Brunke's no-hitter leads Saxony Lutheran romp

BENTON, Mo. -- A no-hitter was just what the Saxony Lutheran Crusaders needed to advance to the semifinals of the Class 2 District 1 softball tournament.

Led by pitcher Kelli Brunke, third-seeded Saxony Lutheran defeated sixth-seeded East Prairie 10-0 in five innings during first-round action at Kelly High School on Wednesday.

"Kelli pitched great," Saxony Lutheran coach Talitha Beaudean said. "We would've liked for it to be a no-no all the way around -- no runners, nothing like that. Had a couple errors, but Kelli from the mound pitched very well.

"It's something she's been doing pretty regularly all season, so that was good to see."

Brunke didn't walk a batter during her five innings of work and struck out two. The Crusaders committed three errors, but Brunke was confident in her teammates.

"I knew they'd have my back," Brunke said. "They always make the plays. I can always count on them."

Errors by East Prairie helped the Crusaders' cause.

Saxony Lutheran got on the board with one run in the first inning.

The Crusaders added three in the second and third. In the second inning, an error with two outs was followed by three consecutive hits.

Wild pitches to consecutive batters allowed two runs to score in the third inning.

Saxony Lutheran scored once in the fourth and twice in the fifth for the 10-run mercy rule to go into effect.

"It just takes us a couple of innings to kind of warm up the bats, but we got the big hits when we needed and scored the runs," Beaudean said. "Did our damage early and it's kind of what our game plan was."

Brunke also had two of the Crusaders' six hits, as did Logan Welker. Grace Mirly drove in two runs.

Saxony Lutheran improved to 15-7 and faces second-seeded St. Vincent in the semifinal round at 2 p.m. today at Kelly.

"It's going to be a tight game," Beaudean said. "Definitely one of the schools that we're going to call a rival. Any time that we're going to face St. Vincent or Kelly here in the future it's definitely a hard game."

The Crusaders are 0-2 against St. Vincent this season. They lost 11-1 on Sept. 9 and 7-6 on Oct. 3.

"Came down to a one-run ballgame," Beaudean said. "Had two runners on, so this time we're getting those runners across, and we're going to win this ballgame and that's our goal."

"I'm excited, and if we win we get to keep going and hopefully win districts," Brunke said.

Beaudean, who was standing nearby, chimed in.

"We're ready," she said.

Saxony Lutheran 133 12 -- 10 6 3

East Prairie 000 00 -- 0 0 3

WP -- Kelli Brunke. LP -- Makayla Hutson. Leading hitters -- Saxony Lutheran: Brunke 2-3; Logan Welker 2-3; Grace Mirly 2 RBIs. Records -- Saxony Lutheran 15-7, East Prairie 3-12-1.