Central, Jackson softball arrange district showdown

JACKSON, Mo. -- Cape Girardeau Central won in a rout while Jackson won in a thriller as the two arch-rival high school softball teams advanced to Saturday's 11 a.m. championship game of the Class 4A, District 1 Tournament.

In Thursday's semifinals at Jackson City Park, top-seeded Central rolled past No. 4 Farmington 13-0 in a five-inning, run-rule affair while No. 3 Jackson slipped past No. 2 Poplar Bluff 3-2 in nine innings.

Central, which evened its record at 13-13, received a combined one-hitter from Holly Schnurbusch and Megan McDonald. Schnurbusch, the starter and winner, struck out four, walked none and allowed one hit in three innings. McDonald fanned three and walked two over the final two frames.

The Lady Tigers banged out 10 hits, with McDonald and Alex Wieser each delivering two doubles. Ashley Foutch also had two hits.

Jackson (12-14) and Poplar Bluff (16-9) were tied 2-2 after the regulation seven innings. The Lady Indians scored the winning run in the ninth on an errant throw.

"It's a win," said Jackson coach Julie Rushing. "That's about all I can say."

Ashley Snell was the winning pitcher, throwing a complete game. She allowed eight hits and no walks while striking out one.

Jenny Schlick and Megan Green each had two hits for the Lady Indians.

Looking ahead to the title contest, defending champion Central and Jackson split two regular-season meetings -- which were both close affairs -- and Lady Tigers coach Amy Blattel expects another down-to-the-wire battle Saturday.

"We've had two good games with them and I look for another one," said Blattel. "Our kids will be up, as will theirs. It'll be a big game."

CLASS 2A, DISTRICT 2

CRYSTAL CITY, Mo. -- Top-seeded Notre Dame and No. 2 Kelly posted easy semifinal victories to set up a highly anticipated championship game at 4 p.m. today.

Notre Dame routed host Crystal City, the No. 4 seed, 10-0 in six innings while Kelly rolled past No. 3 St. Vincent 12-4.

Mika Williamson was the winning hurler for Notre Dame (23-3). She went the first five innings, allowing two hits while fanning seven and walking one. Lindsay Reinagel fired a perfect sixth.

The Lady Bulldogs had 12 hits, led by Katlyn Kelley with three. Stacy Schwartz had two hits and drove in three runs while Laura Weissmueller added two RBIs.

For Kelly (17-5), Dana Essner pitched a complete game, allowing 10 hits and three earned runs. She fanned five and walked one.

Kelly pounded out 17 hits, led by Bridgett Riley and Allison Johnson with three each. Riley homered, tripled and delivered three RBIs. Getting two hits apiece were Essner, Cara Scherer, Alana Burford, Kelly Essner and Ashley Kern.

"We really hit the ball well," said Kelly coach Melanie Heuring.

Julie Hager was the losing hurler. Kindle Ernst, Caitlin Hoeh, Amanda Carron and Nicole Hadler all had two hits for St. Vincent (13-12).

Notre Dame, which has never won a district title, and Kelly will be meeting for the third time this season today. The Lady Hawks, who have won 15 straight district crowns, suffered 2-0 and 3-2 losses to the Lady Bulldogs.

"We're really excited about the opportunity to win our first district title," said Notre Dame coach Chris Janet. "Kelly is a good team. We've had two very good games with them and I don't look for anything different (today)."

BOYS SOCCER

CAPE CENTRAL 4, SIKESTON 1

Despite trailing 1-0 at halftime, the Tigers took it to the visiting Bulldogs in the second half.

Jon Mark Thompson scored an unassisted goal to tie the game at the 48-minute mark.

Eleven minutes later, Cody Hill scored, with an assist from Arthur Pilsner. Brian Ross and Whit Lynn later scored on assists from Thompson and Nathan Foley as the Tigers improved to 15-3-1.

Central's JV romped 6-0 after playing to a 1-1 tie with Sikeston earlier this year. The Tigers got two goals from Dean Richardson and Trey Willis and one each from Aaron Shupert and Luke Kester.

Richardson also had two assists, while Jackson Bahn, Jeff Beard and Luke Kester had one apiece.

VOLLEYBALL

NOTRE DAME 15-4-15

PERRYVILLE 5-15-10

Notre Dame improved to 17-5-1 by winning a tough three-game match from Perryville.

Jen VanGennip led the Lady Bulldogs in kills with eight. She was followed by Deana McCormick with seven, Courtney Vickery with six and Erin Pfau with five. Pfau also had 12 digs while Ali Tyson had a huge performance with 13 digs and 51 assists.

For Perryville (8-11-2), Katie Kutz had a big match with seven kills, 15 digs, nine blocks, 10 service points and three aces. Rachel Wunderlich had 15 digs and five kills, Amy Garris contributed 11 digs, four kills and five blocks, Kaci Schremp had eight blocks and four digs and Cindy Rhyne added nine digs.

Notre Dame's JV won 15-5, 15-6.

JACKSON 15-4-15

LEOPOLD 10-15-7

JACKSON, Mo. -- Jackson handed Leopold just its third loss of the season with a three-game victory.

The Lady Indians (13-10-1) were led in kills by Jenna Leet with 12 and she also had three blocks. Jennifer Mesey had nine kills and four blocks. Erin Hartman dished out 19 assists to go along with three kills and three blocks. Jessie Koeper added four kills and four blocks while Linden Hahs had 10 digs.

Leopold (14-3-1) received a standout performance from Holly Jansen as she had 19 kills and 14 digs. Kyla Horrell came up with 10 kills and 16 digs, Courtney Wesbecher added 12 digs and four kills and Wendy Vandeven recorded 27 assists.

Leopold won the JV match 12-15, 15-10, 15-8 and also the freshmen contest 15-13, 15-2.

CAPE CENTRAL 15-15

OAK RIDGE 9-5

OAK RIDGE, Mo. -- Cape Central (2-13-1) picked up its second win of the season by dropping Oak Ridge (3-11) in two games.

BELL CITY 13-15-15

DEXTER 15-13-12

ESSEX, Mo. -- Fourth-seeded Dexter gave top-seeded Bell City all it could handle in a tough semifinal of the Stoddard County Tournament at Richland High School.

"It probably took an hour and 30 minutes to play," Bell City coach Carl Ritter said.

Katie Spears had a big match for Bell City (13-5-1) with 21 kills, 12 digs, 12 points and five aces. Katie Niemczyk added 12 kills, 21 digs and eight service points. The Lady Cubs got 26 assists and 11 digs from Whitney Abner while Katie Goodman chipped in with 12 digs.

Bell City will play the Bernie-Richland winner at 8 p.m. Saturday in the finals. Results of that semifinal were not available when the Southeast Missourian went to press.

ST. VINCENT 15-15

GRANDVIEW 11-5

HILLSBORO -- St. Vincent eased past Grandview in two games.

Beth Hennemann had four kills and four service aces for the Squaws (8-13-1). Chelsey Brown and Allison Prost also had four kills apiece.

GIRLS TENNIS

CLASS 4A DISTRICT

Cape Central tied for fifth in Wednesday's Class 4A, District 1 Tournament held at Southeast Missouri State University.

Due to incorrect information received by the Southeast Missourian, it had originally been reported that the Lady Tigers finished third.

The Lady Tigers scored 15 points to tie with Eureka. Jackson won the title with 27 points, edging out Farmington, which had 25 points. Poplar Bluff and Lindbergh tied for third with 16 points in the nine-team event.

-- From staff reports