Back-To-Back No-Hitters As Lady Cats Blast Their Way To Fourth District Championship
Bowling Green To Face Metro In State Sectional
Pitcher Sarah Harness was nails in her return to the circle for Class 2 District 6 tournament action and the Bowling Green bats were hot as the Lady Cats blasted six homers in the semifinal and championship combined.
Top-seeded Bowling Green showed their strength, eliminating Trinity Catholic 15-0 in four innings in the semifinal and then knocking off Wright City in the championship with a 7-0 shut-out victory.
With an opening round bye as the top seed in the tournament and a lot of rain, Bowling Green didn’t step onto the field until Saturday morning for the semifinal against Trinity (4). It marked the return of Harness who had been sidelined for over a week with an injury to her thumb. She didn’t miss a beat, retiring the first six batters with the strike-out and ending the game with nine Ks.
The offense got things going as Gabi Deters sent her first laser over the fence for a solo shot in the bottom of the first inning. KateLynn Charlton drew a walk behind her and scored on an error.
The Lady Cats tacked on two more runs in the bottom of the second. Morgen Billings cranked out a triple and scored on a wild pitch. Madeline Norton singled with one out and advanced on a single by Anah Noble. Mallory Feldewerth scored Norton on a sac fly.
Leading 4-0 and the skies turning darker with the rains coming, the Lady Cats shut it down in the bottom of the fourth inning by plating 11 runs. Haylee Chandler started things off in with a single, followed by a hit from Noble. Feldewerth drove in Chandler with a single then Deters drew an RBI walk. Charlton plated two more runs with a big double before Kaylyn McKee cleared the bases with a two-run blast over the fence.
With two outs Billings drew a walk and stole second. Katy Horner drew a walk. Taylor Darnell scored Billings on an RBI single and then it was Noble who cleared the bases with a three-run shot over the fence to put the score at 14-0 as the inning continued.
Feldewerth and Deters each drew walks in their second at-bats of the frame. An RBI double by Charlton ended the game.
Noble was 3-4 with three RBIs and Charlton drove in three runs on two hits. Deters earned the Community State Bank TribCast Player of the Game setting the tone behind the plate and getting the first home run blast of the semifinal.
Deters noted that it helped the team to have Harness back in the circle and added that every person on the team contributes.
“We’re just a team. There’s no one individual person, it takes all of us to win,” Deters remarked.
Coach Dean Streed told TribCast following the win it was the best hitting he’d seen the team do collectively all season. He added the team played with a lot of focus.
Championship
The Lady Cats looked determined in the championship bout with Wright City (3) that was postponed until Monday due to the rain.
It was a shut-out win once again for Harness in the circle who hit a batter to fall shy of the perfect game and struck out 12 batters to earn the Community State Bank TribCast Player of the Game along with teammate Mallory Feldewerth who had a two-run homer in the bottom of the fifth inning.
Harness told TribCast after the win that she just stayed focused on getting the next out during the game. She admitted she was a little nervous about the balls that came right back at her, each of which she handled easily to record outs. She pointed out the run support from the offense has been nice.
Streed said the girls did a great job and were likely helped during the span without Harness by getting some work in defensively. He added that he was pleased with how the girls adjusted in the game batting and how they worked on pitch selection. Streed added the team will prepare and work on all aspects of the game leading up to the State Sectional game on Wednesday. He pointed out that there were a lot of doubters after Harness was injured. He noted that ultimately the Conference championship wasn’t the goal.
“Our end goal is to go somewhere we’ve never been before.”
He added the team will give Metro their best game in the Sectional.
Deters ended the game with back-to-back home runs to drive in four runs. Chandler also had an RBI hit in addition to the two runs from Feldewerth’s blast. Noble had two hits for the day and Charlton and Norton each recorded hits as well.
The Lady Cats will square off with Metro at the St. Louis University campus at 4:30 p.m. on Wednesday. The game will be featured on TribCast. All area post-season softball games are available in the TribCast archive along with free, downloadable photo highlights online anytime at www.thepeoplestribune.com.
