By Michael Cignoli (For OzarksSportsZone.com)
OZARK – With the bases loaded and one of his top power hitters standing in the batter’s box, Ozark coach Jimmy Nimmo gave clear instructions on what she needed to do at that moment.
Bunt.
Audrey Carlton obliged and squared up for the squeeze play, but the ensuing pitch was well outside the strike zone. It was probably the best thing that could have happened to the Tigers.
“She pulled back – like she should have – and then the next pitch, she drives it to Springfield,” Nimmo said. “She flat out smashed that ball.”
Carlton called an audible and hit a grand slam, the defining moment in Ozark’s 7-4 triumph over archrival Nixa on Tuesday afternoon. It was an exclamation point on Ozark’s five-run third inning, with Carlton scoring what eventually became the winning run in an early-season clash between two of the state’s top Class 5 teams.
The moonshot wasn’t exactly what Tigers drew up, but it was exactly what they needed.
“We were trying to get a little squeeze action there,” Nimmo said. “We’ve been very successful with that and so we’re just trying to generate runs. With a good team like this – playing against Nixa – one run matters. We’re trying to put some pressure on their defense. Fortunately, it didn’t happen there and she comes around and hits that grand slam.”
Once Carlton showed she was going to bunt, the Tigers lost the element of surprise. Their desired squeeze play was still possible during the at-bat, but it might not have been as effective.
And then Carlton saw the next pitch – and it was hardly one you’d want to bunt.
“I think she might have maybe missed her pitch,” Carlton said. “It was kind of flat and in the middle. So I was like ‘OK, swing at this one. This is a good pitch.’ I think it just got off my bat nice. The bat is so hot and she was pitching so hard that it just went really far.”
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It was a no-doubter, with the Tigers reacting the moment it left the sophomore’s bat.
“Right as I hit it, I looked right to my first base coach and he was clapping and cheering,” Carlton said. “I knew it was gone because he only does that if he knows.”
Her teammates somehow knew even sooner than the coach, with Ozark pitcher Jordyn Foley recalling a conversation the Tigers had in the dugout immediately prior to the swing.
“Me and a teammate were talking and she was like ‘Has she hit a home run lately?’ And we were like ‘No, she hasn’t.’ I was like ‘She will right now.’ And then she hit it,” Foley said. “Felt kind of relieved that we had some cushion and probably more confidence out there in the circle after.”
Carlton’s drive put the Tigers ahead 5-0 as they took the field for the fourth, and they wound up needing each of those runs in a rivalry game with conference, district and state implications.
Ozark and Nixa both appeared in the Missouri High School Fastpitch Coaches Association’s first state rankings of the season, which were released mere hours before Tuesday afternoon’s game.
Ozark was ranked seventh in Class 5 – with the Eagles one spot behind them – after both teams went undefeated at Ozark’s Fall Festival last week and scored key victories over many other teams who also populated the state rankings list.
“It’s exciting,” Nimmo said. “It’s early. Our girls are playing well right now – so I don’t want to take anything away from them for sure – but it’s still a one-game-at-a-time season. We don’t want to be looking at those numbers to get our hopes up and get overly excited. We want to keep our composure and not be putting ourselves up on that pedestal too much. It’s one game at a time.”
The win also gave Ozark an early-season advantage in the race for the Central Ozark Conference and district seedings, The Tigers (10-4, 3-0) remained unbeaten in COC play and scored a head-to-head victory over the Eagles (8-3, 1-2), which will help determine district seeding.
All four of Ozark’s losses came at the elite Southside Classic tournament organized by Rock Bridge High School, which attracts some of the top talents in the state. Since Labor Day, the Tigers are undefeated.
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“We front-load our schedule for that reason,” Nimmo said. “We play McDonald County early, (Jefferson) City early, go to the Rock Bridge tournament. Most of those teams we played there are ranked right now in the Top 10 in their classes. We do that purposefully to get us ready for conference play. When you play in that tournament in Columbia, you see some of the best pitching in the state. And so you come back to the conference and there are no surprises because you’ve already faced some of the best.”
But another one of the state’s top teams – the Eagles – weren’t going away without a fight.
Nixa rallied for three runs in the top of the fourth inning – the frame immediately after Carlton’s grand slam – on Rylee Harper’s RBI single and a two-run single from Harper-Jane Simpson.
But Foley struck out the next batter she faced to preserve Ozark’s 5-3 advantage.
The Tigers got two runs back in the bottom of the frame, when Allie Muggenburg walked, stole second and scored on an error and Kelsie Batey later came home on a wild pitch.
Nixa starter Maddy Merierer settled down after that and retired the final eight batters she saw.
The Eagles staged a two-out rally in the seventh inning. Savannah Hughes cut the deficit to 7-4 with an RBI single and Nixa brought the tying run to the plate, but Foley struck her out to end it.
Foley fanned six, walked two batters and allowed eight hits. But she was able to strand seven runners, while only two of the Tigers who reached base against Meirerer did not eventually score.
“Our offense kind of started off slow this season,” Foley said. “This weekend really boosted our confidence with our hitting. We just started hitting better and better every game. I think it really helped us moving into this game, too.”
Take the third inning, for example.
Foley and Batey led off the frame with back-to-back singles and Natalie Morgan was hit by a pitch, loading the bases with nobody out. Karissa Roberts then strung together a lengthy at-bat before opening the scoring with an RBI single.
The next batter struck out, but that brought Carlton to the plate.
And then came the two pitches that ultimately swung the game in Ozark’s favor.
“We take that out, it’s a pretty close ballgame,” Nixa coach Matt Walker said. “I’m not disappointed. Could have made a few more plays, possibly. But they got us.”
NIXA 000 300 1 — 4
OZARK 005 200 x — 7
