By Brennan Stebbins (For OzarksSportsZone.com)
Mt. Vernon junior Emmie Schubert knocked in the first run of the game and then kept visiting Clever off the scoreboard for the rest of the evening as the Mountaineers earned a 3-0 win in a Class 2 softball quarterfinal on Tuesday.
Mt. Vernon (29-5) returns to the final four after winning a state title three years ago and the Mountaineers will face 29-1 Skyline in a May 25 semifinal at the Killian Softball Complex in Springfield.
“It feels absolutely great, it’s honestly unreal,” Schubert said. “I’m so proud of our team and how we got here.”
“It never gets old,” said Mt. Vernon coach Matt Schubert. “I thought our girls played really well today and I thought Clever played really well today, as well. Their pitcher did a great job against us. I’ll always take a trip to the final four.”
Schubert helped her team to a 1-0 lead in the bottom of the first when she singled to center to score freshman Hailey Stewart, who singled and stole second. That lone run would prove to be enough for Schubert and the Mt. Vernon defense.
Schubert struck out 5 in the first two innings and Mt. Vernon didn’t allow a baserunner until Clever’s Kinley Burk drew a 2-out walk in the third. The BlueJays didn’t record a hit until Kinsey Coble’s single in the fourth.
“It’s a lot easier to pitch when you know your defense behind you is going to do a great job so I just go out there and trust them and whatever happens, happens,” Emmie Schubert said.
The Mountaineers made it a 2-0 game in the bottom of the third when junior Mary Fields tripled and scored on a sacrifice fly by Hailey Stewart. They added more insurance in the fourth when freshman Lisa Stewart singled and stole second and later scored on a single up the middle by Fields.
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“It really helped we got some leadoff hitters on early in the game, the first inning and the third inning when we scored, and then having people able to drive those runs in,” Matt Schubert said. “Emmie with a big RBI in the first inning to get us started and Hailey coming up in the third and getting another one. It really just lets them relax and play because they know Emmie’s going to hold some people down a little bit.”
After the single by Coble in the fourth, Clever added a 2-out walk by Savannah Cheney to put two runners on base, but Schubert escaped the inning with a strikeout. The visitors threatened in the sixth after a leadoff walk to Ava Mittag and a 2-out walk to Izabel Hudak. Once again, Schubert got a strikeout to end the inning.
She finished the game with 13 strikeouts and allowed four walks and a single.
“Emmie’s been really good this year, she’s been pretty dominant at times and I’m not sure it matters what the other team does,” Matt Schubert said. “She had five or six days rest coming out of the district championship last week and she’s been really good when she’s had that much rest. I kind of felt like it wasn’t going to take much offensively for us to be successful today and she proved me right on that one. She did a great job, relied heavily on her fastball and hit her spots well. S/he did a great job of controlling the game.”
Clever’s Mittag struck out four batters for the BlueJays and limited the Mountaineers to 3 or fewer runs for just the third time this season.
“Confidence is key in a game like this,” Emmie Schubert said. “We know we need confidence in order to win so we’re not going to be low on it.”
“Our girls are very confident right now,” Matt Schubert said. “They’ve been playing really, really well throughout most of the season. I’d tell anybody that they’ve exceeded my expectations for this season. Coming in we’re starting three freshmen and two sophomores who haven’t really started before. I thought there would be some time for some growing pains but they’ve come to practice and worked extremely hard every day and we continue to learn different things every day. They put the work in and continue to amaze me.”
Mt. Vernon will seek to avenge a 1-0 loss to Skyline in April; the Mountaineers have won eight straight since then with five shutouts.
“We know we’ve got a pretty difficult game coming up but we’ll work hard in practice this next week and whatever we come up with is going to help us get to where we need to go,” Emmie Schubert said.
