Cape Central claims district with no-hitter

JACKSON, Mo. -- Cape Central's softball team weathered a few storms during the season, but now it's all sunshine and blue skies.

A no-hit pitching performance by Holly Schnurbusch triggered the Lady Tigers to a 3-0 win over Jackson for the Class 4A, District 1 championship on Saturday.

"We're a team that's been through a lot of adversity, we've been up and we've been down, but we started peaking at the right time and our kids really jelled as a team," said Cape Central coach Amy Blattel. "It feels good, real good."

Schnurbusch was superb as she shut the Lady Indians down with six strikeouts, no walks and one hit batsman.

"I finally got my no-hitter," said the senior Schnurbusch. "Finally! I've been looking for it a long time and it all came together today."

Cape Central (14-13) claimed its second straight district title with three unearned runs in the fifth inning.

Sophomore shortstop Megan McDonald ripped a double down the left-field line to plate two runs in the bottom of the fifth and give the Lady Tigers all the runs they needed.

With the game in a scoreless tie, Alex Wieser's one-out bunt single got things rolling for the Lady Tigers. Schnurbusch followed with a grounder to third, but the throw to second for the forceout was dropped. With runners on first and second, Trisha Klipfel grounded into the second out.

But McDonald's big hit made the Lady Indians pay for their only miscue of the day.

Said McDonald, "It felt great, like I finally stepped up and did something good."

The Lady Tigers added a third unearned run when clean-up hitter Ashley Foutch doubled home McDonald to close out the scoring. McDonald and Foutch led the Lady Tigers with two hits each.

Jackson (12-15) had a chance of its own in the top of the fifth, but stranded runners on second and third with one out after two Cape Central errors.

" I thought that was the key point of the game," said Blattel. "We committed a couple of errors, allowed them to get runners on second and third with one out, and then we held them."

"We had our opportunities," said Jackson coach Julie Rushing, "but they (Central) played hard and got the key hits when they needed them. "

"The best to them. I want them to go as far as they can, because they represent our district."

Jackson's Ashley Snell, the hard-luck losing hurler, had a solid outing as she allowed seven hits -- no earned runs -- with one strikeout and no walks.

Cape Central meets the District 2 winner at Arena Park on Wednesday.