North Callaway softball stages comeback for record books at Russellville

Coming back from nine runs down hadn’t been done at North Callaway.

The North Callaway Ladybirds are the first baseball or softball team in school history to accomplish the feat as they defeated Russellville 16-11 in eight innings. The Ladybirds trailed 11-2 after three innings but soared back with eight runs in the sixth inning and five runs in the eighth inning.

Head coach Mariah McKee said she was especially proud of her girls never gave up even though they were down against a state Final Four team from a season ago.

North Callaway finished with 17 hits while playing an error-free game. Olivia Knoepflein and Megan Schmidt covered the final 5⅓ innings for North Callaway, shutting out Russellville in the process on five hits and four strikeouts. The Lady Indians finished with 14 hits but only tallied five hits after the third inning.

Corynne Miller reached base as she should have as a leadoff hitter, going 3-for-4 with three runs and two walks, freshman shortstop Megan Schmidt made her first varsity start a memorable one by going 3-for-5 with five RBI and two doubles, Kymorie Myers went 2-for-6 with three RBI and Faith Cash led the team in hits by finishing 4-for-6 and had three stolen bases.

North Callaway played Tuesday at South Callaway before hosting Van-Far in its Eastern Missouri Conference opener.

North Callaway football unable to handle Westran blitz in 22-6 loss

North Callaway’s defense was up to the challenge on Friday, but the offense wasn’t able to get off the ground.

The Thunderbirds lost 22-6 Friday night at home against Westran, picking up five turnovers but recording 110 yards on offense. Lane Kimbley had a school single-game record four interceptions, and Cashton Holloway had a fumble recovery.

Westran’s defense prevented the North Callaway offense from doing any damage other than the 80 yards and 12-yard touchdown run on 30 carries by Riley Humphrey. His touchdown tied the game at 6 heading into halftime. Brady Hollman and his 6-foot-2, 215-pound frame at linebacker led the Westran charge on defense.

“Offensively, I did not have them prepared for some of the blitzes and some of the different things that we saw from Westran,” head coach Kevin O’Neal said. “They do some different things with their ends, dropping them off and blitzing their linebacker. Our strength is our offensive line, and a couple of times, they were a little confused on some plays. We didn’t sustain drives tonight.”

Westran had strung together some plays on three first-half drives before the senior Kimbley came up with the interception to halt all of those drives. He found another in the second half to stop the Hornets at midfield.

“He watches a lot of film, understands the game of football and plays hard every single snap,” O’Neal said.

North Callaway’s defense allowed 235 yards, including 154 yards on the ground and 117 yards and two touchdowns on 13 carries by Gage Adler.

“Our defense was put in some tough situations with short fields,” O’Neal said. “I thought they did an excellent job. They only gave up two or three big plays and made Westran drive down the field, stopping them when they needed to.”

On Friday, North Callaway (0-1) plays at Macon (0-1), who lost 42-26 at Kirksville last week.

North Callaway volleyball’s swings lag behind Russellville

Russellville knew how to throw a punch on Monday night.

North Callaway vs Russellville Photo Gallery

North Callaway volleyball opened its season at home against the Lady Indians and were swept in three sets, losing 25-21, 25-19 and 25-9. Russellville racked up the service aces as it totaled 15 aces for the match.

Head coach Andrew Klein said the Ladybirds had a couple injured from the start as Bailey Hill is down all year with a knee injury while Jaden Smithee is out momentarily with a concussion. Still, he said the Lady Indians provided North Callaway a tough matchup as he noticed his girls had a tough time with Russellville’s strong hits near the end of the first tight-contested sets.

“Russellville went on more runs than us,” Klein said. “They were able to serve-receive better than us. Any coach is going to say their team should be better at serve-receiving. I just thought we got behind a little bit — not being able to pass the ball on serve-receive. They threw a bigger punch than we were able to.”

Throwing those punches much of the time for Russellville from behind the service line were Hallee Stewart, Ella Volkart and Jaden Jenkins. In the closing points of the second set, North Callaway had a 19-17 lead until the Lady Indians took the remaining points thanks to the pinpoint serving by Jenkins. Two of the of the final three points of the set resulted in aces. 

“She can serve anywhere — deep, short, right at somebody, on the line,” Klein said. “I think I heard their coach saying, ‘I like that spot a lot.’ I was thinking, ‘I hate that spot a lot.’ She did a fantastic job, and it’s something we’re going to practice for sure.”

The match seemed to go off the rails for North Callaway after the end of the second set, but prior to that, the Ladybirds were getting their swings in. Rylee Horstman led the team with two blocks and seven kills, followed by three kills each from Natalie Shryock and Avis Endres; Riley Blevins had a team-high eight digs and was one assist behind Lakyn Hartley’s nine assists; and Endres had two service aces.

Horstman was coming through in the right spots in the first set, hammering the ball with authority, to help North Callaway fight back to trail 23-20. 

“Our back row and setters putting the ball in the right spot gave her a really good opportunity,” Klein said. “Her being a sophomore now, she’s playing a lot more loose. Last year was figuring out where she fit in, even though last year she was one of our best players. This year, she knows as a true veteran, it’s up to her to swing and hit the ball hard if we want to have a chance to win against good teams like Russellville.”

Klein said he also liked how North Callaway was applying practice into how it kept volleys alive. When the Ladybirds were going point-for-point with Russellville, they chased down various balls, by even bumping or sending them over the net when their backs were to the net.

“We practiced a whole lot of out-of-system plays where I know we got to scramble around and keep the ball live,” Klein said. “We rather the other team earn the point rather than us making the error. I saw that tonight. I thought Russellville earned almost all their points.”

North Callaway played at New Bloomfield on Tuesday night before an important Eastern Missouri Conference opener at 6:30 p.m. Thursday at the reigning champion Montgomery County.