After finishing third place in the Branson Lady Pirate Invitational over the weekend, Joplin kept the momentum rolling into Monday after scoring runs in four of its six innings en route to a 9-2 win over Seneca in non-conference action at the JHS Athletic Complex.
After manufacturing a run in the second inning to take the early lead, the Eagles (11-10) cemented the momentum with a three-run third frame. Joplin added an insurance run in the fourth before hanging four more runs on the scoreboard in the sixth to seal the win.
“We went into the weekend and played some good teams in the Branson tournament and found a way to get three wins, and we probably could have had more,” Joplin coach Manny Flores said. “These girls are playing good softball right now, and all it comes down to is not hanging your head when something bad happens to you. We have been able to battle through that the last week and a half.
“We took those three wins and carried it over into today. We barreled a lot of balls today and we were able to put up nine. She hit her spots early, but we were able to make the adjustment in the middle innings.”
Jill McDaniel earned the complete-game win for Joplin in the circle. She surrendered two runs, one earned, on six hits, a walk and nine strikeouts in seven innings.
Callie Rhoades took the loss after allowing nine runs on 13 hits, two walks and three strikeouts in the six innings.
The Eagles opened the scoring in the bottom of the second inning despite not registering a hit. Madisyn Tracy walked to lead off the frame before moving to second on a wild pitch. In the next at-bat, Izzy Yust reached on a fielder’s indifference on a grounder to short before Abby Lowery reached on a Seneca fielding error to load the bases. Riley Kelly followed with an RBI groundout to give Joplin a 1-0 advantage.
The Eagles separated themselves in the next inning when Liz Snider started the scoring off with a one-out solo home run to center to push the lead to 2-0. After a single by Jadyn Pankow and a double by Madisyn Tracy, Lowery came through with a two-strike, two-out single to right-center field to double the lead at 4-0.
“I think that was a huge confidence boost for her right there,” Flores said. “She was down in the count 0-2 … and you can see her growth in confidence with two strikes now. She did a good job of not doing too much and just barreling a ball up. That is huge for her moving forward.”
McDaniel doubled to lead off the bottom of the fourth before Hope Oakley came around to score on a wild pitch later in the inning as a courtesy runner.
Seneca (6-9) got on the board with an unearned run in the top of the fifth after Aliyah Grotjohn scored on a Joplin throwing error to make the score 5-1.
The Eagles put the game out of reach in the sixth inning. Bailey Ledford doubled down the left-field line with one out before an error on the Seneca left fielder allowed Ledford to advance all the way to home for a run. Two batters later, Pankow doubled home a run on a line drive to center field before Tracy followed with a second straight RBI double, this time to right-center, to put Joplin on top 8-1. Yust picked up an RBI on a groundout to wrap the scoring.
“In this game, you have to be able to do that,” Flores said about his team’s ability to add insurance late. “It doesn’t matter who you are playing. Seneca is a good team over there and if we don’t tack on, there is an inning that could snowball on us and they could have taken the lead on us. Anytime you are playing, you can’t sit on a lead because opposing teams will capitalize on that.”
Kahli Fields cut Seneca’s deficit to seven with an RBI double in the top of the seventh to wrap the scoring for the Indians.
Snider finished a double shy of the cycle, hitting a homer, triple and single to go along with one RBI and a run scored.
“She had an incredible day, and not just at the plate but behind it too,” Flores said of his catcher. “When she is on and healthy, she can drive the ball just like she did today. She doesn’t try to do too much. Her home run was a ball right up the middle and she hit another ball off the top of the wall in left-center. She is seeing the ball well and her timing is on.”
Tracy doubled twice, scored three runs and drove in one, while Pankow doubled and finished with two hits to go along with two runs scored and one RBI. Lowery and Yust each had two hits and combined for three RBI.
Fields doubled, had two hits and one RBI to lead Seneca at the plate.
Joplin gets back to Central Ozark Conference play on Tuesday with a road matchup against Ozark, while Seneca travels to Marshfield on Tuesday.
