Kelly escapes early jam, rolls to C2D1 softball title with 5-run inning to beat Twin Rivers

Kelly senior Alaney Moore, left, holds up the MSHSAA Class 2 District 1 championship trophy after the Hawks beat Twin Rivers 7-2 on Friday at East Carter High School in Ellsinore, Mo.

DAR/Brian Rosener

ELLSINORE, Mo. — Kelly wiggled out of a first-inning jam, overcame an early two-run deficit and didn’t make any mistakes in the field Friday.

The Hawks batted around in a five-run third inning to beat Twin Rivers 7-2 in the MSHSAA Class 2 District 1 championship at East Carter High School.

“It feels like my freshman year,” said Kelly senior Alaney Moore, who drove in four runs.

“We made it to state and I feel the same feelings I had my freshman year with this team. This camaraderie we have, and I’m just excited to see how far we can make it.”

The Hawks (15-11) will play at Iberia (20-3) in the MSHSAA Class 2 quarterfinal on Wednesday.

With the state playoffs adding a class and cutting the number of districts in half, Friday’s district final was a bit like a sectional playoff.

The Hawks last won a district title in 2018, a year after they finished fourth at state.

“I did not want to have my senior year given up for a virus,” Kelly’s Kim Seabaugh said. “It’s just amazing the measures we take to be safe.

“It is worth it.”

The Royals finished 15-8, reaching the district final for the first time since 2018.

“We’ve worked so hard for the last four years together and it just means a lot,” Twin Rivers senior Abby Hester said of playing for a title that the program last won in 2012.

“Especially since a lot of us went into quarantine when the season started, we didn’t think we would for sure (finish the season),” Hester said. “But it’s tough.”

Twin Rivers took the lead in the top of the third when Hester hit a two-run homer over the fence in the left-field gap.

But the Royals had a chance to get ahead sooner when the first four batters of the game reached.

Instead, Kelly threw out runners at third and home and Twin Rivers ended up leaving two more runners stranded in scoring position.

“That was huge,” Kelly coach Melanie Heuring said. “We didn’t lay down at all today and I’m so proud of the girls.

“We did our job defensively supporting our two freshmen pitchers and I knew that we had good defense behind them that we would get our hits down and eventually score some runs.”

Moore hit a bases-clearing double with one out in the third to turn a two-run deficit into a 3-2 Kelly lead.

The rally started with a one-out bunt by Carlee Ray that spun away from the third baseman’s hand. After a four-pitch walk, Paiten Groves bunted for a single that loaded the bases.

Moore hit the next pitch up the middle.

“I just told myself to stay calm, ‘we don’t need anything big,’” Moore said. “Most of the time if I’m not thinking about it a hit comes, so I was just staying calm.”

With two outs, Ava LeGrand tripled to right field for a 4-2 lead then scored on an RBI double to left by Kendyl Stuckey.

Kelly again loaded the bases but Twin Rivers pitcher Allison Kaczynski got a strike out looking to end the inning.

“I expected it to be a close game for sure,” Kelly senior Kate Hughes said.

Two of the three meetings, all of which Kelly won, during the regular season were decided by a run. The Hawks came in averaging 6.5 runs while Twin Rivers had scored 7.3 per game.

The difference Friday was defense. Twin Rivers committed three errors while Kelly had none even as the Royals didn’t strike out.

“Errors killed us in the field,” Royals coach Casey Parson said. “We got nervous and nerves got the best of us.”

Kaczynski struck out four and allowed two walks and nine hits over six innings for Twin Rivers.

Kelly’s Macy Burger started and gave way to fellow freshman Mallory Lemonds after allowing five hits and two walks. Heuring said she went back and forth on who to start, going with Burger because Lemonds had already faced the Royals twice, but knew both were going to pitch at some point.

Lemons walked two and allowed four hits over 4-plus innings for the win.

The Hawks got the lead off hitter on base to start the fourth and fifth innings to add to their lead.

Moore’s sacrifice fly brought in Kate Hughes, who reached on an error in the fourth. Stuckey’s RBI double followed LeGrand’s single to start the fifth.

The Royals left a base runner stranded in every inning but the one they scored.

Hester finished 3 for 4 with a double to go with her homer while Charly Johnson also had three hits with a double. Leadoff hitter Kaci Rose was 2 for 4, starting the game with a perfect bunt single.

Johnson followed with a double but Rose was tagged out at third when she lost balance and came off the bag. Kelly threw out a runner at the plate on Hester’s double to left and Burger got a ground out to her third baseman after a walk.

“We couldn’t finish it,” Parson said of the first-inning rally. “Couple of things that didn’t go our way hurt us.”