One of Helias softball's main offseason focus points was baserunning.
After stepping into the head-coaching role after being a former assistant, Kelly Fick told the Lady Crusaders he wanted them to be aggressive on the basepaths.
"We emphasize it just about every day because it's a part of our offense and it gives us run-scoring opportunities," Fick said. "If we can get on base, we're going to try to create some havoc."
Helias was able to create some of that havoc to take multiple bases and set up the key runs it needed Tuesday to get a 4-2 win against Southern Boone on Senior Night at the American Legion Post 5 Sports Complex.
Karoline Klebba hit what looked like a routine single in shallow left field, but instead of stopping at first, she turned the corner to beat a throw to second for a two-out double in the bottom of the second. It was a close play behind quick fielding, but the tag was just behind the sliding Klebba at second.
"Being aggressive and (with) the approach that we want to have, sometimes they're gonna throw us out," Fick said. "But they've got to catch it, throw it, catch it, and tag. That's a lot that has to go right at the high school level, so we're just trying to take advantage."
That put a runner in scoring position to take advantage of an error on the next at-bat. Payton Dudenhoeffer hit a pop-up on the edge of the infield grass, and after hanging in the air for ages the Southern Boone second baseman Ashlyn Ussery and right fielder Riece Clevenger collided as the ball slipped out of Usseery's glove before she hit the grass. Klebba was touching home plate as soon as the ball hit the ground, and even though Dudenhoeffer was thrown out after rounding second, the damage had already been done with Helias leading 1-0 after two innings.
Two innings later, Rogers scored Gabrielle Bax on a sacrifice fly after Bax stretched a double into a triple. In the next inning, Klebba forced an errant throw to go from first to third after a leadoff single before Liv Bloomer got a two-out RBI single.
Bloomer stole second a couple of pitches later to get into scoring position for another two-out RBI from a hit by Ella Meyer. Three of the four Helias runs came with two outs.
"We want some pace and sometimes we have to create it ourselves," Fick said.
The Lady Crusaders didn't have a bunch of baserunners, but the offense they had was enough to combine with a dominant performance from senior pitcher Mallorey Rogers.
Rogers struck out 13 of the 27 batters she faced and only gave up three hits. She made few mistakes, but one of them turned into a two-run home run by Southern Boone shortstop Mariah Prince that flew over the fence in straightaway center to cut a four-run Lady Crusaders lead in half in the top of the sixth.
"Made one mistake to a good hitter, and she ran it out of the yard," Fick said. "Other than that she was in command all night."
Rogers halted any of the Lady Eagles' comeback hopes by striking out four of the next five batters before a groundout put the game to bed.
As the ace for a Helias (12-4-1) team, Rogers has shown an impressive changeup so far this season. Fick said that her command of the pitch has improved significantly for her in the last couple of years which has given her another pitch to use consistently.
That ability to use different speeds was crucial against the Lady Eagles, who would freeze at the plate multiple times after being fooled by an off-speed pitch on a hitter's count. Rogers' pitch arsenal also caused a lot of swings and misses which lead to only five baserunners the entire evening.
"It gives her another pitch that she can go to in hitters counts to hopefully keep them off-balance, and I think we saw that a little bit tonight," Fick said.
Helias plays at 5 p.m. today at home against St. Joseph's Academy. Then the Lady Crusaders start a stretch of three straight conference road games against Columbia foes in Battle, Rock Bridge and Hickman from Thursday to next Wednesday.