The Carthage Lady Tigers made the most out of four hits to hand McDonald County a 3-1 loss in the opening round of the Missouri Class 4 District 12 Softball Tournament on Oct. 5 at Carthage High School.
"Lex (pitcher Alexa Hopkins) gave us a chance to win in the circle like always," said coach Skyler Rawlins. "She gives us chance to compete. Defense and pitching is the formula for winning and we didn't play very good defense at times and it came back to haunt us."
Carthage scored all three of its runs in the fourth inning to erase a 1-0 McDonald County lead. An error, a single and a sacrifice bunt put runners on second and third with one out. Hopkins got the second out of the inning on a comebacker without a run scoring, but the Lady Tigers' starting pitcher Emily Calhoun doubled to the fence in left centerfield to give the Lady Tigers a 2-1 lead. Calhoun scored the Lady Tigers' third run on the second McDonald County error of the inning.
McDonald County scored its only run in the bottom of the third to take a 1-0 lead. Kylie Helm led off the inning with her second double of the game. She went to third on a single by Whitney Kinser and scored on a sacrifice fly off the bat of Maddie Colvin.
Calhoun escaped further damage by retiring the next three McDonald County hitters. Calhoun also got out of a jam in the first inning. With one out, Rita Santillan walked and Helm doubled to put runners on second and third.
But a squeeze play backfired when Kinser was called out when she fouled a bunt attempt off her leg after she was out of the batter's box.
"We didn't swing it very well today," Rawlins said. "We didn't get a timely hit when we needed one. We had runners on second and third a couple of times and couldn't come up with a big hit."
Helm and Chloe Colvin finished with two hits each to lead the Lady Mustangs while Kinser and Maddie Colvin had the only other hits for McDonald County.
Hopkins went the distance, allowing three runs on four hits, while striking out two and walking one.
McDonald County ends the season with an 18-11 overall record, including a 5-1 mark to take second place in the Big 8 Conference.
"Our goal is to win 20 games every year, but if you would have told me after starting the season 1-5 that at the end of the year we would be 18-11, I don't think many people would have believed that," Rawlins said. "We got better as time went on. I think we competed well all season and gave ourselves a chance to be successful at the end, but things happened late and we came up short. "
The game served as the final game of the high school careers for three McDonald County seniors, Cloee Helm, Kenzie Stephens and Miryan Martinez.
"We had three quality seniors," Rawlins said. "All three were four-year players. All three lead by example. They aren't rah-rah girls, but they have showed those underclassmen how to work and how we go about things. We are going to miss all three of them a lot. They have made a lasting impression on the program that will be felt for years to come. I couldn't ask for a better seniors or better people."
Sports on 10/12/2017