Blair Oaks edges Lady Jays in softball

Natalie Otto of the Blair Oaks Lady Falcons dives to catch a ball during the third inning of Thursday night's game against the Jefferson City Lady Jays at the Falcon Athletic Complex. It was ruled the ball hit the ground on the play.
Natalie Otto of the Blair Oaks Lady Falcons dives to catch a ball during the third inning of Thursday night's game against the Jefferson City Lady Jays at the Falcon Athletic Complex. It was ruled the ball hit the ground on the play.

WARDSVILLE, Mo. - It wasn't pretty, but it was a game Blair Oaks will gladly add to its win column.

The Lady Falcons collected just three hits Thursday night, but they took advantage of four errors in a three-run fourth inning to rally past the Jefferson City Lady Jays for a 4-3 win at the Falcon Athletic Complex.

"Mistakes were made by both sides, but both teams battled and made it a very exciting, intense game," Blair Oaks coach Sharon Buschjost said.

That makes back-to-back one-run contests for the Lady Jays, who were coming off a 5-4 win against Hickman.

"Looking back, they had one earned run," Lady Jays coach Zac Miller said. "We definitely beat ourselves in that one."

The game started as a pitchers' duel between Makenna Kliethermes of Blair Oaks and Mychael Jett of Jefferson City.

Kliethermes struck out the side in the first inning, while Jett got a first-inning double play and followed that with a 1-2-3 inning in the second.

Jett finished with just 66 pitches in a losing effort, walking one and striking out one.

"I've been impressed with her for four years, and she pitched a great game tonight," Buschjost said.

Kliethermes escaped a bases-loaded jam with no outs in the top of the second, getting a pair of strikeouts to sandwich a force out at home plate to keep the game scoreless.

Jefferson City pushed through in the third with four straight singles off Kliethermes. Jett's infield single scored Kara Daly, while Olivia Wallace's single to right field scored Megan Green to give the Lady Jays a 2-0 lead.

Blair Oaks right fielder Natalie Otto made a diving attempt on Wallace's hit, appearing to come up with the ball. But Buschjost said the home-plate umpire ruled the ball popped out of Otto's glove.

The Lady Falcons answered with one run in the bottom half of the inning. Otto had a leadoff single and advanced to third on back-to-back sacrifice bunts. Leadoff batter Ellie Kliethermes singled to right field, scoring Otto to make the score 2-1.

"She's worked her way up to that No. 1 spot," Buschjost said of Kliethermes. "We'll see how things go, but we had a different look early on in the season. Now we've switched it up a little bit with her in the leadoff spot the last two or three games. She looks really good in that No. 1 spot."

The Lady Jays got a run back in the fourth on a throwing error that allowed Addison Morgan to score from second base.

Blair Oaks committed two errors in the top half of that inning, but the Lady Jays would double that in the bottom half.

Brooke Boessen and Kaitlyn Kolb reached on back-to-back errors that led to a Blair Oaks run. Otto also reached on an error that allowed Boessen to score the tying run.

"If you don't stop the bleeding, you can bleed to death from a papercut," Miller said. "We just have to be able to shake that."

Two batters later, Bailey Rissmiller hit a sacrifice fly to right field, scoring Kolb to give Blair Oaks a 4-3 lead.

"We had some very hard-hit balls," Buschjost said. "I liked what I saw, they need to feel good about that. Just keep doing that until something falls or mistakes are made."

Makenna Kliethermes pitched a 1-2-3 inning in the fifth and did not allow any Jefferson City players past first base the rest of the game.

"As a coach, there's things we look at when things don't go a pitcher's way or a team's way," Buschjost said. "I loved her body language in the circle, I loved her attitude and demeanor."

The Lady Jays made Kliethermes labor - she threw 126 pitches - but she finished with 10 strikeouts and a pair of walks to remain undefeated this season in the circle.

"I was super proud of our hitters," Miller said. "We got up there, grinded and worked her deep in the count a lot. We didn't go down without a fight."

Daly, Jett and Wallace each had two singles to lead the Lady Jays.

Blair Oaks (9-3) hosts Hallsville on Monday for Senior Night.

Jefferson City (7-3) plays today at Holt.

Blair Oaks also won the JV game 3-0 to improve to 9-2. Kaitlyn Luebbering pitched all five innings and struck out six while allowing two hits and three walks. Jazmin Reinkemeyer also had a double and two RBI for the Lady Falcons.

III

Between the JV and varsity games Thursday night, both active and retired military members were recognized on the field for Honor Our Heroes night. Harold Loethen Jr., grandfather of Blair Oaks softball player Brooke Boessen, threw out the ceremonial first pitch and served as an honorary coach for the Lady Falcons.