When the Montgomery County softball team arrived at Meador Park about two hours before its Class 2 state semifinal game against the South Harrison Bulldogs on the morning of Oct. 31, it had set its sights on winning the contest and advancing to the title game.
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When the Montgomery County softball team arrived at Meador Park about two hours before its Class 2 state semifinal game against the South Harrison Bulldogs on the morning of Oct. 31, it had set its sights on winning the contest and advancing to the title game.
But the Bulldogs had other plans.
From the first 30 minutes of the game, the school from Bethany was too much to handle for the Wildcats. South Harrison spoiled MCHS’ Final Four debut with a 16-0 win in five innings.
The Bulldogs scored four runs in the first, nine in the second, one in the fourth and two in the fifth to finish with one of their largest offensive outputs of the season. They scored 20 runs in a contest against Penney in early October.
“We watched a lot of film on them,” MCHS sophomore shortstop Sullie Falloon said. “They just came out hot and we didn’t pull ourselves together as well as we should have.”
The Wildcats had just one hit in the contest, which was a leadoff single by senior Dylan Topel in the bottom of the fourth. MCHS had seven runners on base, six of them were in scoring position. It stranded the bases loaded in the bottom of the first after Skylar Bethmann struck out.
The 16 runs allowed against South Harrison tied a season-high for the Wildcats. They also gave up 16 runs against St. Elizabeth in the 16-1 loss in the third-place game of the South Callaway Tournament in October.
MCHS qualified for the Class 2 Final Four by coming from behind to beat Chaffee in the state quarterfinals six days before.
The Wildcats arrived at Meador Park at 8:55 a.m. They spent the next two hours warming up and working on their hitting and defense.
“We were definitely here early and ready to play,” MCHS senior Hailey Meyer said.
The Wildcats faced a South Harrison team that qualified for the Final Four for the second time in three years. The Bulldogs came from behind to beat last year’s state champion Highland 9-5 in the state quarterfinals on Oct. 25.
Falloon said her team had some jitters in its first ever Final Four game, which played at 11 a.m. on Field 2 at Meador Park.
“I was super nervous,” Falloon said. “I had a few errors, but we all had our nerves going. But we settled down after a while.”
South Harrison had three players who hit over .400 – Lexi Hunter, Rory Fitzgerald and Bailey Barnett – and all of them turned in strong efforts against the Wildcats. Hunter had two bunt singles and scored twice, Fitzgerald had three hits and Barnett hit a two-run homer in the second.
The Bulldogs finished 26-11 after losing to Holden 4-1 in the championship game on Nov. 1. They finished with their sixth consecutive winning season. Two years ago, South Harrison placed third.
Junior Reese Hill struck out seven in the circle in the losing cause for the Wildcats.
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