NEOSHO, Mo. — The Neosho Wildcats opened their season in style with a 10-3 win Friday against the Commerce (Okla.) Tigers at the Neosho Athletic Complex.
The Wildcats excelled at times Friday with their bats, their feet, their gloves, and their pitching arms.
Neosho took control of the contest with a six-run outburst in the fourth. The Wildcats plated one run in the four innings surrounding their big inning.
“I was pleased with the first outing, especially when you’re playing a team that’s already played 13 games,” Neosho coach Catie Cummins said. “Oklahoma gets to start sooner, so they’ve got a benefit there, but I was so pleased we had great energy the whole game and we tallied up 14 hits. We had a little bit of a struggle on the mound, too many walks and hit-by-pitches, but our defense helped us out and scoring that many runs when you have 14 hits, you can be not as sharp on defense or the mound. However, I know we can do better than that. Overall, though, great attitudes, great hustle, and great baserunning.”
The Wildcats applied steady pressure on the bases Friday — stealing bases, taking extra bases on throws, and scoring two of their six runs in the fourth on three-base errors by Commerce outfielders.
“Our baserunning was phenomenal,” Cummins said. “We’ve got some speed. There’s only a couple of kids on our team who can’t steal a base. Then, when the catcher’s arm isn’t great, we took advantage of it all day. She worked hard, but she just couldn’t get the ball down there quick enough for our speed. I was pleased with that.”
Grace Johnson started her senior year with three hits, including RBI singles in the second and the fourth.
“We’ve had some tough conversations with her,” Cummins said. “At the beginning of our practices, she just wasn’t squaring up the ball well and she wasn’t taking great cuts. She faced that adversity and has used the coaching and some of the difficult talks to her advantage. That’s what you want. She’s mentally tough, she was ready, and she knows that she has to hit to stay in the lineup. She can do it. We’re not asking her to do something that she can’t do. It showed, and when you get her on the bases, she’s phenomenal.”
Beclynn Garrett and McKaylie Forrest each doubled in the sixth, while freshman Autumn Kinnaird delivered two hits in her high school debut.
Neosho threw senior Chloe Patterson for the first two innings, brought on sophomore Carleigh Kinnaird in the third, and freshman Olivia Emery showcased her potential and earned her first victory with seven strikeouts and one hit allowed over 3 1/3 scoreless innings.
“We just finished our postgame talk, and we truly are a pitching staff,” Cummins said. “You saw that (Friday). We threw three kids out there that had success. If you ask Carleigh, she threw terrible and she’s going to beat herself up about it. She’s going to be ready for the next one. We’ve seen better out of her. All that to say, if we had to have left her in, she would have turned it around. We just wanted her not to feel like the pressure of the world was on her.
“Olivia, her ball is funky. It’s one of those things where people are shocked with what it is and it is hard to describe what she does. She pounds it in there pretty well, and she did a great job. We had some great defense (Friday), too.”
Neosho returns to action Monday on the road against Monett, an early-season opponent Neosho defeated 12-2 last season and 9-1 two seasons ago.
The Wildcats then close out their first week with games Friday and Saturday in the 18th annual Paige Neal/Christina Freeman Softball Tournament at the Joplin Athletic Complex.
Neosho opens with pool competition Friday against Blue Springs, Carthage, and Monett.
