By Matt Turer — @MattTurer
Republic, Mo. — Republic’s A.J. Fenske was in disbelief after the best performance of her varsity pitching career.
The freshman sparkled in her third-career start Thursday night, retiring the game’s first 11 batters in a 7-0, two-hit shutout victory over the McDonald County Mustangs.
Going seven full innings for the first time, Fenske (1-2) walked three and only allowed one runner to reach scoring position to help Republic (17-8) beat the Mustangs (15-9) in the first meeting between the two since McDonald County beat the Tigers 1-0 in last year’s Class 4, District 12 championship.
“I feel amazing. I didn’t think I could do that, but when I went out there with my team behind my back, and after those 11 [outs], I knew I could finish out the game. My defense did amazing. The outfield did so good. That’s the best I’ve seen them play,” Fenske, who didn’t record a strikeout, said.
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“She threw well and got a lot of fly ball outs,” Republic coach Lee Dishman said. “Savannah Smith made some [great] plays in right field, including cutting balls off in the gap. I can’t say enough about our outfield play that game.”
Two days after committing nine errors in a 9-8 win over Willard, Republic was flawless defensively, including two diving catches by Smith.
“It’s no secret we’ve struggled a little defensively throughout the year, but the young girls forget and they’re starting to figure it out,” Dishman said.
The Tigers got things rolling early. Liv Collier reached on a single and Julia Higgins on a fielder’s choice in the first. Then with two outs, Megan Thorne singled up the middle, scoring both and putting Republic up 2-0.
McDonald County starting pitcher Alexa Hopkins left after one inning, allowing two runs on three hits.
Kaylee Cornell replaced Hopkins in the second and gave up a leadoff single to Megan Weis. After Kaitlin Ragsdale grounded out and Stolte struck out, Collier singled, and then a Higgins single drove in Weis, making it 3-0 Tigers.
Republic extended its lead to 4-0 in the fourth when Stolte hit her team-leading eighth homer of the season one out.
“I just know every girl behind and in front of me has my back, and I just have to find a way on and they’ll score me,” Stolte said. “I feel no pressure and I trust everyone around me to get on as well.”
The scoreboard found its 7-0 final with a three-run Republic sixth sparked by a Ragsdale single and steal, her 38th swipe of the season. Next, Stolte reached on an error, Collier singled for the third time and Ragsdale scored on a throwing error. Still with no outs, Higgins drove in Stolte and Collier with a single to right.
The only Mustang hits came when Kylie Helm singled to left with two outs in the fourth and on a Rita Santillan single to right with two outs in the sixth.
“[Fenske] did a good job [of throwing] to contact,” Mustangs coach Skyler Rawlins said. “But we’ve got ourselves out a lot lately by swinging at bad pitches and not working the count. They did a great job playing defense, but we’ve got to do a better job of making teams beat us.”
Cornell allowed four earned runs on 12 hits over six innings, striking out two.
The loss was the third straight for McDonald County after losing to Monett Tuesday and Webb City Monday.
Before that, the Mustangs had won 15 of their last 17 games.
“We talk about playing our best softball at the end of the year. During this run, I think we’ve been doing that. These games are what they are at this point. It’s really one game at a time now coming to districts,” Rawlins said.
REPUBLIC LOOKING TO DISTRICTS: Republic received the 2-seed in district play and will host the winner of 3-seed Neosho vs. 6-seed Joplin on Tuesday … Stolte is confident heading into the postseason, saying that “districts in anybody’s game. We’ve seen that the past two years. We’re going to come out just as hard. I think a lot of teams good be doubting us and we’re just gonna keep rolling.”
MCDONALD COUNTY LOOKING TO DISTRICTS: The Mustangs are the 4-seed in next week’s district tournament, opening by facing 5-seed and host Carthage on Monday … Rawlins on his team’s chances: “We know where we can be at and how we can play. We’ll see what happens if we can put it all together.” … A win would mean a semifinal matchup with top seed Webb City.
SCORING
MCM |0|0|0|0|0|0|0| — |0|2|2|
REP |2|1|0|1|0|3|X| — |7|15|0|
Tigers – Bottom 1st
Megan Thorne singled to center, Liv Collier and Emma White scored. — REP 2, MCM 0
Tigers – Bottom 2nd
Higgins singled to left, Megan Weis scored. — REP 3, MCM 0
Tigers – Bottom 4th
Ally Stolte homered to left-center. — REP 4, MCM 0
Tigers – Bottom 6th
Liv Collier singled to left, Kaitlin Ragsdale scored on E7. — REP 5, MCM 0
Higgins singled to left, Stolte and Collier scored. — REP 7, MCM 0
