WARDSVILLE - With 20 games in a 16-day stretch, the Blair Oaks Lady Falcons have had to divvy up the innings in the pitcher's circle.
It hasn't seemed to matter which of the Lady Falcons' three pitchers take the field. They've gotten the job done every time during their win streak, which was extended to 16 games Tuesday night.
Makenna Kliethermes and Meredith Eisterhold combined to pitch a one-hitter, leading Blair Oaks to a 10-0 win in five innings against the California Lady Pintos at the Falcon Athletic Complex.
"We are playing a lot of games in a short period of time, and we need to make sure that we're not overworking our pitchers," Blair Oaks coach Sharon Buschjost said.
With Blair Oaks holding a comfortable 7-0 lead through three innings, Eisterhold took over for Klithermes and pitched the last two frames. Kliethermes struck out seven of the 10 batters she faced, which included a pair of walks, while Eisterhold added two strikeouts and gave up one hit and one walk.
"That's the approach we took," Buschjost said, hoping she would be able to split the workload between two pitchers in Tuesday's win. "We're working through decisions of who we should start pitching.
"It's been a little bit tougher to make those decisions with the number of games we have, and making sure the arms are ready to go for district time."
In last weekend's UCM Tournament, the Lady Falcons had three different pitchers throw complete games during bracket play Saturday. Freshman Alexis Findley won her first varsity game in the quarterfinals, while Eisterhold pitched the semifinal game and Kliethermes took the circle for the championship.
"As we talked about our strategy Friday night of this past tournament, I can't take credit for that strategy," Buschjost said. "Coach (Jill) Linnenbrink, as we were talking about it, threw that out there, and the more we discussed it, I really liked how it sounded.
"I was confident with that strategy, once we discussed it and shared it with the team. They were 100 percent behind it and helped us out."
Tuesday was Blair Oaks' sixth shutout win of the season. Teams are scoring just 1.7 runs per game against the Lady Falcons. Meanwhile, the offense posted double-digit runs for the eighth time this season, increasing Blair Oaks' average to 8.8 runs per contest.
Macey Stockman gave Blair Oaks the lead just two pitches into the bottom of the first inning with a solo home run to center field, her first varsity home run. She is the sixth different Blair Oaks player to homer this season.
"While she has been in that leadoff spot mainly, she does have a little pop in her bat too," Buschjost said.
Sydney Wilde drove in a run on an error and Kliethermes followed with an RBI single to give Blair Oaks a 3-0 lead later in the inning.
Kliethermes had a team-high three RBI for Blair Oaks, adding a two-run double in the third. Two batters later, Nicole Bryan singled to center field to make the score 7-0.
Blair Oaks made several substitutions in the fourth inning. Eisterhold helped her own cause with an RBI groundout to extend the lead to 10 runs.
Wilde finished 2-for-3, adding a two-run double in the fourth. Brooke Boessen also had one single and one double.
Blair Oaks (16-2) had a rare day off Monday with a rainout at Hallsville, but the Lady Falcons will make up the game today. The varsity contest begins at 5 p.m., followed by the JV game.
"We got word of the (rainout) on the bus on the way," Buschjost said. "The Booster Club gives some meal money one time a year to the players, and that was our meal money night. So we still continued on to Columbia and had a nice meal."
Blair Oaks won Tuesday's JV game 4-3 to improve to 13-0. Kaitlyn Luebbering was the winning pitcher for the Lady Falcons. Mackenzie Prenger had one hit and one RBI.