Hawks swoop in for 9-1 victory over Delta

BENTON, Mo. — Kelly senior Brittany Brantley took care of business at the plate and in the field Monday.

Brantley, the Hawks' catcher, drilled a pair of doubles and tagged out a Delta baserunner at the plate to help the Hawks softball team post the 9-1 victory.

It's been an impressive three-year run for Brantley. She torn her right anterior cruciate ligament while playing basketball in December 2005, then shortly after returning to action, tore her left ACL while playing softball in May 2006. She returned to the softball field last season to help lead Kelly to a third-place finish at the Class 2 state tournament. She looked in midseason form Monday.

Brantley's first double was a blast to left field, and her second one flew over the center fielder's head.

"It was luck," she said. "I don't think I'd ever seen [Delta pitcher Kendra Burnett] before, so I was seeing what she had."

Brantley was more interested in talking about her defensive performance. Delta's Katie Brucker tried to score from second on Courtney Burton's single to center field. Brucker slid into home, but hit Brantley's shin guards and never touched the plate.

"I like those plays," Brantley said. "Nothing really goes through my mind. I see the ball coming and I see her coming and I know the ball has to beat her. If it gets there, she won't hit it out of my glove. ... She'll take off my hand before the ball comes out."

AARON EISENHAUER ~ aeisenhauer@semissourian.com Kelly baserunner Emily Grojean watches a delivery from Kendra Burnett along with third-base coach Rhonda Ratledge during Monday's game in Benton.

Brantley had plenty of competition for best defensive play by a catcher. Delta's Sam Bartels picked off Katee Moore from third to help end a threat in the first inning, then blocked the plate and tagged out Emily Grojean trying to score on a squeeze attempt in the second inning. Kelly had a runner reach third base in each of the first three innings, but couldn't push across a run.

"Early on, we were making stupid mistakes," Kelly senior Casey Kern said. "We weren't getting a good jump off the bag. By the end of the game, we realized they have a pretty good arm."

Kelly finally broke through against Burnett in the fourth inning. Danielle Dock smacked a triple to left-center field to score a pair, then Brantley drove in a run with a double. Lana Whitworth's sacrifice bunt scored another run.

Delta chipped into the lead on Brucker's bunt single, but the wheels fell off the Bobcat bus in the bottom of the sixth. Kelly scored five runs, all unearned, thanks in part to four Delta errors.

"The defense was wonderful up until that sixth inning," Delta coach Laura Brown said. "That's what got them down."

Kelly grabbed extra bases on sloppy plays and took advantage of its hits. Moore drove in two runs in the inning. Kern, who singled home a run in the inning, said it's important to take every extra base the defense offers.

"They don't really expect it if they're not covering the base," she said. "You've always got to be prepared on those."

Kelly pitcher Heather Beggs finished with nine strikeouts, and she struck out at least one batter every inning. She walked two.

The Hawks improved to 9-1 and will travel to Central on Wednesday. The Bobcats fell to 5-4 and face Greenville today.

"This is my eighth year and we have yet to beat Kelly," Brown said. "We all want to stay low-key about Kelly. If we play with them, fantastic. If we score on them, you saw how excited our crowd got when we scored on Kelly."

Delta 000 001 0 — 1 8 5

Kelly 000 405 x — 9 8 1

WP — Heather Beggs. LP — Kendra Burnett. 2B — Burnett (D), Brittany Brantley 2 (K), Lana Whitworth (K). 3B — Jodi Menz (D), Danielle Dock (K). Multiple hits — Delta: Courtney Burton 2-3, Sam Bartels 2-3; Kelly: Brantley 2-2, Casey Kern 2-3. Records — Delta 5-4, Kelly 9-1.