The Jefferson City Lady Jays had a second chance against Troy-Buchanan on Wednesday after falling in this matchup last week. This time it meant a little more with a spot in the Class 4 quarterfinals on the line.
But Lady Trojans senior pitcher Kiersten Nixon was even better this time around, not allowing a Lady Jay get past second base in a 4-0 defeat of Jefferson City in a Class 4 sectional contest at Vogel Field.
"We'd seen her before and we were hoping that would help," Lady Jays coach Zac Miller said. "I think just like anything else, once you get to postseason sometimes those pitchers have a little extra gear."
Nixon struck out nine Lady Jays in an 8-2 win Oct. 8 and followed that with an 11-strikeout performance Wednesday.
"Kept us off-balance busting the top of the zone with the rise ball," Miller said. "Had a hard time squaring that up and then she'd come back and we'd foul it off. Then she'd go changeup, and it kept us off-balanced pretty well."
Olivia Wallace and Abi Karr were the only Lady Jays to get a hit off Nixon.
Wallace grounded a single up the middle in the second but never advanced past first.
Karr led off the sixth by smashing a fly ball to right-center field that just went off the right fielder's glove for a double. But Karr was caught stealing third before a lineout and groundout ended the inning.
Karr also sent a deep fly ball to center field in the third, but it was run down by Natalie Sullivan for an out.
"Over the last week she's really been putting the barrel on the ball," Miller said of Karr. "I was excited for her. Both of them she had she drove them to the warning track, so that was her putting a good swing on it.
"She hustles and she just kind of got a bad read on a ball there and got thrown out, but she's hustling. Definitely took the wind out of the sails a little bit. She's such a hustler and she'll run through a fence if you ask her to."
The game was scoreless until Nixon led off the fourth with a solo home run to center field.
Cam Patterson followed with a double and then the Lady Trojans played small ball.
A sacrifice bunt advanced Patterson to third and she scored on a Haylee McGinty sacrifice fly.
Troy used a pair of bunts in the fifth to score its other two runs.
Sullivan led off with a single and later scored when Nixon bunted to third base, beating the toss to home plate.
Later with runners at the corners, Kelsey Sachs bunted to the pitcher and a run scored on a high throw to the plate.
"We definitely had some miscues that we could have done a little better job of," Miller said. "That's something we go over almost every day is bunt coverages. We know they are going to bunt, they've bunted on us before, they bunt on everybody. So we know they are going to bunt, but game speed and practice speed are a little different. They had a couple squeezes there and we just couldn't quite get the handle on it."
Mychael Jett took the loss in the circle, allowing three earned runs on nine hits with four strikeouts and no walks.
"Mychael went out and competed the whole time," Miller said. "They were able to square up a couple balls on her, but for the most part we ask her to go out there and compete and try and give us an opportunity to win. Bottom line, you can't win a game if you don't score."
Troy (24-4-1) will host Francis Howell Central (17-10) on Saturday in the quarterfinals.
Jefferson City ends its season with a record of 18-9.
"I told the girls don't hang your heads because we made a goal of being district champs," Miller said. "To get there and make that goal, we were super excited for that. Definitely a lot of highs for the season and definitely some things we can build on."