Mt. Vernon softball rolls, wins Early Bird Invitational

The Lady Mt’neers are coming off of a fantastic season; a year that saw them finish at 18-6 and just a few bounces away from winning a second straight district championship. The good news is Mt. Vernon graduated just two seniors and brought back seven of their top eight bats, including Josey McChesney, Payge Evans and Hadley Cornell who all hit over .400 a year ago. Also returning is ace pitcher Harley Daniels who racked up a 17-3 record with a 1.40 ERA wile striking out 226 batters in just 124.2 innings pitched. Safe to say that the expectations are to improve on that 18-6 record.
They are off to a great start as the Lady Mt’neers rebounded from a 2-2 performance at the Sarcoxie Tournament last weekend, to a dominating sweep en route to the Pleasant Hope Early Bird Invitational championship.
They opened Friday with an 8-4 win behind multi-hit games from five Lady Mt’neers including three hits from sophomore Payge Evans and freshman Cheyenne Bieber. They followed that up against El Dorado Spings and DI prospect Macie Mays. The bats exploded for the Lady Mt’neers in the second inning as six players drove in two runs and Mt. Vernon run ruled the Lady Bulldogs, 14-2.

Mt. Vernon tops Miller
The Lady Mt’neers were back at it on Saturday as they took on Lawrence County foe Miller. The Lady Cardinals struck first in the top of the first, but five hits led to nine runs for Mt. Vernon, and they didn’t look back as the Lady Mt’neers defeated the Lady Cardinals 13-1.

Lady Mt’neers run rule Pleasant Hope
The final game of the week for the Lady Mt’neers saw Mt. Vernon take on host school Pleasant Hope. The Lady Mt’neers made easy work of the Lady Pirates as junior Allie Schubert was a perfect 3-3 at the plate scoring three runs and knocking in two more. Harley Daniels was perfect in the circle allowing no baserunners, and striking out 5. Daniels was also a force in the batter’s box as she was a perfect 3-3 at the plate with three RBIs as the Lady Mt’neers cruised to a 14-0 run rule in three innings.

Softballers also top host Ash Grove
Mt. Vernon continued their hot start Monday as they traveled to Ash Grove. Ash Grove struck first, but freshman Cheyenne Bieber didn’t wait long before hitting her first round tripper over the fence to tie the game. A two-run bomb by Josey McChesney gave Mt. Vernon the 3-1 lead in the top of the second. The Lady Mt’neers struck again with another run to take a 4-1 lead. Ash Grove made their push in the fifth inning as they plated two runs to bring the score to 5-3. That was as close as the Lady Pirates got though, as three more runs crossed in the top of the seventh to secure the 8-3 win for the Lady Mt’neers. Bieber led the way with a 3-4 day with four RBI’s.
The Lady Mt’neers move to 7-2 on the year with a busy week to come. They traveled to Pittsburg, Kan. on Tuesday before returning home Friday against Forsyth. They won’t be at home long, as Saturday, they will make a 3 1/2 hour drive to Potosi to take on the Lady Trojans and the Lady Bulldogs of West County in a double header.