With Sedalia Smith-Cotton threatening to score almost every inning and only leading 2-1 lead, the Jefferson City Lady Jays were waiting for the offense to click.
It took some time, but once it happened, it didn't seem it would stop any time soon.
All nine Lady Jays batted and five scored in the fifth inning, leading to a 7-1 win against Sedalia Smith-Cotton on Monday night at 63 Diamonds.
"We put balls in play," Jefferson City coach Zac Miller said. "Some of them I think they could have gotten a little better pitch to hit, but for the most part they are out there grinding and trying to make adjustments."
Olivia Wallace led off the fifth with a single and Brooke Bates followed with a bunt single. Leadoff hitter Kara Daly then launched a deep fly ball to left field for a double, scoring courtesy runner Aleya Haynes and Bates.
Reece Desimone followed with an infield single to third and Daly scored on an error to make it 5-1.
Alex Gilliland, one of four seniors honored before the game for Senior Night, made it 6-1 with a single to center field and advanced all the way to third on an error.
Fellow senior Hannah Clardy capped off the five-run inning with a double to left, scoring Gilliland.
Gilliland, Clardy and senior Lauren Neubauer combined for five hits and two RBI.
Wallace led the Lady Jays with three hits. Daly, Desimone and Bates each had two hits. Half of Jefferson City's 14 hits came in the fifth inning.
"I would have liked to have seen us barrel up some more balls," Miller said. "Hit the ball hard, find some gaps, but they turned three double plays in the first five innings of the game and all three balls were hit hard. They made good plays to get out of those jams. What can you do there?"
With the bases loaded in the first, Neubauer lined out to the shortstop and the runner at third was doubled off. Mychael Jett was hit by a pitch earlier in the inning to allow the first run of the game to score.
In the second inning, Smith-cotton turned a 4-3-5 double play as a runner tried to advance to third on a groundout.
Smith-Cotton added a 6-4-3 double play in the fourth.
The Lady Jays also used some defense and pitching to strand Smith-Cotton runners in scoring position.
McKenna Woolery led off the fourth with a walk and advanced to second on a wild pitch, but a strikeout, a sliding catch by left fielder Abbi Karr and a groundout ended the threat. Karr caught a fly ball in the first and two in the third.
"Abbi had some pretty tough plays in the outfield," Miller said. "She made some great plays on them. A couple of those balls had double written all over them and she came up with them."
Megan Green earned the win in the circle. She only allow one run on four hits with four strikeouts and three walks. Green retired the side in order three times.
"She got in there and threw strikes for us and that's what we needed her to do," Miller said. "That's what we talked about before the game, just let your defense work."
Green made the start to give Jett some rest after a playing in the Kewpie Classic in Columbia this past weekend.
Green, Jett and Daly are expected to share time in the circle this week that includes six games in eight days.
"It was a good opportunity for Megan to be able to throw," Miller said. " We're going to be leaning on them arms quite a bit, so we'll be doing a little bit of shuffling this week just to try to keep everybody fresh for next week."
Jefferson City (10-9) will play today at Lebanon, a game that was scheduled to be the season opener but was rained out.
The Lady Jays will host Southern Boone on Wednesday before playing in the Carthage Tournament on Friday and Saturday. The regular season ends with a home game against Pleasant Hope on Monday.
"I like the Carthage Tournament right before districts," Miller said. "A lot of times it's kind of made us or breaked us before. Sometimes we go down there and have a bad tournament and then we have a bad district. Some times we go down there and play really well and it kind of sets the tone for districts."
Smith-Cotton won Monday's JV game 6-2.