De Soto defeats Knightettes on senior day, Central wins

FARMINGTON — Monday was senior day for the Farmington Knightettes’ softball team as seniors Allison Eller, Nikki Warden, Savanna Moll, and Erin Sales played their final regular-season home game.

Farmington faced a tough challenge in the De Soto Lady Dragons. A quick, well-played game was decided in the second inning as De Soto scored four times. The Knightettes threatened to come back in each of the final three innings, but were shut down by some excellent pitching in a 4-0 final.

Erin Gant struck out three and scattered four hits without allowing two in the same inning to earn the win for De Soto. Jessica Brewer pitched three innings for Farmington, and struck out one while allowing three earned runs on three hits. Natalie Sago shut out De Soto in four innings of relief work for the Knightettes.

The Lady Dragons got a double off the left-center field fence from Jill Lutz to lead off the second inning. A hit by Cori McCormack and a walk to Casey Sides loaded the bases.

Heidi Frierdich was hit by a pitch to force home the first run of the game. A RBI single by Cheryl McKay made it 2-0. The lead double for the Lady Dragons as two more players scored on a ground out by Angela Haverstick.

The Knightettes had one hit in the first four innings, but managed to get some good swings in during the latter innings. Kristen Hayes doubled with one out in the sixth, but was stranded at third base.

Marissa Hoehn also doubled with one out in the seventh, but only made it to third as the game ended. De Soto outhit Farmington 5-4 in the contest. Molly Currington and Meghan Halbrook each had singles in the game for the Knightettes.

Farmington (13-9) will host the Class 4, District 1 tournament beginning on Thursday.

Central 8, St. Pius 7

PARK HILLS — Freshman Kayla Jaco hit a walk-off, bases loaded single in the bottom of the seventh, and the Central Lady Rebels won a nail-biter with St. Pius, 8-7.

St. Pius led 5-2 in the fifth. Central scored five runs in the next two innings before giving up two in the top of the seventh. That set the stage for Jaco’s game-winning single.

Central overcame horrendous fielding early. The Lady Rebels committed five errors in the first inning, but escaped only allowing two runs.

Niki Rhodes went 3-4 with a home run. Corinne Currington went 2-4 with two RBIs. Megan Keller went 3-4 with a home run. Jaco went 3-4. Dylan Gibson pitched seven strong innings, only allowing two earned runs.

“We ended up with 14 hits, so we obviously hit the ball really well tonight,” said coach Wallen.

Central’s record is now 12-9. The Lady Rebels host Festus tomorrow.

Festus 9, North County 2

FESTUS — Festus played well for seven innings, defeating North County 9-2 at home.

North County scored both runs of their runs in the third inning on RBI singles by Jenny Boyer and Ann boyer. Cassie Jackson pitched all seven innings for the Lady Raiders.

The Lady Raiders record fell to 8-13. North County travels to Sullivan tomorrow.