Kelly claims state crown

COLUMBIA, Mo. -- After the Kelly softball team wrapped up its 5-2 semifinal win over Putnam County on Friday, the Hawks ventured across Rainbow Softball Complex to watch a few innings of the other semifinal game.

Kelly coach Rhonda Ratledge said she didn't know much about either Bishop LeBlond or Purdy, but after watching the Golden Eagles outlast Purdy 1-0 in 11 innings, her players couldn't help but notice one thing.

"We pretty much sat down last night in the hotel room and talked about what we had to do," Ratledge said after her team beat Bishop LeBlond 1-0 on Saturday to win the Class 2 state championship. "We saw that girl pitch and what she looked like and said to watch the high and outside rise-ball."

That girl, Jennifer Kempf, pitched a one-hit, 18-strikeout performance in the semifinal.

And for the first three innings Saturday, it was the same story. Kempf was throwing a perfect game and had struck out six through three.

But Kelly Essner walked to lead off the fourth inning and later stole second base. Rachel Kline then bunted Essner over to third to give the Hawks their best chance to score, and they couldn't have asked for a better player to be at the plate: Whitney Beggs.

"She's had a lot of base hits with runners in scoring position," Ratledge said. "I think she leads the team in that."

She didn't disappoint Saturday.

With two outs, Beggs delivered with a single to left field that scored Essner and gave Kelly all the scoring it needed.

"We knew our chances were going to be slim no matter what," Beggs said. "We didn't really talk about doing [moving runners over] but it worked."

Ratledge waited through an at-bat to send Essner, and even then wasn't sure it was a great call.

"We knew that catcher had a good arm, but you have to try," said Ratledge, who coached Kelly to a state championship in 1997. "If you look at my girls the inning before that, we weren't hitting. We knew once [Essner] walked, we had to get her over to third base."

Because of Beggs' sensational pitching, Essner's run was all Kelly needed. Ratledge said Beggs wasn't as overpowering as Kempf, but she was just as effective. Heading into the top of the seventh she had a perfect game and struck out eight.

Heading into the game, Ratledge said Beggs knew she would need to pitch one of her best games, considering her counterpart.

"I knew that I had to pitch my game if we were going to beat them, because she was going to pitch great for them," Beggs said. "I really wasn't nervous until the seventh inning, I was really more excited than anything."

After that seventh inning, Beggs' excitement multiplied.

Class 3 third-place game

Notre Dame, which was limited to one run in a semifinal loss Friday, exploded for an 8-2 victory against St. Charles West in the Class 3 third-place game Saturday.

The Bulldogs scored eight runs in the game's firs three innings.

Five different players drove in runs for Notre Dame, with Bailey Reutzel's two-run triple to left field in the third giving it a 5-0 lead. The Bulldogs pounded out five hits in the inning and took advantage of two Warriors errors.

Beth Schnurbusch was the winning pitcher for Notre Dame. She gave up one earned run, struck out four and scattered four hits over seven innings.