CARTHAGE, Mo. — The Carthage Tigers finished their 23rd annual softball invitational tournament with a 9-2 win Saturday afternoon over the McDonald County Mustangs on the main field of the Fair Acres Sports Complex.
Jenna Calhoon broke a 1-all score with a two-run double in the fifth and Carthage took a 9-1 lead after plating six runs on four hits and three McDonald County errors in the sixth.
“Once we started getting people on and we were able to put the ball in play more, cut the strikeouts down, we were able to put the pressure on them with some bunting,” Carthage coach Stephanie Ray said. “We started scoring more runs that way.”
During that nightmarish sixth for the Mustangs, Carthage senior Ashlynn Jackson led off with a single, Lexa Youngblood reached on a bunt single before a throwing error advanced Jackson to third and Youngblood to second. Alexis Smith’s bunt led to another error and two Carthage runs, Smith scored on a wild pitch and Shelby Hegwer reached first on a dropped third strike and second on a throwing error. Aven Willis hit an RBI single, Landry Cochran connected on an RBI double and Ashlyn Brust collected an RBI on a 6-3 groundout.
The Tigers drove McDonald County starter Nevaeh Dodson from the contest and sophomore Vivianne Latham came on to pick up the last three outs.
“Carthage did a lot of good things,” McDonald County coach Heath Alumbaugh said. “They put balls in play and found ways to put pressure on. When you do that at the high school level, you can absolutely create chaos, which is what they did there in that inning. We’ve got to find a way to bear down and get three outs and we didn’t do that.”
Calhoon led Carthage’s 10-hit attack with three, including two doubles, while Willis and Youngblood each had two hits and Cochran, Brust, and Jackson each had one.
Jackson and sophomore Addison Wallace split time in the circle with each pitcher allowing one run over their combined six innings of work.
The Tigers did not commit any errors in their win against McDonald County and just one error overall Saturday in nine innings of softball.
“Last couple games, we have definitely been tightening things up more and playing a little bit better defense,” Ray said. “When you play better defense and keep runners off, we’re going to be more successful that way. Our pitching, we’ve been doing a lot of starting with one and bringing another in, closing things down and mixing it up, and it seems to be working for us lately.”
Carthage opened Saturday with a 17-2 win in three innings against Monett, as the Tigers scored 11 runs in the first and three each in the second and third.
Cochran, Hegwer, and Willis combined for just over half of the Tigers’ 17 hits with three each and Brust, Calhoon, Brooklynn Dolon-Main, and Jackson each had two.
Hegwer and Jackson each doubled, Brust and Calhoon each drove in three runs, and Cochran, Hegwer, and Willis each scored three runs.
Monett only managed a pair of unearned runs against Jackson.
Carthage won both games Saturday and finished 1-2 on the first day Friday with a 9-3 loss against Jefferson City, a 10-2 win against Boonville, and a 15-5 loss against Ozark.
“We ended up getting three quality wins this weekend heading into districts,” Ray said. “Definitely, with the way our girls came out today, I feel good. I feel like they have the right mindset rolling into districts on Tuesday.”
Carthage finished the regular season 19-16 overall, and the Tigers head into their district quarterfinal game Tuesday against No. 3 seed Kickapoo with two straight wins.
Seven of the eight teams in Class 5 District 5 have a winning record and the top five seeds have all surpassed 20 wins on the season (Ozark, Nixa, Kickapoo, Neosho, and Joplin).
McDonald County went 3-2 overall in Carthage play, winning all three games Friday and losing both Saturday.
The Mustangs defeated Boonville 11-0, Monett 15-1, and Jefferson City 4-0 before taking losses against Central Ozark Conference schools Ozark and Carthage on Saturday.
“I saw a lot of really good things out of the tournament,” Alumbaugh said. “We worked on some things at the plate. Saw much better approaches, which is something we want to see. Defensively, other than one inning, I thought we were pretty clean across the board throughout the tournament. Threw a ton of strikes in the circle, which is all we can ask out of those guys, so yeah, a little bad taste in our mouth from the way the last game finished but not a bad tournament and not a bad way to get set up entering the district tournament.”
McDonald County reached 20 wins on the season after winning three Friday and the Mustangs enter district tournament play with a 20-9 overall record.
Class 4 District 7 No. 2 seed McDonald County plays district quarterfinal opponent Monett for the third time in a week Tuesday with the Mustangs prevailing 1-0 on Tuesday, Oct. 4, and 15-1 on Friday in Carthage.
“We have talked about it for years,” Alumbaugh said. “This is a great tune-up to get ready to go for districts. You’re going to see quality opponents, get good at-bats, and just be ready to go on Tuesday.
“Again, it goes back to basics for us. If we have good at-bats, throw strikes, and play good defense, I like our odds, but you got to do those three phases of the game.”
23RD ANNUAL CARTHAGE VARSITY SOFTBALL INVITATIONAL
at Fair Acres Sports Complex
SATURDAY SCORES
Carthage 17, Monett 2
Ozark 11, McDonald County 0
Jefferson City 16, Boonville 1
Carthage 9, McDonald County 2
Ozark 9, Boonville 1
Jefferson City 5, Monett 1
FRIDAY SCORES
Jefferson City 9, Carthage 3
McDonald County 11, Boonville 0
Ozark 2, Monett 1
Carthage 10, Boonville 2
McDonald County 15, Monett 1
Ozark 14, Jefferson City 0
Ozark 15, Carthage 5
Boonville 4, Monett 0
McDonald County 4, Jefferson City 0
