Megan Schmidt didn’t do too much last Thursday in the circle.

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It is an odd assessment initially for the North Callaway sophomore after she was one out away from a perfect game in a 9-0 victory over Eastern Missouri Conference rival Montgomery County. Still, with Schmidt’s pristine approach on the team’s Pink Out night, the Class 2 No. 6 Lady Wildcats didn’t manage much solid contact.

Schmidt said she was “optimistic” going into North Callaway’s first meeting with Montgomery since a tough 9-8 loss last year on the road that determined the conference champion. She said both times were seen as a “turning point” for the season.

"There was lots of spin," Schmidt said. "Spin was great. Even my infielders would come in and say, "That spin looked amazing. I don't know what you're throwing at them, but they are not hitting it.' It was great to hear that from them."

Pertaining to the team’s No. 1 pitcher, Schmidt hopes the last few starts are a turning point for her. After pitching in an 8-3 loss a week ago at another state-ranked conference foe Elsberry, Schmidt struck out 10 and allowed one earned run in back-to-back seven-inning starts in victories over state-ranked Cairo and La Plata.

Going into the Montgomery start, Schmidt leads the team with an ERA around 3.00 and reached 70 strikeouts after tallying five against the Lady Wildcats. She said she has finally found a way to deal with hip and knee injuries. The knee happened recently, Schmidt said, but the hip has lingered all season.

“I’ve been able to figure out ways to keep me healthy and keep me out of pain throughout the games,” Schmidt said. “We found out ways to help keep (my hip) in throughout the game, and now, I am able to run and play with it. My muscles pull it out so we found ways to keep my muscles from pulling it out of place and letting it go back in place. So then it stays in instead of pulling out.”

Head coach Mariah McKee said Schmidt followed North Callaway’s usual game plan of trusting its defense. The only ball that didn’t find a glove was Aliviah Fischer’s single ripped into left field to break up the perfect game. Other than that, it was mostly weak contact and great plays made behind her, such as a diving catch by Kymorie Myers in center field to end the game.

"(Schmidt) did a great job of hitting her spots and keeping people off-balance," head coach Mariah McKee said. "She let her defense work. She had popups and soft ground balls to get outs."

Pitching with an injury adds more difficulty to an already difficult position in the circle, McKee said, so Schmidt has been nothing short of impressive. Schmidt did plenty to give North Callaway plenty of chances to score runs, but it still has been simple.

“She’s not doing too much,” McKee said. “Sometimes, pitchers get in there and have been struggling with injury, they try to do too much to overcompensate. She does just enough. She does what she needs to do, she locks it down and our defense plays behind her.”

The Ladybird offense, obviously, did plenty as they were one hit away from walking off Montgomery in the sixth inning via run-rule. Faith Cash finished 2-for-3 with three RBI, Liv Knoepflein went 2-for-3 with a two-RBI double, and Kymorie Myers was 2-for-3 with a RBI.

Before the hits really started, Reese Hill walked the bases loaded in the second inning and pushed across three North Callaway runs via hit by pitches to Schmidt and Ella Slater and a walk to Myers. Hill struck out the side outside of those wild moments.

“She threw a really good rise ball,” McKee said. “It was just telling our batters to lay off and think down. If you see rise, just don’t go after it. The rise, whenever it’s coming in, it’s waist-high then all of a sudden it flips up last minute. It’s a good pitch, and she throws it really well.”

Following a RBI single by Lia Bondurant in the third inning, Cash picked up her first RBI hit in the fourth inning to score two runs and give the Ladybirds a 6-0 lead. McKee likes how Cash heeded her advice, and of course, not doing too much.

“She did a great job of doing in-game adjustments and not doing too much,” McKee said. “She hit what she was given and put a really good base hit down.”

North Callaway has put the loss to Elsberry in the rearview mirror, and McKee said the decisive defeat over a team responsible for one of the program’s toughest losses a year ago really helps. As the Ladybirds have demonstrated, it is important to move past negative moments quickly.

“It’s a good bounce back,” McKee said. “It’s the game of softball. Sometimes, we’re just not going to have it all. It is being able to bounce back, correct the things we need to correct and do the things we need to do to get done.”