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Moore to love
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Sarah Shanika is not the type of softball pitcher that gives in to batters very often. Luckily for Fort Zumwalt South there's no quit in Lexy Moore, either.
Moore, the Bulldogs' junior hurler and leadoff hitter, paved the way for Zumwalt South during its rescheduled district championship game played Wednesday at Troy Buchanan High School. She had 14 strikeouts and a three-run triple in the top-seeded Bulldogs' 6-1 win over No. 4 Francis Howell Central that clinched the Class 4 District 8 title.
"It was a team effort," Moore said. "We struggled in the first part of the game but after that we put some hits together. We got focused and riled up and we all pulled together."
It's the seventh district title this decade for Zumwalt South and eighth overall.
To earn the title the Bulldogs had to figure out Shanika, a senior who hadn't allowed a hit in Howell Central's first two district wins over Pattonville and Fort Zumwalt East.
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"She's a good pitcher," Zumwalt South coach Kelly O'Bryan said. "We had the machine turned up to about 57 (mph) yesterday so we would be used to seeing that type of faster pitching."
Shanika threw 15 1/3 hitless innings in district play before senior catcher Shelby Long reached base on a second-inning single. The Spartans worked around trouble and took a 1-0 lead when junior Elizabeth Leath deposited a Moore offering over the left-field wall for a solo home run in the fourth.
"It was a rise ball that didn't really rise," Moore said. "It was disappointing, but my team picked me up."
The Bulldogs were given a gift run in the inning's bottom half when Kacey Scharnhorst reached base on a fielding error, went from first to third on a passed ball and scored on another passed ball to tie the score at 1-1.
"That shouldn't ever happen," Howell Central coach Brenda Ellison said. "We're a young team and we just couldn't do the little things today."
"We always tell the girls to take advantage of the other team's mistakes because we're not a team that usually wins by a lot of runs," O'Bryan said. "Kacey Sharnhorst running and being aggressive on the bases and getting over to third was huge for us on that passed ball. It was nice to come back and score right away."
The score remained tied until the Bulldogs batted around during their five-run sixth inning. Junior Cate Simon provided the big blow with a two-run, opposite-field home run to give her team a 3-1 lead, and Moore later cleared the bases with a hard-hit triple to the outfield wall.
Moore struck out the side to end the game and set up Zumwalt South (20-6) for Thursday's sectional against Hazelwood West (13-9) at 5 p.m. in Troy.
The Spartans, who won last year's district title as a No. 2 seed and finished fourth overall in Class 4, finished the year 15-8.
"We lost to South in 10 innings the first time we played them this year and we just lost to South again," Ellison said. "They're a great team. They'll be going far. I wish it could have been a closer game. But it happens."
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