Kelly eases past East Prairie

Lady Hawks improve to 11-1

BENTON-- The Kelly Lady Hawks softball team improved to a record of 11-1 with a 10-0 win over the Lady Eagles of East Prairie Thursday in Benton.

Pitcher Jessica Riley and the Kelly defense played solid Thursday, stifling East Prairie's offensive efforts.

Riley pitched a complete game allowing only two hits, while striking out five.

"We had our defense behind our pitcher today, which is always such a huge help," Kelly head coach Rhonda Ratledge said.

Ratledge noted that Kelly's offense was slowed somewhat in the early going by the off speed of East Prairie's pitching.

"It was an adjustment in pitching speeds for us today from yesterday," Ratledge said. "We had trouble with the slower speed, everything was going left and foul. But our girls hung in at the plate and put the ball in play, and that's what I want to see."

Kelly did get the bats going, scoring three runs in the first inning, one in the third, five in the fourth, and one in the fifth.

Main contributors to Kelly's offensive efforts were second basemen Katee Moore who was 2-for-4 with two RBIs, two runs, and a stolen base while shortstop Londyn Backfisch finished 2-for-3 with two singles, two walks, two runs, three stolen bases and an RBI. Carrissa Klipfel and Haley Glastetter made significant contributions as well.

Ratledge feels today was a continuation of what she has been working on with her girls all season and hopes for things to only continue to improve this weekend as the Lady Hawks head to Jackson this weekend for Jackson's Varsity Invitational.

"We started out pretty slow at the plate this season," she said. "But as things have gone along, we're starting to pick it up at the plate. Hopefully we will continue to see that this weekend in Jackson."

East Prairie head coach Steve Stokes felt his girls did a good job of battling the tough Kelly program.

"We put the ball in play quite a bit today, we didn't get as many hits as I would have liked off those balls," Stokes said. "But, we hit the ball well. I'm pleased with that. We made the plays we were supposed to make on defense. You can't do anything about balls hit through the gaps, but we made the plays that we should have made. We made a couple mistakes, but we made some good plays as well. It's Kelly and they are always tough. We could have laid down, but we didn't do that."

Stokes feels his girls did a good job of honing their focus for Thursday's game.

"We knew we had to come to play," he said. "We haven't been as focused as we should have been the last couple of games. I told them today we have to be ready to play and play like we are capable of playing, I feel we did that today. We are young in some spots, so we are still finding ways to deal with that. For the most part I'm pleased."