Montgomery County junior Maddy Queathem was too much to handle for the Wellsville-Middletown Tigers on Sept. 27 at Kiwanis Fields.

Queathem helped her team knock off its cross-county rivals by turning in strong performances on the mound and at the plate. She gave up one hit and struck out eight on the mound and went 4-for-4 with two doubles, two runs scored and an RBI at the plate to lift the Wildcats to a 15-0 win over the Tigers that ended in four innings due to the 15-run rule.

Queathem ended the game with no outs in the bottom of the fourth by smacking an RBI double to left, giving the Wildcats their fifth win of the season.

“It’s nice to see us come together as a team and play really well together,” Queathem said. “I think we hit the ball really well tonight. In most games, we struggle with our hitting. We’ll get a few hits, but not enough consecutive hits that are good enough to get us on the board. Tonight, we came together and we put up 15. We did pretty well.”

The Wildcats scored a run in the second, 10 in the third and four in the fourth. The 15 runs tied a season-high for MCHS, which also scored 15 against Hermann on Aug. 30 at home.
MCHS sophomore shortstop Miley Rieke went 3-for-3 with a single, double and triple, scored three runs and drove in three runs. She hit a bases-loaded triple in the third.

W-M, which hasn’t beaten the Wildcats since 2011, dropped to 3-10. Sophomore Alyssa Beach, who played second base and came in relief for sophomore Hallie Guzy in the third, got the Tigers’ only hit in the first.

Queathem doubled in the first and fourth innings and had singles in the second and third innings, finishing with her third four-hit game of the season. She also had four hits against South Callaway on Sept. 24 and Wright City on Sept. 8.

“Recently, I’ve been doing pretty well at the plate,” said Queathem, who bats in the leadoff position. “I was in a slump for a little bit. My batting average was way down, but I’m starting to bring it back up. I just have to clear my head, focus on what I can focus on and do the little things like keeping my head down and seeing the ball.”

Queathem took over pitching duties after Brooklynn Fischer, a 2021 all-state selection, graduated.

“The hardest part about pitching is all of the stress,” said Queathem, a two-time all-Eastern Missouri Conference selection. “You feel like you have the whole weight on your shoulders. I really give it to Brooklynn. She pitched for four years and she did amazing at it. Just taking over, I’m trying to fill her shoes, but I’m not halfway close.”

Queathem had other strong performances on the mound besides the one against W-M. She struck out 10 in the Wildcats’ 11-4 season-opening win over Hermann in the Montgomery County Fall Classic on Aug. 27. She also had a 10-strikeout performance in a 6-5 loss to Eugene on Sept. 19.

“It was nice to get my first win on the mound (against Hermann),” Queathem said. “My pitching started off a little rough, but I feel like as the season went on, I got a little better at it.”

Freshman catcher Dylan Topel said she has been impressed with the way Queathem has been performing on the mound.

“She’s a really good pitcher,” Topel said. “She’s a good person, too.”