Kliethermes sparks
Blair Oaks to victory,
into softball's Elite 8
Blair Oaks head coach Sharon Buschjost address a bunch of happy Lady Falcons after their 10-0 win over Dixon in the Class 2 quarterfinals Saturday at the Falcon Athletic Complex.
Oct. 14, 2017
WARDSVILLE, Mo. --- You could call this an ugly no-hiiter, if you want, and you might even be right.
What a nice problem to have, for your team and your pitcher to get saddled with such ugliness.
Because in this case, especially, it was a thing of beauty.
Final Four, here they come.
Makenna Kliethermes didn't have her best stuff Saturday, including a season-high four walks, but she still tossed a no-hitter as the Blair Oaks Lady Falcons romped to a 10-0 win in six innings over the Dixon Lady Bulldogs in the Class 2 quarterfinals at the Falcon Athletic Complex.
How sweet it is.
"How fun is it? This is what it's all about, it's a lot of fun," Blair Oaks coach Sharon Buschjost said. "It's all about looking at the faces of the players after a big win like this and seeing how excited they are.
"This is what everybody on our team wanted to do."
It certainly is, especially on the heels of last year.
"It's so exciting," Kliethermes said. "I'm just thrilled to be going back to the Final Four, and I just really want to win it this year."
Last year was the ultimate agony of defeat for the Lady Falcons, as Centralia beat Blair Oaks on a walkoff, two-run homer in the eighth inning in the state championship game.
"It's always hard to lose any game," Kliethermes said, "but to lose it the way we did, it's especially hard."
This will be the Lady Falcons' ninth trip to the semifinals in their quest to win the program's second state title. This game was a no-doubter, as they punched their ticket with a bang.
Dixon came to Wardsville with a sparkling mark of 23-0, but some fans questioned their strength of schedule. The Lady Bulldogs hung around for a while, but eventually buckled under the weight of their own mistakes, as much as anything.
As it was in Wednesday's sectional win over Fatima, this one was scoreless after two innings.
As they did Wednesday, the Lady Falcons scored all the runs Kliethermes would need in the third.
And, as it was Wendesday, it was the bottom of the lineup that started the rally.
This time, it was a double by Torie Thurston, the No. 7 hitter, who moved to third on Nicole Bryan's single. Bryan advanced to second on the play on a throwing error, which would be the first of a whopping six errors by Dixon.
"Our 7, 8, 9 hitters got us going again," Buschjost said. "They played a huge part in our win today. They got us going and it rolled through the top of the lineup, that was fun to see."
With one out, Macey Stockman bunted home Thurston to score that always-important first run --- "That was a beautiful squeeze play," Buschjost said --- before Kayla Jones' RBI groundout made it 2-0.
At this point, and based on Kliethermes' current ERA of 0.50 and no unearned runs being scored, Dixon could have batted three full games, 21 innings, against the junior righthander --- and still lost.
Those two runs for the Lady Falcons (27-5) --- who will play Lathrop (27-1) in the semifinals at 10 a.m. Friday in Springfield --- came after they'd dodged a couple early shots by the Lady Bulldogs. In the second, two errors gave Dixon a runner at third with one out, but nothing doing. Then in the third, Kliethermes walked the bases loaded with two out, but couldn't score.
"After the third inning, I sat down and talked with Makenna," Buschjost said. "She, herself, said she just needed to keep her emotions in check and get back into this game.
"When you get to this point, to me, a lot of it's about confidence and being comfortable. I think something was a little off with her comfort (level), because she knows that, as a team, we're confident in her 100 percent."
Said Kliethermes: "It really wasn't my best stuff, but sometimes you don't need your best stuff to win the game. I think I was trying too hard, wanting to get the strikeout instead of just attacking the batter and letting our defense work."
Kliethermes (21-1), who finished with 102 pitches, would walk her fourth batter in the fourth. How unusual was this? Those four walks represent nearly 10 percent of her season total (41).
The lead grew to 4-0 in the fourth. After a leadoff single by Hannah Schroeder, a one-out double by Sydney Wilde put runners at second third. One run scored on Cameron Dulle's single and another scored on an error, and the unraveling would only get worse for the Lady Bulldogs.
The fifth was ugly, and not in a thing-of-beauty kind of way.
The Lady Bulldogs committed four errors, had two passed balls, along with another misplay, leading to five unearned runs and making this one a blowout. RBI in the frame went to Brooke Boessen, Kliethermes and Wilde on her second double, as the lead blossomed to 9-0.
At this point, and based on Kliethermes' current ERA, Dixon could have batted 17 full games, 119 innings --- and still lost.
Fittingly, Kliethermes had the final word in the sixth, getting the last two of her 13 strikeouts in the top of inning, before ending it by the 10-run rule with a ringing RBI double in the bottom of the frame.
Oh, and she finished a no-hitter, her second of the season. In the state quarterfinals. Against a team that had been 23-0.
"It's easy for a pitcher when she has her A game going," Buschjost said. "But to throw a no-hitter when you don't have your A game? That's what I was trying to impress upon Makenna --- if you can still battle through it and keep them off the board, that's what it's all about.
"I hope she's not going to be too hard on herself."
She certainly shouldn't be, because the end result was a thing of beauty.
Loeffler's Link
'Ugly' no-hitter by Kliethermes
helps Blair Oaks move to Final 4