Strafford Lady Indians cruise past Mountain Grove in sectional softball

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By Josh Hall

MOUNTAIN GROVE – The Strafford softball team has gotten over last year’s season.

The Lady Indians are well-aware of what happened. After posting a 20-0 record entering last year’s district championship, Strafford had its season come to an end after falling to Mount Vernon, the eventual state champions.

For a year, that’s all the Lady Indians thought of. It was a sore subject for a while.

“Now we’re past it,” Strafford senior Brooke Bishop said. “It’s over.”

The Lady Indians are now looking to the future. And so far they are off to a good start for making a deep playoff run.

After cruising through their district, the Lady Indians tallied 13 hits and Zoey Mullings allowed two hits in six innings on Monday to lift Strafford to a 8-1 win against Mountain Grove in a Class 1 sectional game.

The Lady Indians improved to 22-1 and will take on West County (14-3) at 4 p.m. Thursday at West County in the quarterfinal round.

CLICK HERE TO SEE PHOTOS OF MONDAY’S GAME BETWEEN STRAFFORD AND MT. GROVE

“We’re hungry,” Strafford coach Dale Bean said. “Last year we were hungry too, but that doesn’t mean you can go all the way to state. But I think right now we’re more focused. We are hungry and we’re just taking it game-by-game, play-by-play and situation-by-situation.

“Right now, what I think is going to help is our preparation and execution.”

That formula has been working fine for the Lady Indians.

Strafford has outscored opponents 267-44 this year. The Lady Indians average 11.60 runs per game and are allowing 1.91. Strafford has also recorded 11 shutouts this season.

The Lady Indians’ answer for success varies. But “work ethic “is usually the phrase most often used.

“I have to say how close we are and how hard we work,” Bishop said. “I’d say we’re a family.”

Bean had his own thoughts.

“It’s about 98-percent athleticism, 1-percent coaching… I’ll give you 2-percent coaching because there are two of us,” said.  “They just work hard.”

The Lady Indians have been an offensive force from the top to the bottom of their lineup this season. Eight players with 60 or more at-bats are hitting above .350.

Sophomore Hayley Frank drove in three runs, Presley Floyd and Mullings both drove in two runs apiece, and Kaitlyn Vote added another RBI to help pace Strafford at the plate on Monday. Rillie Vote, Alyssa Collette, Floyd and Samantha Gott all had multi-hit games.

”It’s great,” Bishop said. “If one half of the lineup isn’t having the greatest day, you can rely on the other half to back you up. No matter what, we’ve always got a good-hitting team.”

Mullings, also a key member of the Lady Indians offense, doesn’t mind the run support, despite carrying a 1.96 ERA with 85 hits, 28 walks and 85 strikeouts in 75 innings this season.

The junior was at her normal form on Monday.

“I knew I had to come in focused, and I knew that the crowd was going to be loud. I was telling myself not to let that get to me,” Mullings said. “I just went in with my regular routine and do what I usually do. I just need to throw strikes and not do anything fancy.”

Mullings allowed the lone run in the in the bottom of the sxith. The right-hander walked three and hit two batters.

But she never got into too much trouble.

“She’s been tough as nails in pressure situations,” Bean said. “Anytime somebody got on base, or anybody got in scoring position, she buckled down, went out there and hit her spots.”

Fellow junior Alisssa Collette threw a scoreless seventh inning, allowing one hit and striking out two to put the game away.

Strafford scored a run in the first, two in the fourth, two in the fifth and broke the game open with a three-run sixth inning.

“Strafford is an amazing team,” Mountain Grove coach Lori Hyde said. “They’re well-coached, they’re athletes from the top of the lineup to the bottom of the lineup, and I can’t take anything away from what they do as a team.

“We came in and we knew what we needed to do. We just couldn’t quite get it done at the plate.”

Finishing the year at 15-7 is the best record for the Lady Panthers in Hyde’s 11 seasons.

“The season as a whole, for me, has been phenomenal,” she said.

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