Kelly blanks Principia

~ Beggs struck out three in a complete-game effort for the Hawks.

BALLWIN -- Kelly coach Rhonda Ratledge waited and waited to tell Heather Beggs that she'd pitch the Hawks' Class 2 state quarterfinal game against Principia on Saturday.

"About 20 minutes before," Beggs said. "She asked me if I wanted the game ball and I thought about it and said, 'Yeah, this is the quarterfinal game and I'm ready.' ... She has been going with her gut feeling and this was her gut feeling today."

Beggs only started two out of the Hawks' last eight games. But she toed the rubber Saturday and she looked sharp.

The junior tossed a complete-game shutout to help her team earn a 2-0 victory over Principia at the Ballwin Athletic Association. The victory earned the Hawks another trip to the state tournament, which takes place in Columbia next weekend.

Beggs allowed just two hits, walked three -- one intentionally -- and struck out three. She used her offspeed pitch effectively to record 11 ground ball outs. She had a no-hitter through 5 2/3 innings when she gave up a single to left field. But most impressive of all, Beggs pitched around four errors.

"I knew they were a powerful hitting team," Beggs said. "I knew I needed to keep them off balance. ... I had to keep focus because if my nerves got to me, then I was done. So I kept focus. I got a little nervous toward the end, but during the beginning, I wasn't nervous."

Beggs, who joked that her height is "pushing 5 feet," throws in the mid-50s.

Jessica Riley, who Beggs has been playing softball with since about the third grade, has seen the majority of the pitching duties for the Hawks recently, including the district clincher against Crystal City last Saturday and the sectional-round victory over East Carter on Wednesday.

Beggs did pitch the first district game against St Pius last week -- a 9-0 win.

"Heather did great, she did awesome," Riley said. "I couldn't be more happy with what she did."

Ratledge said she has gone with her gut feeling all year when deciding who to let pitch and she felt it was the right day to have Beggs pitch after selecting Riley the past two games.

"She did really good getting the changeup in there and she got a lot of strike calls with that changeup," Ratledge said. "I thought she could have thrown it a little bit more, of course, because when she threw it, it worked. He was calling the strike on it every time."

Ratledge said she never tells her pitchers who will make the start until right before games.

"I don't want them to have time to think about it and get all nervous," Ratledge said. "I've always done that for 14 or 15 years."

The game went scoreless until Kelly broke through in the sixth inning. Sarah Ruff began the inning by hitting a fly ball to deep left, which was dropped by Principia's left fielder for a two-base error.

She later moved to third and scored on a bunt by No. 4 hitter Casey Kern. It was the second bunt Kern laid down to plate the game-winning run over the past week. She also did it last Saturday in extra innings against Crystal City.

"I was really nervous again," Kern said. "I didn't think she'd give it to me two times in a row because I missed the first one. The [first one] was low and outside and it just missed my bat. It went right under it. [The second pitch] was actually the same pitch."

Kelly added another run in that inning on four hits.

Beggs ran into a little jam in the top of the seventh after retiring the first two batters. But she got the final out on a ground ball to third.

Will Beggs be called upon next weekend at the state tournament after her strong performance?

"I'm not sure," she said.

It will probably be another game-time gut decision. For now, however, Beggs is just happy with her quarterfinal victory.

"It feels great," Beggs said.

Principia 000 000 0 -- 0 2 2

Kelly 000 002 x -- 2 8 4

WP -- Heather Beggs. LP -- Devon Harrison. 2B -- Casey Kern (K), Ashley Flahardy (K), Harrison (P). Multiple hits -- Kelly, Kern, 2-3, Flahardy, 2-3.