Lady Mt’neers slug through busy, successful week on the softball diamond

The Mt. Vernon Lady Mt’neers have been outstanding early this season and continued their run behind a five-win week last week.
The week opened with Ash Grove on Monday. Despite the Lady Pirates leading for the majority of the game, a double from senior Allie Schubert sparked a three-run inning to defeat Ash Grove 6-4.
Tuesday, Mt. Vernon hosted Pittsburg (Kan.) where a six-run second inning was enough to give Missouri the win in the border war 10-7.
Friday, the Lady Mt’neers traveled to Forsyth and a steady diet of Lady Mt’neer offense led to a 9-1 win over the Lady Panthers.
Saturday, Mt. Vernon played host to two teams from outside the area in Potosi and West County. Potosi was one of the best teams in the state a year ago, but the Lady Trojans struggled against the Lady Mt’neers, as a home run from freshman Hali Stokes enforced the run rule. Mt. Vernon wins again, 16-0. Immediately following, Mt. Vernon put up a five-run first inning as the Lady Mt’neers earned their second run rule of the day over (8-1) West County 11-1. Which brings us to this week, where the Lady Mt’neers were already in action hosting Marionville, Monday night.
The Lady Mt’neers struck first as senior star Harley Daniels opened the game by striking out the side. The bats of Mt. Vernon was off to a hot start. Payge Evans, Molly Daniels, Allie Schubert, and Harley Daniels all reached base safely and all would score behind a three-run triple from sophomore Rae Downing. Downing is very familiar with Marionville pitcher Bailey Hosbach as she spends her summers on the same travel team as her catcher.
“Being teammates with her during the summer, I kind of know how she works. I have caught her so I know some tendencies and I have that advantage on her, but she is a great pitcher,” Downing said of Hosbach.
Downing and one more run would score in a six-run first inning.
Pitching would take over after the opening inning, as despite getting into a little bit of trouble, the score remained 6-0 until the bottom of the fifth inning.
Mt. Vernon’s Molly Daniels opened the bottom of the fifth frame capitalizing on a Marionville error and Schubert responded with a single. A tough luck double play from Harley Daniels kept just one baserunner on for Downing who shot a line drive just past the glove of the second baseman, scoring Schubert from second, as Rae trotted into third with her second standup triple of the game and her fourth RBI. Fellow sophomore Cheyenne Bieber followed with a triple of her own to give the Lady Mt’neers an 8-0 lead after five innings.
Mt. Vernon shut the door on the Lady Comets in the sixth and seventh innings and the Lady Mt’neers held on for an 8-0 win.
“Defensively this was our best game of the season. We looked like we had a more confident demeanor to us and it has been a work in progress early this season. Despite our struggles early, we looked quite different than what we have the last few games,” Mt. Vernon coach Matt Schubert said following the win.
Downing led the way for the Lady Mt’neers going 2-3 with a pair of triples and four RBI’s. Harley Daniels was also fantastic throwing a seven-inning shutout allowing just four hits and striking out 10.
“We have been very good this year offensively from the top of our order to the bottom and we showed that again tonight,” Downing said.
The Lady Mt’neers move to 14-1 for the year with just a trip to Purdy on Thursday remaining on their schedule for this week.