MEXICO ROUNDUP: Mexico's late lead slips away late in 16-13 Senior Night loss to Fulton

By Jeremy Jacob, Sports Editor
Posted 10/8/22

Mexico just couldn’t keep Class 3 No. 2 Fulton down.

The Lady Bulldogs hosted their North Central Missouri rival Thursday in the final game of the regular season. Mexico was three outs away …

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MEXICO ROUNDUP: Mexico's late lead slips away late in 16-13 Senior Night loss to Fulton

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Mexico just couldn’t keep Class 3 No. 2 Fulton down.

The Lady Bulldogs hosted their North Central Missouri rival Thursday in the final game of the regular season. Mexico was three outs away from an upset after the Lady Bulldogs turned an 8-0 deficit into a 13-9 lead before the No. 2 seed in districts ultimately lost 16-13 to the upcoming No. 1 seed.

On Senior Night, freshman Hannah Loyd had a career night, finishing 4-for-5, swatting two home runs and driving in seven RBI. Seniors Abby Bellamy, Kierstan Epperson, Lexie Willer and Shi Exendine each finished with one hit, with Bellamy going 2-for-4 with a home run and Willer going 3-for-4 with an RBI. Senior Eboni Mayfield started the game, holding Fulton to four singles and one run in the four innings after the Lady Hornets tallied eight runs on 10 hits in the first two innings.

“Abby, Kierstan, Shi and Lexie have been great for us all year,” head coach Curt Riley said. “If one person’s not hitting well, somebody else steps up. Eboni took a year off and came back and verbally committed to play at Moberly Area Community College next year. That’s all because of the hard work she’s put in this year.”

Riley said the seventh inning obviously should have gone a different way as the Lady Bulldogs (18-12, 5-5 NCMC) allowed Fulton (27-5, 10-0 NCMC) to compile four hits, two errors, two walks and a hit batter before bringing in Emma Cunningham to notch the final two outs. Riley said Mayfield has pitched well all year and in the biggest game and helped settle down the Lady Hornets prior to the inning but thought he could have made a move.

“Eboni pitched a great game all night,” Riley said. “She just got tired. I should have made a change, and I just didn’t. Fulton’s a great team. (Fulton head coach Tim Echelmeier’s) got a ton of pitchers, and we have to hit whoever they throw out there.”

Earlier this season, Mexico struggled to hit Natalie Underwood in what ended up being a 10-0 loss in five innings. The Lady Bulldogs loaded the bases in the fourth inning when that game was still 1-0, but Underwood struck out two of the next three batters to leave them loaded.

It was a different story in the third inning Thursday when Mexico was trailing 8-0. Maddy Feger drew a walk on a 3-2 pitch to load them up after striking out in the first inning. Loyd also struck out in the first inning but made it clear she wasn’t going down like that again as she blasted a grand slam out to center field, seemingly rounding first base with springs on her shoes.

“I thought it energized us and got us going,” Riley said. “I think when people start hitting the ball, more people start hitting the ball. It got us going and we started putting the ball in play. It was fun to watch.”

Underwood was out of the game, and pretty soon, everyone was off the field as the skies opened up to force the game into a rain delay with one out in the fifth inning.

Play resumed, but it was still raining off Mexico’s bats and Fulton pitcher Brilee Ash as Loyd took a pitch the opposite way for her second long ball, and Bellamy made her ball disappear quickly, making it 9-7.

“Abby ripped her home run,” Riley said. “It was awesome. We had some home runs, and deep home runs. That’s one of those things we’ve been doing — we’ve been able to fight back.”

Loyd went the opposite way again — this time a single — in the sixth inning against third Fulton pitcher Mylee Hawkins to tie the game at 9. Epperson and Willer followed her hit with RBI singles of their own while Bellamy slid across home plate after an error for a 13-9 Mexico lead.

“She doesn’t play like a freshman,” Riley said. “She hasn’t played like a freshman all year. Defensively, she’s as good as anyone we’ve seen. Offensively, she just battles every time. She’s only going to get better. She’s helped us solidify our infield, and we made some changes there that’s helped us.”

Fulton’s Sam Hedgpath, who hit a two-RBI home run in the second inning and finished with five RBI, and Maddie Bright smoked line drives that couldn’t be handled by Mexico’s defense to tie the game before Jayna Hedgpath came through with the game-winning single.

Loyd attempted to start one final rally in the seventh inning by beating out an infield single, which preceded a Bellamy single. Epperson forced the Fulton infield to make a play that was a close forceout at second base to end the game.

Riley said the Lady Bulldogs still feel good going into their 4:15 p.m. first-round matchup with No. 7 seed Wright City (9-16) for the Class 3 District 3 Tournament at Orchard Farm High School in St. Charles.

“We might have a chance to play them again, and hopefully we will,” Riley said. “We’ve been getting better every game. I think we’re starting to round everything off, so here we go.”

Girls tennis

Mexico girls advance to district championship, lose to Palmyra

Mexico had another shot at Palmyra on Wednesday.

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 — before defeating Mexico 5-1 to win its sixth district title in seven years.

Mexico met Palmyra earlier this season Sept. 13 on the road, losing 5-4, and has lost to Palmyra in districts in each of the previous seven years — six of those times for a district championship. The Lady Bulldogs’ final record is 7-6.

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 (Wednesday)."

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.

Junior Katie Gooch’s season will continue at 10 a.m. today at Ft. Zumwalt South High School in St. Peters after she was one of four singles competitors in Class 1 Sectional 4 to advance. She won each of her first two individual district matches last Saturday in Wentzville 6-1, 6-1 before losing to Fulton’s Jayna Davison 6-0, 6-3 for first place. Gooch will go to the singles sectional with Davison and Duchesne’s Mary Kathleen Beckemeier and Faith Ann Dunn.

Boys soccer

Bulldogs outscored 14-0 in two home losses to Marshall, Osage

Mexico’s scoring issues continued this week as it faced two of the top teams in Class 2.

The Bulldogs were shut out for the third and fourth time in an 8-0 loss Monday at home to North Central Missouri Conference foe and state No. 1 Marshall and a 6-0 home loss Tuesday to No. 4 School of the Osage. Mexico has been outscored 29-5 in its current five-game losing streak — four of those losses occurring against state-ranked teams.

Junior goalkeeper Emille Scanavino made 40 combined saves in the two losses to Marshall and Osage — 25 against Marshall and 15 against Osage.

Mexico (4-11, 1-5 NCMC) travels to conference rival and Class 2 No. 7 Fulton (10-4-1, 3-2 NCMC) at 5 p.m. Monday. Fulton defeated Mexico 5-2 in their first meeting this season, and the Hornets will be coming off a matchup with Marshall (13-0-1) on Thursday.

Junior cross country

Mexico earns four medals at Green Estates

The Mexico junior high cross country team showed up Tuesday for its home meet.

Grace Hudson, Aiden Wilson, Braiden Bock and Tucker Herron earned medals with their times in their respective races. Hudson was 11th out of 93 runners in the girls 3,200 meters with a time of 13:58, Wilson was 14th out of 89 runners in the boys 3,200 meters with a time of 12:48, Bock was close behind him with an 18th-place time of 12:55, and Herron was ninth in the JV boys 3,200 meters with a ninth-place time of 14:37.

The varsity boys finished fourth out of 12 teams with 133 points. Wentzville South finished first with 51 points.


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