Ash Grove Sports

Lady Pirates explode for 56 runs over three games for wins
Softball
The Ash Grove High School softball team picked up three big wins last week, defeating Lockwood, Pierce City and El Dorado Springs.
Lockwood
On Thursday, April 18, the Lady Pirates traveled to Lockwood and won in convincing fashion, 20-9.
Lockwood led 4-1 after the first inning and 8-1 at the end of two, but all that did was wake up the Lady Pirates, who scored two runs in the third inning, 10 runs in the fourth inning and three runs each in the fifth and sixth innings for the 11-run victory.
Maddie Grube was 3-3, with a triple and an RBI, Ashlyn Gerla went 2-4 with a double and an RBI, Chelsye Graham went 2-5 with a double and two RBIs, Madison Lutz was 5-5 with six RBIs, Myah Johnson went 2-5 with a double and two RBIs, Marissa Andrus was 1-5 with a triple, Abby Stevenson finished 1-4 with a double and an RBI and Meagan Hawkins went 3-5 with a double, a triple and four RBIs and got the win on the mound, tossing six innings, allowing three earned runs with eight strike outs.
Pierce City
On Tuesday, April 16, the Lady Pirates hosted Pierce City and won easily, 17-2.
Ash Grove scored four runs in the first inning, a single run in the second inning, nine runs in the third inning and three runs in the fourth inning.
Sway Kenny went 2-3, Grube was 1-4 with three RBIs, Gerla went 2-3 with two doubles and two RBIs, Graham was 2-4 with a double, a triple and an RBI, Lutz went 3-3 with a double, a triple and four RBIs and Johnson finished 3-3 with a double. Hawkins got the win, going four innings, allowing one earned run, while striking out eight.
El Dorado Springs
Ash Grove opened the week hosting El Dorado Springs and came away with a 19-4 win.
El Dorado Springs jumped out to a 4-0 first inning lead, but that would be all of their scoring, as the Lady Pirates would score three runs in the bottom of the first inning, 10 runs in the third inning and six runs in the fourth inning to close it out.
Gerla went 3-4 with a double, a home run and six RBIs, Graham was 2-3 with a double and an RBI, Lutz went 3-3 with a triple and two RBIs, Johnson was 2-4 with two RBIs and Hawkins finished the game 1-2 with three RBIs. Hawkins also got the win, going four innings, allowing one earned run with six strike outs.
“Our bats came back alive this week,” said head coach Austin Tipton. “We hit the ball extremely well and adjusted throughout games. Overall, we are starting to hit our stride which is ideal before districts. We play four games this coming week, so we are hoping to improve each day and get more prepared for districts that start soon.”
Ash Grove is currently 17-8 and were scheduled to play at Pleasant Hope on Monday night before hosting Forsyth tonight, Mt. Vernon tomorrow night and Greenfield on Friday night.
 
Ash Grove Pirate baseball falls to Marionville, Stockton, beats Mt. Vernon
Baseball
In baseball, the Pirates played three games last week, winning one and losing the other two.
Ash grove traveled to Mt. Vernon on Friday, April 19 and won the game 4-0.
On Thursday, April 18, the Pirates traveled to Marionville and lost to the host Comets, 17-8.
Both teams were scoreless after the first inning, but then Ash Grove exploded for seven runs in the top of the second. Marionville answered back with one run in the bottom of the inning to cut the lead to 7-1. The Pirates tacked on another run in the top of the third to make it 8-1. Marionville added another run in the bottom of the third to cut the lead to 8-2. That would be all the scoring that Ash Grove would muster though, as Marionville scored eight times in the bottom of the fourth to take a 10-8 lead and then would add on five runs in the fifth and two runs in the sixth for the nine-run victory.
Blake McNeece went 1-3 with two runs scored, Bryce Davis was 1-4 with a triple, a run scored and an RBI, Cooper Burks went 1-4 with a run scored and an RBI, Kyler Reece was 1-4 with an RBI, Sawyer Burks went 1-1 with a run scored and an RBI and Ty Messley finished the game 1-4 with an RBI.
The Pirates started the week by hosting Stockton, but lost to the Tigers, 9-6.
Ash Grove scored two runs in both the first and second innings and a single run in the third inning to lead 5-0 going into the fourth. Stockton scored five runs in the top of the fifth to tie the game at 5-5, but the Pirates added another run in the bottom of the sixth to retake the lead 6-5. Stockton though would add a single run in the fifth inning, two more runs in the sixth inning and another run in the seventh inning to pull out the win.
Caden Cochran went 1-4 with an RBI, C. Burks was 1-3 with an RBI, Reece went 2-4 with an RBI and S. Burks finished the game with an RBI.
Ash Grove is now 7-4 on the season and were scheduled to play against Miller last night before traveling to Pierce City tomorrow night.
Track
The Ash Grove boys and girls track team traveled to Willard on Wednesday, April 17, to compete in the Jason Pyrah Invitational, with the boys’ team finishing seventh with 30 points and the girls team coming in 11th with 15 points.
Ryan Troxell finished second in the 400-meter dash and the boys 4X400 meter relay team finished second as well.
For the Lady Pirates, Millison Sapp finished second in the 3,200-meter run and third in the 1,600-meter run.
The Ash Grove boys and girls track team were scheduled to take part in the SBU Relays in Bolivar on Monday night.