HAWKS ROLL ON WITH SLIM-WIN APPROACH

STEELE -- One thing is becoming very apparent regarding Kelly High's baseball team.

You just don't want to get in a close game with the Hawks.

Kelly recorded its fourth consecutive narrow postseason victory Thursday afternoon -- and as a result the Hawks are in the state quarterfinals for the first time in school history.

The Hawks -- the home team on the scoreboard after a pre-game coin flip -- scored a run in the bottom of the seventh inning to upend South Pemiscot 5-4 in a Class 2A sectional contest.

Kelly will carry a 14-9 record into Saturday's 2 p.m. quarterfinal game at home against two-time defending state champion Mansfield. The winner earns a berth in the 2A Final Four that begins Wednesday in Columbia.

"We just like one-run games. It keeps everybody interested," said Kelly coach Mike Scott with a laugh.

The Hawks -- as the No. 3 seed -- won their three district games last week by a total of four runs, including a 4-3 win in the semifinals and a 3-2 triumph over top-seeded Notre Dame in the championship game.

On a more serious note, Scott said, "We've been in so many close games all year. We lost a lot of them early and that's why our record doesn't look that good. But we feel like we'll win every close game. We might not, but that's the way we feel."

As has been the case, the game was tight virtually the entire way.

"From everything I had heard about South Pemiscot, they sounded a lot like us," Scott said. "And that's what it was today. They were a mirror of us."

Denver Stuckey pitched all seven innings for Kelly as he improved to 6-3. The right-hander struggled some early but finished strong. He allowed six hits and two earned runs while striking out six and walking one. The Bulldogs (21-6) had just one hit and no runs over the final four innings.

"I struggled from (the first inning on)," said Stuckey. "I just wasn't very sharp. But I just kept telling myself I was going to will it."

Said Scott, "Denver struggled some early but he settled down. He's a battler."

Kelly had 10 hits, two apiece from John Livingston, Justin Vetter, Brandon Pattengill and Bradley Kolwyck. The Hawks got good production from the bottom part of their order as Pattengill and Kolwyck bat seventh and ninth, respectively.

"We got some timely hits and the bottom of the order came through," said Scott.

Jim Hulshof and Pattengill had RBI singles in a three-run second as Kelly grabbed a 3-1 lead, only to see the Bulldogs go ahead 4-3 in the third. Vetter's RBI triple in the bottom of the third made it 4-4 and that's the way things remained until Kelly's final regulation at-bat in the seventh.

With one out, Kolwyck reached on an infield single to deep short. Livingston singled up the middle, with Kolwyck stopping at second. Ben Klipfel then hit a routine grounder to third that might have been a double play. But a throw to second was high and rolled into short right field as Kolwyck raced around third to easily score the winning run.

For Kolwyck, a freshman, it was the second time in the past three games that he had scored the winning run in the seventh inning.

"I was just trying to get on any way I could," he said. "When I was able to score, it was a big relief."

Nobody was more relieved than Stuckey, who would have come back out to pitch if the game had gone extra innings.

"I was running on empty. I was happy not to have to go back out there," he said with a smile.

Aaron Burton suffered the loss even though he pitched strong in 2 2/3 relief innings for starter Brian Weber, who gave up eight hits and four runs in 3 2/3 innings.

Now the Hawks will try to take that last step and become the first Kelly baseball team to reach the state's final four.

"This is wonderful," said Scott. "This team has made history, but we don't want to stop here. We'll probably have the biggest crowd in school history Saturday and it's going to be an exciting day."