its championship two years running this weekend at the California Turf War Tournament. It’s good to have a taste of winning again before winning becomes absolutely necessary for a three-peat.

“It feels really good to finally start winning and keeps everyone in a good mood for our next games,” Henderson said.