The West Prairie/Southeastern softball team held oncebeaten Beardstown in check until the later innings and the visiting Tigers would go on to take a 9-1 non-conference victory over the Cyclones Thursday in Colchester.
Beardstown’s Ola Quigley led off the game with a single before stealing second and eventually scoring on an infield throwing error to grab a 1-0 lead.
WP/SE would threaten in the bottom of the first after Addalyn Stanberry drew a lead-off walk from Beardstown starter Khloe Kearns. Tegan Rigg reached on a one-out single and then stole second to put runners on second and third.
But Kearns struck out Adriana Starks and retired Kenadie Webster on a ground ball to first to get out of the inning.
The score remained the same until the third when Beardstown scored twice off of WP/SE starter Arianna Soule who had held the Tigers to just the one hit through the first two innings.
Soule struck out Emma Colwell to lead off the third but walked Ola Quigley who then stole second base. Ava Quigley reached on an infield single and Ola Quigley scored on another error to give Beardstown a 2-0 lead.
Kylynn Maltby was retired on an infield popup to Starks at third for the second out, but Kearns lined an RBI-double to make it 3-0.
The Cyclones would mount another scoring threat in the bottom of third after two were out.
Kearns walked Ella Tippey who stole second and took third after Rigg reached on an error by Maltby. Rigg stole second to once again put runners on second and third for WP/SE. But Kearns got Starks to ground out to third to end the threat.
Soule struck out Ava Knous to start the fourth inning before walking Hallie Lawson and giving up a base hit to Lauren Coats to put runners on the corners.
Colwell laid down a sacrifice bunt to get Coats to second where Ola Quigley drove in both runners with a triple to give the Tigers a 5-0 lead.
Beardstown would add another run in the top of the fifth to extend the lead to 6-0.
Kearns retired eight straight batters before Rigg belted a one-out triple in the bottom of the sixth. Starks was retired on a hard hit infield ground ball, but Rigg came in to score to make it 6-1.
The Tigers would add on some insurance runs in the top of the seventh on RBIs by Mia Simpson, Knous and Ola Quigley who walked with the bases loaded to force in Knous for the game’s final run.
Kearns retired the Cyclones in order in the bottom of the seventh to secure the win as WP/SE fell to 2-11 for the season.
Soule took the loss for the Cyclones after allowing nine runs (eight earned) on 12 hits and striking out seven.
Rigg went 3-for-3 and scored the only run for WP/SE. Ola Quigley led Beardstown (14-1) by going 3-for-3 with three runs batted in and two runs scored as Kearns earned the win after allowing only one run on three hits and striking out 12.
“I can’t be any happier on how the girls played,” said WP/ SE head coach Cyle Rigg.
“(Kearns) just beat Liberty and one-hit them and she beat Pittsfield 2-0. Those are two of the best teams in our area, too. I thought our girls battled tonight. We had 12 strikeouts but I still thought our at-bats were good.”
“(Kearns) is one of the best in the area. Khloe is a good pitcher,” Rigg added. “We didn’t hit the ball overly hard today as a team, but we put the bat on the ball.”
WP/SE was scheduled to host Payson-Seymour in a non-conference matchup Monday in Bowen.
