North Callaway wasn’t worried about the past on Wednesday.

It didn’t matter if it was a matter of years or minutes. The Ladybirds defeated Callaway County rival Fulton 5-3 in the first round of the Class 3 District 4 tournament at Southern Boone in Ashland for the program’s first win over Fulton since 2016.

“The girls are just showing up and giving everything they have every single pitch and single outing,” head coach Mariah McKee said. “We did that tonight. We knew, if we saw them again, we could do it. They’re a good ballclub. They hit the ball hard and they pitch well so it’s a good win for us.”

Fulton (17-9) already owned an 8-7 victory over North Callaway (21-12) this season via a walk-off home run and led 3-2 after two innings. Megan Schmidt pitched with the bases loaded in the second and then the third inning but wriggled out of the jam with no outs in the third inning. Schmidt closed the game with 15 straight outs.

“She just really locked in and really started to mix it up and really started hitting her spots,” McKee said. “She started coming out with another pitch, and it was just really working. We just kept rolling as it was working.”

Several of the five hits off Schmidt were bloop hits and she finished with two walks in her seven innings. Schmidt struck out seven and allowed one earned run. 

After North Callaway’s earlier loss to Fulton, Schmidt said she was ready to pitch since the Ladybirds came out of that loss confident the result would go the other way the next time. She didn’t waver even after how she started Wednesday’s game.

“Having some runs and getting comfortable made it a lot easier,” Schmidt said. “I was trusting my defense and just had to work through some stuff and pitch calls. I started gaining some confidence and got in my zone.”

The defense was solid all night for North Callaway. So much so that a few come to mind easily for those that watched the game. Liv Knoepflein, who tied the game with a RBI single in the fifth inning, made a diving stop at third base in the third inning and threw to home plate for a forceout to start Schmidt’s out streak.

Ella Slater added to the highlight reel with a sliding catch in left field to close the second inning. Faith Cash, who had an insurance RBI single in the sixth inning, had multiple good plays by that point at second base and kept adding to her slick defensive night with an out in the sixth inning. A ball ricocheted off the outstretched glove of first baseman and her fellow senior Lia Bondurant, so Cash hustled behind first base and shoveled the out to Bondurant for the out.

“Faith Cash played a great second base tonight,” McKee said. “It’s the best second base I’ve seen her probably play all year. I’m so proud of that senior. She really helped her pitcher out defensively and offensively.”

Kymorie Myers and Ella Slater, who finished 2-for-2 with two walks, already added to their high RBI totals with RBI doubles in the first inning. After Myers and Slater, Kendra Pennell is third on the team in RBI this season to go along with her third-ranked batting average and OPS. 

However, Pennell began Wednesday 0-for-2. Pennell had a RBI chance with two outs in the fifth inning following Knoepflein’s RBI hit, and she blasted a double in the gap. She led off the seventh inning with a triple.

“I started off a little rough,” Pennell said. “Thankfully, I was able to push that aside and come back and do what needed to be done. What I did then mattered. I can’t change the past so I had to fix it in the present.”

McKee said it's great having “a little bit of pop” down in the lineup to precede the speed of Maddy Gordon at the bottom and then the strong top of the order.

“I will say this every time and I’ve said this to Kendra: she does a great job of adjusting at the plate,” McKee said. “She may do something wonky the first at-bat. Most of the time, she does a great job adjusting in game and really fixing it and really just driving the ball.”

The sophomores Schmidt and Pennell said there was a lot of motivation to earn that elusive victory over Fulton for the team’s seniors. They are as glad about that as they are about their season continuing at 11 a.m. Saturday against Centralia.

Centralia (25-3) is another team North Callaway lost to earlier this season, dropping a 12-2 game at home. The No. 1 seed and top-state-ranked Lady Panthers won 10-0 by mercy rule in the sixth inning against Boonville on Wednesday.

“It’s going to be a tough matchup,” McKee said. “We’re just going to do what we can do and play our game.”