BY JARED PORTER
Webb City softball coach Shauna Friend said that she'd remember her 2019 team for the heart and hustle it exhibited — from the season's start to the final pitch.
That perseverance was on full display Wednesday night as Webb City went toe to toe with Raymore-Peculiar in a Class 4 state sectional. But the Cardinals' season ultimately came to a close on a walk-off home run that lifted the Panthers to a 2-0 triumph at Webb City High School.
"I felt like we were two evenly matched teams who fought very hard through all seven innings," Friend said. "It didn't end the way we would have liked, but our girls fought all the way till the end."
The game capped the prep softball careers of seven Webb City seniors. The Cardinals finished the campaign with a 21-7 record after claiming their program's ninth district title of the past 13 years.
"We had a long conversation (after the game) about how lucky those underclassmen are to have the senior class lead them the way they did the entire year," Friend said. "Their motto was hustle and heart, and anyone who watched that game would have seen that in all of our players."
Twelve combined hits were recorded in the game, but the night proved to be a defensive battle nonetheless as both teams went scoreless through the first 6 1/2 innings.
"With what I'd heard about their bats and what I knew about ours, I felt like there would be more offense," Friend said. "But it was a defensive battle. Both teams came to play."
The Ray-Pec offense finally ended the stalemate with one out in the bottom of the seventh, when senior Katlynn McConville blasted a two-run home run out to left-center field.
"In Katlynn's at-bat before the home run, she (struck out) with two runners on," Ray-Pec coach Jim Brown said. "But that's what's special about this game. You can make one bad play, and then two innings later you can make the best play of your life. She was kicking herself for two innings and then walked up there and hit a walk-off. That's such a neat story."
With the win, Ray-Pec (245) punched its ticket to the state quarterfinals to take on Kickapoo on Saturday in Springfield.
"This was a great game, and both pitchers in this one tossed a heckuva game," Brown said. "It was a picher's duel definitely. (Haidyn) Berry made us work for everything we got and Camryn Stickel did the same for us."
Berry, a junior, tossed a complete game for Webb City and surrendered seven hits while striking out six batters. She and the Cardinals' defense managed to keep Ray-Pec off the scoreboard for the first six innings despite the Panthersputting eight runners on the base paths — one in the first inning, one in the third, two in the fourth, two in the fifth
and two in the sixth.
"I just couldn't be prouder of the way our team picked each other up," Friend said. "We made some great plays behind Haidyn, and Haidyn did a great job in the circle. She kept us in that game and just threw her heart out."
Ray-Pec pitcher Stickel, a senior, also tossed a complete game and limited Webb City to five hits while striking out 11.
"(Stickel) was just tough," Brown said. "We kind of went in with a strategy based off some film we had on them, and she just spotted it, spotted it and spotted it. They got on us early and had runners in scoring position a few times, but she just never got rattled."
The Cardinals ended up stranding five baserunners.
Taylor Harris led the Webb City bats with a pair of singles, while Berry, Peyton Hawkins and Keira Jackson registered one single apiece.
Joplin Globe 10/24/2019 (Used by permission)