By NOLAN EPSTEIN – The Lady Tigers and Lady Lakers took care of business against their respective opponents in semifinal action and will meet on Friday at 5 p.m. in Springfield to decide who hoists the district championship plaque.
Willard stifles Waynesville behind masterful performance by Rippe
For senior pitcher Bridget Rippe, no moment – or game, for that matter – ever seems to be too big when she steps inside the circle.
That notion was proven true once again on Thursday night as Rippe threw seven brilliant innings of five-hit ball to lead her second-seeded Willard (18-11) club to a 4-1 district semifinal win over the 3-seed Waynesville Lady Tigers (14-14).
“It always revolves around Bridget,” Willard head coach AshLeigh Williams said. “She’s our go-to in the circle and she has been for three years now. We know that she’s going to give us a chance to win every ballgame.”
Rippe’s command was extraordinary on Thursday as the senior faced 26 batters and didn’t walk any of them – using her bread-and-butter pitch to virtual perfection against a capable Waynesville lineup.
“My rise ball was working my best,” said Rippe. “Strategically, I just had to get ahead in the count so I could make them hit a bad pitch.”
When she managed to dig herself into some minor trouble, which wasn’t very often, Rippe buckled down and ended Waynesville’s threats after it put runners on second base in the third and fifth inning.
All told, Rippe struck out eight Lady Tigers and, thanks in large part to some solid Willard defense, didn’t allow a baserunner to advance past second until the final frame.
“She knows that her goal is to keep the other team to two runs or less, no matter who they are or no matter how good they are,” Williams said. “That’s her goal and the defense knows that she’s going to do that, so they’re confident playing behind her.”
The senior hurler also made her mark at the plate – providing Willard’s first run with a sac-fly RBI in the bottom of the third to score fellow senior Kennedy Burch. Rippe also came around to score in the fifth to extend the lead to 3-0 at the time.
In the seventh, Rippe made her only mistake of the game – giving up a first-pitch homer to sophomore Briauna Nave to get Waynesville on the board and provide some measure of optimism as Scott Turner’s bunch heads into the offseason.
“It’s always good to see us fight to the very last out,” Turner said following the loss. “They tried the best they could and left everything on the field, so it’s not like we can complain about that. They played hard.”
In a gutsy effort, Waynesville freshman Lacey Sprinkle went the distance and gave up eleven hits while fanning three.
No shortage of runs for Lady Lakers in rout of Lebanon
A rematch of a Sept. 12 meeting between these two teams led to similar results on Thursday, much to the delight of the Camdenton Lady Lakers.
After rolling the Lady Jackets in the form of a 15-1 drubbing in the regular season, top-seeded Camdenton (24-4) put on a repeat performance as the Lady Lakers scored early and often to come away with an 11-1 victory to advance to the district title game.
Not wanting to take anything for granted based on its prior successes against No. 4 seed Lebanon (8-11), Camdenton made sure to go into full attack mode from the opening inning and was rewarded with a loud two-run shot over the center field fence from senior first baseman Erin Rasmussen in the bottom of the first.
The home run provided the Lady Lakers with a quick 2-0 advantage which would ultimately prove to be a small preview of things to come.
“We wanted to make sure that we got the early lead tonight,” said Camdenton head coach Rick Calbert. “We were able to get a zero on the board to start, and then that was a big two runs to start because it’s always easier to play ahead than it is to play from behind.”
Camdenton continued its onslaught as the evening progressed – scoring three in the second, four in the fourth and two more in the fifth to bury the Lady Jackets and end the game in the fifth inning via the mercy rule.
“We didn’t want to play around with them,” Rasmussen said of Lebanon. “We just wanted to score runs and get this win.”
Such a lopsided score was also aided by a trio of miscues in the field by Lebanon, lengthening Camdenton’s time at the plate in the second, fourth and fifth frames and allowing Calbert’s team to capitalize in a major way despite managing just eight hits on the night.
“We made a couple of really bad errors that, normally, we would never make,” Lebanon head coach Stanley Crum said. “They made the game look a lot worse than it really was. It was actually a close ballgame today.”
Although Camdenton posted eleven runs, Lady Lakers pitcher Haile Farris needed just two to get the job done and lead her squad to the win. Over five innings of work, Farris yielded just one unearned run on three hits while walking three and striking out nine.
“Haile pitched awesome,” added Rasmussen. “It makes it so much easier when our pitcher is on. We had her back and we knew she was going to pitch well.”
