KELLY WINS REMATCH IN SECTIONAL

BENTON -- The Kelly Lady Hawks return to the Missouri Class 2A softball quarterfinals for the 14th consecutive time, eliminating visiting Twin Rivers of Broseley 8-4 in a hard-fought sectional matchup Thursday.

Kelly pounded out 11 hits to the Lady Royals' four, but that wasn't the story of this rematch from earlier in the season.

Lady Hawk coach Rhonda Evans predicted that this game would come down to who could capitalize on the other's mistakes.

Kelly did just that, taking advantage of five errors by Twin Rivers. But the Lady Hawks had three errors of their own.

"We are very excited. We've talked about this all season long -- getting back to the quarterfinals," Evans said. "Everyone put the ball in play today and we forced (Twin Rivers) to make mistakes. That was the key.

"However, we had way too many mistakes ourselves today as well. We can't do that and expect to continue on. We'll go home early at that rate."

Kelly now prepares for a rematch with Linn, a 4-3 winner over Clopton Thursday.

Kelly lost to Linn 2-1 in last year's quarterfinal. The two will meet at Kirkwood Park in St. Louis at 2 p.m. Saturday.

With this victory, Kelly wins its third straight game and has won 19 of its last 21 games, improving to 22-3.

The Lady Royals finish up 16-5. Two of those defeats came against Kelly.

Junior ace Marissa Essner struck out seven and walked two in her complete-game victory. She allowed two earned runs on four hits.

Essner improves to 10-2 and has won six of her last seven starts, striking out 59 in that span.

Both teams traded punches early in the contest. Kelly struck first in the top of the first when cleanup batter Megan Beggs singled in leadoff batter Jenny Riley for a 1-0 lead.Twin Rivers answered that in the bottom half when Danielle Young scored on a passed ball.Bridgett Riley gave the Lady Hawks the lead again in the second when she reached on an error, then two more errors eventually brought her home.

B. Riley struck again in the fourth with a single, then Essner brought her in on a sacrifice bunt, making it 3-1.

After Twin Rivers pulled to within 3-2, the Lady Hawks turned it up a notch, scoring two in the fifth and three in the sixth for an 8-2 lead.

Twin Rivers senior ace Christy Deken allowed 11 hits and six earned runs.

Beggs led Kelly's bat-attack, finishing 3-for-4 with a stolen base and two RBIs. Audrey Burford had two hits and scored two runs while Nicole Kern also had two hits.