In a clash of defending state champions Wednesday evening at the American Legion Post 5 Sports Complex, the Helias Lady Crusaders figured they'd have to muddy the waters as much as possible against the Sherwood Lady Marksmen in order to win.
Helias put the ball in play, forced Sherwood to make plays and took advantage when the Lady Marksmen couldn't in a 5-0 win, as the 2019 Class 3 state champs knocked off the 2019 Class 2 state champs in seven innings.
"Put it in play," Helias coach Chris Wyrick said after the win. "We worked on it all day yesterday, we cranked up the (pitching) machine, and we challenged them to not swing and miss and not strike out and put it in play, and that's what happens. We had probably three plays where if they make the play, it probably changes the course of the game, but they didn't make plays."
"Crank up the machine" was a reference to Sherwood ace Mac Morgan, a travel ball standout, Arizona State commit and big reason the Lady Marksmen went 26-3 with a state title a year ago, with a riseball in the upper 60s. She made the mitt pop a few times, struck out eight and walked one in a complete-game effort, but gave up seven hits as Sherwood committed three errors in just its second loss of the season.
Three of those hits went to right fielder Molly Berkey, who was 3-for-3, scored two runs and was the spark plug for both of the Lady Crusaders' scoring innings out of the 8-hole in the lineup.
Berkey slapped a leadoff single into no-man's land behind first to start the third inning, swiped second at the first opportunity and made a heads-up play to take third when a bad throw back to Morgan by the Sherwood catcher trickled out behind the circle.
"The bottom of our lineup is getting on for the top, and when that happens your offense just rolls," Wyrick said. "You almost can't help but score runs when your bottom two are getting on base. We saw some openings to steal some bases when we got on, so we didn't have to worry about bunting."
Ella Meyer followed with an opposite-field single to plate Berkey, stole second, and came home when a ball hit by Paige Schaffer went off the glove of the Lady Marksmen's second baseman.
In the fifth, Berkey shot a leadoff single off the glove of the second baseman, moved up on a groundout and went to third on an infield single by Liv Bloomer. Berkey scored and Bloomer went to third on a wild pitch, then a two-out infield hit by Schaffer scored Bloomer. Schaffer's courtesy runner, Karoline Klebba, scored from first on a bloop single to right off the bat of Mallorey Rogers, jarring the ball loose on a bang-bang play at the plate as she slid home.
"With Karoline's speed and with the way the ball was hit, and she took off right away, the ball I think got away from the outfielder for just a second," Wyrick said. "We're gonna take a chance."
Rogers, who started for Helias and threw 4 innings, had just one clean inning, a 1-2-3 second, but she and the Lady Crusader defense were both good enough when Sherwood (14-2) put runners on base to strand them. After two straight singles to start the game, Rogers caught got a pop-out, a slow roller to third for the lead runner and a lineout to center. After retiring the first two batters in the third without trouble, a popup behind second fell for a hit, and then nobody covered the bag as Sherwood's Kennedy Diggs took the bag, though a pop-out to Payton Dudenhoeffer ended the inning.
Rogers got both her strikeouts in the game to start the fourth and worked around another error by catching a pop-up to end the inning, and left in the fifth after a one-out single and an intentional walk to Morgan.
"She hasn't pitched in a while, so it was good to see her get back out there," Wyrick said. "Whenever she's not over the heart of the plate, she's tough to hit. When she's on the corners, she throws a heavy ball, and as long as she's not over the heart of the plate, she's going to get a lot of people out."
Alexa Rehmeier stepped in as a reliever and escaped the jam with a swinging strikeout and a grounder to third for the force out. She gave up a leadoff single in the sixth and a two-out double to Morgan in the seventh but kept the game scoreless, leaning on her riseball to strike out six of the 10 batters she faced in 2 innings.
Rogers' strong outing was a good sign for Wyrick with districts just around the corner. Helias (16-6) plays this weekend at the Rolla Invitational, starting at 11 a.m. Friday against Joplin, and begins Class 5 District 5 bracket play as the No. 1 seed at 4:30 p.m. Tuesday against Smith-Cotton in Sedalia.
"We're gonna need her when districts roll around. Her and Molly," Wyrick said. "So it's good for her to get some innings."