North Callaway lost its lead in the fifth and sixth innings but covered those mistakes.

North Callaway vs Wright City Photo Gallery

The Ladybirds responded soon after in the later innings before taking the lead for good in the sixth inning with a 7-4 win over Eastern Missouri Conference foe Wright City on Tuesday at home. Kymorie Myers finished 3-for-4 and had a two-RBI triple for the go-ahead hit in the sixth.

“The outfielder, it went past her and then she threw it to her cut,” Myers said. “I just took advantage of that and got to third base for my team so we could score more.”

Myers said North Callaway (6-2, 2-0 EMO) “backed up” each other, whether it was a positive or negative moment. The Ladybirds followed baserunners with hits when they needed them and the defense made key plays behind pitchers Megan Schmidt and Lauren Speight.

North Callaway lost a 3-1 lead in the fifth inning because of a two-RBI double by the opposing pitcher Ava Swaringen. A 4-3 lead was then lost after the score was knotted at 4 in the sixth inning when Paige Rees picked up a RBI with a single up the middle. 

“Anytime we play conference games, they’re always going to be scrappy,” head coach Mariah McKee said. “Everybody in our conference is scrappy so we always have to come out and bring our A game.”

McKee said Wright City (2-5, 0-2 EMO) is capable of hitting the ball and laying down bunts, which the Lady Wildcats did. On the other hand, North Callaway had a good day hitting the ball even if it had trouble tacking on runs in the middle innings.

The Ladybirds collected hard-hit balls that found defenders, including the pitcher Swaringen’s glove twice in one innings. While some of North Callaway’s hits in the sixth inning weren’t crushed, they gave the team the edge it needed.

“We did a good job of staying with it,” McKee said. “I kept telling them to keep swinging the bats hard and we are going to find a hole. And we did. Finally.”

The speedy Maddy Gordon didn’t hit the ball too hard to center field, but thanks to a misplay in the outfield, Gordon’s single resulted in her being at third base. 

“To have our speedy kid on base to lead off an inning, it’s a great way to start an inning,” McKee said. “It was infectious from there and kept building on it.”

Myers has shown time and time again that she can hit tape-measure home runs but needed only for her ball to drop into shallow left field to stretch it into a triple. Abigail Schmidt blasted a RBI double later in the inning. 

McKee said Myers has many exceptional skills, including smart baserunning. Besides that read in the sixth inning, Myers advanced to third after tagging up on a flyout just outside the right field line by Schmidt and then scored easily on a hard ground ball by Liv Knoepflein, who had two RBI.

“Kymorie is a great baserunner,” McKee said. “She’ll stretch it. She does a great job of reading balls and being able to make those adjustments. Even if you catch a ball in foul territory, you can still tag on that ball.”

Reading the ball well isn’t just necessary on offense. It is also essential on defense as shown by Myers’ diving catch in center field to save two runs from scoring in the fifth inning.  Swaringen still brought those runs in with a double but made Wright City use another out.

“I just saw the ball going down, but I got to the ball in time where I thought I could get,” Myers said. “I just gave it my all because I already took a sharp angle to the ball. If I didn’t dive, it was going past me anyways.”

Wright City could’ve cut into North Callaway’s 3-1 lead in the fourth inning but left two runners on base. The Lady Wildcats forced the Ladybirds to make an error after executing a bunt so the ball sailed beyond the second baseman Faith Cash as she laid out for the throw. However, the lead runner was tagged out at third base by pitcher Megan Schmidt.

A single happened later in the inning and would have been good enough to score a run for Wright City if a runner was in the right position. Though, since North Callaway had all its bases covered, that didn’t happen.

“Megan did a great job of covering,” McKee said. “Maddy was there (in right field) to back up that bad throw and she ended up being able to throw this girl out at third. We did a really good job of covering bags. That’s one of our main things this year — making sure our bags are covered, we don’t leave anything open and we’re where we need to be to make those heads-up plays.”

North Callaway has won its first two conference games and began with six wins early in the season. Morale is high. But morale was high before the Ladybirds started winning games.

Myers said North Callaway wouldn’t have started as well and have as high of expectations without working well together to score runs, like the Ladybirds did in a 6-5 win last week in New Bloomfield. McKee likes that aspect of her team.

“It’s them buying in and knowing that they can do it,” McKee said. “They are believing it as much as we do. The vibe is we’re here for each other, we’re going to back each other up and we’re going to do what we need to do between the fences.”