10/18/2009

BALLWIN — One hit is all the Oakville Tigers needed to earn a fifth trip to the state softball championships.

Junior first baseman Chloe Wolf ripped a two-out double to the fence in left-center, driving in the lone run in the Tigers' 1-0 victory over Summit in a Class 4 quarterfinal victory on Saturday morning at the Ballwin Athletic Association.

The victory capped a unique three-day odyssey for Oakville, which started its district championship game at 10:30 p.m. Thursday at Troy Buchanan High and made another trek to Troy on Friday afternoon for a 2 o'clock sectional game. Saturday's quarterfinal began at 10 a.m.

"To say I'm proud would be a huge understatement," Oakville coach Rich Sturm Jr. said. "These girls have been so resilient, and through it all, I didn't hear any complaints at all. Somehow, the girls were able to stay focused on softball."

Added Tigers' pitcher Remy Edwards: "It's been absolutely crazy, but we didn't care when or where or who we were playing. All we've thinking about was getting to St. Joseph.''

The Tigers (22-5) will play Kearney (29-2) in the 1:30 p.m. semifinal Friday at the Heritage Park Softball Complex in St. Joseph. In previous state trips, Oakville finished third in 2001 and 2004 and took second in 2005 and 2007.

Edwards and Summit's Caitlin Krebs were locked in a pitchers' duel when Oakville's Maggie Ruckenbrod and Julie Kernen drew one-out walks in the top of the sixth. With two out, Wolf stepped to the plate after striking out in her first two plate appearances.

"Caitlin and I used to play (summer ball) together, and she was really pounding me inside,'' Wolf said. "So I stepped back just a little bit and waited for her to come inside again.

"When I hit it, I thought it was gone. But that's OK, I'm fine with the double.''

Summit (21-7) outhit Oakville 3-1 in the game and had its best scoring chance in the bottom of the seventh. Following a one-out single by Krebs — who had two of the three Falcons hits — and a sacrifice bunt, Summit's Amy Boyer walked to put the go-ahead run on base. But Edwards took care of the final Summit out, catching a popup in front of the plate.

Edwards improved to 19-3 while Krebs (8-2) was the loser.

IN OTHER GAMES:

Cape Girardeau Notre Dame 6, Kennedy 0 — Kennedy was done in by Cape Girardeau Notre Dame's "small ball," falling 6-0 to the Bulldogs in a Class 3 quarterfinal game at the Ballwin Athletic Association.

Notre Dame scored two unearned runs in the third inning and added four more in the fifth, combining four bunts and a double by Alecia Glaus. It was one of the few hard-hit balls against Kennedy ace Paige Miller. Kennedy finished 21-3.

In a rematch of last year's title game, Notre Dame (28-2) will face 2008 state champ Platte County (24-7) in the 11:30 a.m. semifinal Friday at Heritage Park Sports Complex in St. Joseph.

Kirksville 4, Winfield 0 — The Tigers (25-2) scored three runs in the first and added another run in the third, ending Winfield's season in the Class 3 quarterfinals, also at Ballwin.

Parkway Central 7, St. Joseph's Academy 6 — Amanda Mehrsheikh led off the bottom of the seventh with a double to right-center and scored on a Lindsey Feigl single as the Colts (21-7) knocked off the Angels in a Class 4 sectional game.

Central will play Zumwalt South (22-6) in a quarterfinal Monday at 6 p.m. at Ballwin. That winner goes on to face Jefferson City (22-1) in the state semifinals Friday at 2:30 p.m. St. Joe's finished 16-9-1.

Bill Hester contributed to this report.