Mexico softball holds off St. Elizabeth for second straight California tournament title

The Lady Bulldogs are back-to-back champions.

Mexico softball went 3-0 on Friday and Saturday in the California Turf Tournament to win the championship for the second straight year. After defeating School of the Osage 10-0 in five innings on Friday, the Lady Bulldogs on Saturday defeated California 4-2 in six innings and then held off Class 1 No. 1 St. Elizabeth 7-6 in the championship game.

Hannah Loyd led the offense in the three games as she finished 4-for-8 with six RBI and a two-RBI home run, which scored the game-winning runs in a four-run third inning against California. Karlee Sefrit was 4-for-9 with three RBI and a double, Maddy Feger went 5-for-9 with three RBI and two triples, and Brooke Teel added three stolen bases to her team-high total 24.

Mexico (12-9) built an early cushion against St. Elizabeth with six runs through the first three innings. Loyd, Sefrit and Aleigha Henderson each brought home two runs on hits in each of the three innings until the Lady Hornets mounted a comeback that saw the winning run step in the batter’s box in the seventh inning. Loyd had added more insurance via a RBI single in the top of the seventh inning before St. Elizabeth had a two-RBI double and RBI groundout in the bottom half of the inning.

Emma Cunningham pitched 6⅓ innings, shutting out the Lady Hornets through four innings, and covered this much after recording six innings with five hits, three strikeouts, one earned run and one walk against California. 

The Lady Bulldogs took advantage of three walks in the first inning to score five runs against Osage as Teel and Feger each had two hits, two runs and a walk. Cunningham pitched five no-hit innings with two strikeouts and a walk.

Mexico (5-1 NCMC) played at North Central Missouri Conference foe Kirksville (11-8, 4-2 NCMC) on Monday before hosting conference and district foe Moberly (8-8, 3-3 NCMC) at 5 p.m. Thursday.

Lady Bulldogs win sixth straight in 5-4 extra-inning win in Kirksville

Mexico hasn’t been able to lose lately as evidenced by Monday.

The Lady Bulldogs won their sixth straight game after winning 5-4 in eight innings at North Central Missouri Conference foe Kirksville. Maddy Feger bunted the tying run home in the seventh inning and then Emma Cunningham had the game-winning RBI single in the eighth inning.

Mexico (13-9) had been hovering around 500 but then won the California Turf War tournament for the second straight year over the weekend and then moved its conference record to 6-1 with its second victory against Kirksville (11-9, 4-4 NCMC.

Each team matched each other’s three runs in the first inning before Jersey Herbst hit a go-ahead single in the fifth inning. Aleigha Henderson pitched out of jams as she posted five innings in relief with seven hits, three walks and on run.

Cunningham led the seventh inning with a single and eventually scored via Feger’s bunt. Hannah Loyd, who had two RBI, drew a walk in the eighth inning prior to scoring on Cunningham’s winning single.

Brooke Teel and Jo Thurman each finished 2-for-4, and Teel and Loyd each stole a base.

Mexico hosts a conference game at 5 p.m. Thursday against Moberly (7-8, 3-3 NCMC), who lost 6-1 to Mexico in Moberly earlier this season.

Mexico girls tennis defeats North Point 8-1 in final home dual

The Mexico girls recorded win after win on its final home dual on Friday/

The Lady Bulldogs defeated North Point 8-1 while the junior varsity players won seven out of nine matches. 

In varsity singles, Katie Gooch won 8-1, Jyllian Whitworth won 8-3, Lucy Gleeson won 8-2, Lani Blair won 8-0, Alice Eggen won 8-5 and Daida Herrera-Garcia came close to a victory in a 9-8 (7-2) loss. The pairs of Gooch and Whitworth and Eggen and Gleeson each won doubles matches 8-5, and Claire Hudson and Blair won 8-1.

Mexico (11-8) played its regular season finale on Tuesday at Battle in Columbia before hosting the North Central Missouri Conference tournament today and beginning districts this Saturday.

In junior varsity, Herrera-Garcia and Alexis Smythe won 6-4, Yolitza Rodriguez-Rios and Lea Hernandez and Smythe and Marali Herrera-Amaya won 6-1, Phoebe Whipple and Abby Bowen won 6-4, Bowen and Bailey Christianson won 6-2, Franzisa Hotek and Lara Vennemmann won 6-3, Lotte VanGrinsven and Maite Esteban-Arevalo won 6-2, Christianson and Marali Herrera-Sanchez lost 7-6 (7-3), and Melanie Hernandez-Jarquin and Abigail Ryan lost 6-4. The JV team finished third in a JV tournament on Friday.

“North Point has a lot of players so everyone got their own match,” head coach Kim Costley said. “The JV have really been playing well the last week or so. All of the pieces kind of fell into place. We are very excited to watch these young ladies develop over the offseason and have them ready for some varsity positions next fall.”

Mexico's Walker ends double-overtime battle with 4-3 win at Fatima

Mexico's first overtime game this season was kept going and going.

The Bulldogs won 4-3 at Fatima (2-7) on Monday in double overtime, winning after Gage Walker scored.

Brendan McKeown scored twice, and Bryce Carter scored one goal for Mexico (5-5-2).

The Bulldogs fell to 5-6-2 after a 1-0 loss to district foe Southern Boone (6-4) on Tuesday at home. The loss made Mexico's record against district opponents this season 2-3.

Mexico plays a crosstown matchup at 5 p.m. Thursday at Class 1 No. 4 Missouri Military Academy (9-2).

Mexico not at best in 61-7 loss to Hannibal

Mexico had to play close to perfect on Friday night at home.

The Bulldogs didn’t accomplish this feat as they lost 61-7 to North Central Missouri Conference foe and Class 4 No. 6 Hannibal. Mexico had eight turnovers, including an interception that was returned for a touchdown, as the Pirates had a balanced offense of 188 passing yards and 185 rushing yards.

Notre Dame commit Aneyas Williams scored three touchdowns and had 128 all-purpose yards, and Mike Ferreira ran for 112 yards and two touchdowns on 10 carries. Quarterback Waylon Anders was a perfect 10-for-10 for 188 yards and three touchdowns.

Head coach Steve Haag said Hannibal (4-1, 2-0 NCMC) made it clear the team it was after taking a 55-0 halftime lead. He said Mexico (1-4, 1-1 NCMC) needs to clear up what team it will be the rest of the way as the youth and inexperience need to overcome eventually.

“The biggest challenge is ‘Are you going to have 11 guys that are going to step up and accept the challenge?” Haag said. “The challenge is that they’ve got a lot athletes, a lot of big guys and a lot of fast guys. You’ve got to do everything correctly with fundamentals, you’ve got to be physical and you can’t turn it over. We did the exact opposite of all of that.”

Mexico threw three interceptions and lost five fumbles to add up to its turnover total.

PJ Perkins had the biggest offensive night for the Bulldogs as he ran for 42 yards on six carries. Shantez Dorsey caught a 41-yard touchdown pass from Kaden Benne in the fourth quarter.

“We had some positive plays, but we just couldn’t put them together,” Haag said. “We’d put one of two together and then we’d go backwards. You can’t do that against a good team, or any team.”

Mexico plays at Highway 54 and North Central Missouri Conference rival Fulton (0-5, 0-2 NCMC) at 7 p.m. Friday.

Lady Bulldogs drop final three sets to Bowling Green

Like its previous match, Mexico started its contest with Bowling Green on Thursday by taking the first set.

However, also like its four-set loss to Kirksville, the Lady Bulldogs lost the final three sets to Bowling Green (4-11-1) on the road 25-23, 25-16 and 27-25 after winning the first set 25-21.

JaClynn Cline led Mexico with 17 kills, three blocks and three service aces, Emily Moppin followed with 10 kills, Ava Herron had seven kills and a team-high four aces, and Claire Isgrig and Mary Test each had three kills. 

Mexico (1-8) played at district foe Boonville (3-5) on Monday before hosting Montgomery County (6-2) at 6 p.m. Thursday.

Mexico runs at Gans Creek Classic

Maggie Ramsey and Hunter Bickell were the top runners for Mexico again.

They each medaled at the previous meet but were in the midst of the largest field of the season on Saturday at the Gans Creek Classic in Columbia at the same site as the state cross country championships. 

Ramsey had the best finish for Mexico in 62nd out of 271 runners with a time of 22:19 in the blue division as Madison Bickell had the nest best time of 24:22 in 160th. 

Hunter Bickell was 69th for the boys out of 293 runners in the blue division with a time of 18:22.30. Tyler Grimes was right behind him in 70th with a time of 18:22.30, Guy Fairchild was 82nd with a 18:34, Brady McCoy was 100th with a 18:46 and Andrew Peuster was 110th with a 18:57.