It was three runs here and another run there until four runs sealed the victory.

Mexico softball defeated district foe Bowling Green 11-1 in six innings on Wednesday at home to follow its first North Central Missouri Conference win Tuesday at Marshall. Every Lady Bulldog in the lineup reached base at least one time and six drove in runs.

Abby Bellamy, Kierstan Epperson, Hannah Loyd, Jo Thurman and Maddy Feger each picked up two hits with Epperson driving in two runs and Bellamy, Loyd and Thurman each adding an RBI. Eboni Mayfield finished six innings in the circle, allowing seven hits and an unearned run and striking out five.

Head coach Curt Riley said Mexico’s offense accomplished what it set out to do against the fastest pitcher it's seen so far in Bowling Green’s Sydney Charlton. The Lady Bulldogs drew four walks and only struck out twice against Charlton, extending at-bats and putting the ball in play.

“We put it in play, and we made them throw us out,” Riley said. “That’s the name of this game. You just got to keep pushing and keep pushing. That’s how I like to do stuff.”

Mexico took a 3-0 lead after one inning, scoring one via an error and two on a passed ball. The gradual attack continued in the next two innings when Mexico made Bowling Green pay for a leadoff walk in the second inning on an RBI groundout from Thurman and Epperson drove in her first run in the third.

Riley said facing Charlton on Wednesday was similar to facing Marshall’s Riley Wilkinson on Tuesday as both pitchers were around the plate. He said it took longer to get going against Marshall, but that wasn’t going to happen two days in a row.

The Lady Bulldogs responded to Bowling Green’s lone run in the top of the fifth inning with two runs in the bottom frame and then triggered the run-rule with two outs in the sixth inning after Loyd’s RBI single — Mexico’s fifth hit of the inning.

The RBI double Bowling Green had in the fifth inning off Mayfield was the hardest ball hit against the pitcher and happened after a two-out error. For most of the night, The Lady Bobcats were swinging late against what Mayfield had to offer.

“Her offspeed stuff was working,” Riley said. “She’s deceptively fast. The two games that she’s thrown, she’s 1-1, but the loss that she had was to Helias, who’s really good. They beat us 5-2, and they had four unearned runs. That’s not on my pitcher.”

Mexico did have five errors, but Riley said the defense was “as good as we’ve been all year.” There were some shining plays that helped Mexico return to the batter’s box quicker.

Bowling Green’s Kaelyn Wommack was hitting with a runner on and scalded a pitch toward third base, which was snagged by Bellamy and promptly thrown to the first baseman Epperson, who dove to catch the throw and touched the bag in one motion. After making two errors earlier, the shortstop Karlee Sefrit recorded all three outs in the sixth inning, picking up two on one play by stepping on second base and firing to first.

There wasn’t any comfort for Bowling Green on the bases either as the catcher Loyd’s arm was loaded and ready to fire to Epperson at first base. Loyd caught a runner too far off first in the fourth inning.

“Kierstan and Hannah worked so well together,” Riley said. “I was sitting over here, and I said, ‘Hannah, get her.’ You’re trying to lull them to sleep, and we did.”

Mexico played at Battle on Friday before the Lady Bulldogs compete today in the Spartan Softball Round-Robin in Columbia.

Mexico boys panic to lose 5-2 to Fulton

Mexico boys soccer was in good shape in its first big match of the year.

The Bulldogs hosted district foe and North Central Missouri Conference rival Fulton on Thursday and hung with the Hornets for about 48 minutes — the minute Brendan McKeown tied the game at 2. When the clock struck 49, it was downhill from there as Mexico lost 5-2 to drop its fifth straight game against the Hornets.

Fulton’s Christian’s Mahoro scored the first of his two goals — joining teammate Jayden Ayers in the two-goal club Thursday — to give the Hornets a 3-2 lead that quickly expanded 14 minutes later. James Branson followed his hat trick Tuesday at Elsberry with another score in the first half. Bulldog goalkeeper Emile Scanavino stopped 11 of 16 shots on goal.

Head coach William Gleeson believes the Bulldogs were playing their style of game until the third goal happened.

“When they scored that goal, I think the momentum of the whole game shifted,” Gleeson said. “We started panicking a little bit and then we started playing catchup instead of our usual game. We just weren’t working in sync, and our passes weren’t there.”

Gleeson said this “panic mode” altered his team’s play where the ball had less movement and the Bulldogs weren’t working the middle as frequently as they did at the end of the first half, which helped in scoring both of their goals.

After two goals from Ayers in the first 15 minutes, Branson shot through the middle in the field, outrunning the defender and kicking it past the keeper to make it 2-1 in the 24th minute. In the 48th minute, McKeown booted a ball while in a cluster of players to tie the game.

“We’ve got a lot of good ball control — kids with ball control,” Gleeson said. “That’s why we can win it in the midfield, and they have enough control to make those good controlled passes so we get open shots.”

Mahoro dribbled around three Mexico defenders before putting it in from the left side for the third goal. Bahir Sherzad beat defender Marcos Matuz to loose ball around the net for goal No. 4 in the 62nd minute, and then the reigning all-state player zipped past the Bulldog defense and scored past the keeper two minutes later.

Gleeson said Mexico was well aware of Mahoro’s skill and that the Bulldogs were focused on denying him the ball, which worked for a little more than a half.

“Our game plan going in today was I had one player mark him to shadow him,” Gleeson said. “The less touches he has, because their whole offense kind’ve builds of off him, (the better). Once we fell into that panic mode, that fell by the wayside.”

Many other Hornets threatened to score throughout the night, including Dominick Tharp’s five missed opportunities that were turned away by Scanavino.

Gleeson remembers the junior goalkeeper being hard-working ever since he was a freshman as he was close to making varsity that year.

“We had a more experienced keeper who just was a touch better, but he did play a few because the keeper got hurt,” Gleeson said. “That next year, the other keeper was going to be senior when he was a sophomore, but the senior didn’t come out so he really had to step it up. And step it up he did.”

Mexico moves to 1-1 and goes back on the road at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday to face conference foe Marshall (2-0), who has outscored its first two opponents 15-0.
Mexico junior varsity won its game 2-1 beforehand.

Mexico down two sets, defeats Kirksville

Mexico volleyball couldn’t end its losing streak against one North Central Missouri Conference rival — Fulton on Monday — but did so in dramatic fashion Thursday night.

The Lady Bulldogs were down 2-0 after losing two close sets but took the final three in their first win of the season, breaking a three-match losing streak to district and conference foe Kirksville and a three-match losing streak to conference opponents. Mexico dropped the first two sets by scores of 25-19 and 25-18 and then were victorious with scores of 25-18, 25-20 and 16-14.

"It was not easy, but they fought every single step of the way," head coach Mendie Tutt said. "When we were down two sets, we made sure we stayed positive, focused and were each other's cheerleader."

The Lady Bulldogs’ 15 service aces is, by far, a season-high as Jessica Stephens and Ally Wilson each led the team with four. Jaclynn Cline followed with three aces and Aleigha Jackson had two.

Stephens also became the first Lady Bulldog with double-digit kills at 14 — followed by Emily Moppin’s eight, Ali Walotka’s five and Kaitlin Rose’s three — and the first to have a double-double this season with her 18 digs. Walotka led the team with a season-high 21 digs, followed by Tessa Haefling’s 19, Jackson’s 11 and Cline’s 10.

"By keeping our server receives down with Tessa Haefling and Jessica Stephens passing at 2.0, this allows us to capitalize on our attack," Tutt said.

After tying the match at two sets apiece, Mexico trailed 13-10 in the fifth set and then took the set with its best set hitting percentage at 0.222. Cline was responsible for Mexico's final five points.

Mexico hosts its second straight district foe at 6 p.m. Tuesday when the Lady Bulldogs welcome reigning district champion winner Hallsville.