CARL JUNCTION, Mo. — Five games into a new season, the Carl Junction Bulldogs have already passed last season’s wins total with their 10-0 home-opening run-rule victory in five innings Wednesday against the Hillcrest Hornets.
“This team, to be honest, the majority of these girls were here last year,” Carl Junction coach Zak Petty said. “It was a season of struggle. It was a season where I kept telling them ‘It’s there. It’s there. We’ll get there.’ We’re fortunate to get a pretty good freshman class that has an immediate impact.
“These girls know they can do it. We’ll be able to compete, and we’ll show up every night thinking we can win, no doubt about it.”
Carl Junction (3-2) returns to action Tuesday at home in the Central Ozark Conference opener against rival Webb City.
“We’re excited for it,” Petty said. “We had a good weekend this past weekend at the Aurora tournament. We lost two games by two runs total (Branson 7-6, Joplin 3-2), and we went 2-2. Hillcrest was a good one to go take care of going into COC play against a good team. There’s no doubt about it. Webb’s always had our number, but we’re ready to go compete with them.”
Freshman pitcher Kiley Spencer tossed a two-hit shutout and the Bulldog defense played solid behind her Wednesday, as Hillcrest put only a single runner in scoring position all game.
“That’s what we preach to them: Play good defense,” Petty said. “We’ve got pitching. She (Spencer) struggled a little bit with strikes, but she bared down, and she knew when she needed to get in there and attack hitters. She’s a freshman, so she’s going to have those times where we’ve got to get on her a bit and tell her ‘Do that.’ Defensively, we’ve been good so far, and I hope that we can keep that up.”
Spencer struck out two and walked two on her way to a 53-pitch outing.
Meanwhile, Carl Junction’s offense plated three runs in the first, one in the third, five in the fourth, and finally one in the fifth to abbreviate the contest.
Junior first baseman Izzie Southern drove in three runs with a two-run double in the first and an RBI single in the third, while sophomore catcher Madi Olds’ three-run homer to left highlighted Carl Junction’s seven-run outburst.
“I tell you, those two have a lot of power,” Petty said. “Izzie’s on a streak right now. She’s really seeing it well. We keep her in that part of the order (No. 6 spot) because that’s where she feels comfortable and that’s where we’re going to keep her. Madi always comes up in big spots, has a lot of power, and she had a couple hard hits today that didn’t drop but probably should have. She ran into some bad luck.”
Sophomore left fielder Dezi Williams hit an RBI double in the fourth and senior shortstop Sammie Sims, who missed her junior season due to an injury, ended it on an RBI single.
Hannah Cantrell and Southern each had three hits, Sims, Olds and Williams each had two, and Ryleigh Palmer rounded out Carl Junction’s 13 hits with her single.
Cantrell, Sims, and Olds each scored twice and Olds and Southern each drove in three runs.
“From top to bottom, we have some good hitters,” Petty said. “We’re still looking for a little more consistency, but overall, we’re happy with what we’ve seen so far.”
