That power surge felt in Troy on Friday and Saturday had nothing to do with the local utility companies.
It came directly from the bats of the Hillsboro softball team, which powered up with 14 home runs in four games and swept its way to the championship of the 11th annual Leadoff Classic at Troy Buchanan High. The Hawks (4-0) beat last year’s Class 4 state champion Troy 7-3 in Saturday’s championship game.
The tournament also featured Warrenton, the 2016 Class 3 state champion, and Washington, which finished fourth in Class 4.
“This is a great start to the season, but how we finish the season will be the key,” said Hillsboro head coach Kevin Lucas, who guided the Hawks to 20 wins and the Jefferson County Activities Association title last year as a rookie. “We’re going to enjoy this and soak it in but we’ve got to get right back to work on Tuesday. We won’t have a whole of time to enjoy things. The thing with softball is we don’t have a lot of down time.”
The Hawks’ home run derby began in Friday’s season opener against Fort Zumwalt North. Senior Carlie Sanders was 5-for-5 with three home runs and six RBIs in a 19-2 win over the Panthers. Junior Kelsey Boyd was 4-for-5, hit two homers and drove in four runs. Senior Ashleigh Wick had two hits, a round-tripper and three RBIs.
“They were just trying to drive the ball to the gap and the ball was carrying out,” Lucas said of the Hawks’ weekend home run fest. “I don’t think none of them were going up to the plate thinking they were going to hit a home run.”
But the homers kept flying out in the second game on Friday. Sanders, Boyd (two), Emma Nichols and Emily Mudd all hit round-trippers in a 11-4 win against St. Dominic, a Class 3 district champion last year.
Nichols was the winning pitcher against Fort Zumwalt North, throwing six innings, scattering three hits and striking out six. Mudd was in the circle against the Crusaders in the nightcap and allowed seven hits and four earned runs in six innings. Nichols was back in the circle Saturday morning against Columbia Hickman and picked up her second win with six innings, nine hits allowed and eight strikeouts in the Hawks’ 5-4 win.
Troy Buchanan (3-1) rolled into Saturday’s championship game having outscored Hannibal, Battle and Washington 29-0. But Sanders rocketed Trojan pitcher Kiersten Nixon’s pitch over the left-field fence to lead off the final.
Mudd pitched two perfect innings and retired 10 of the first 11 Troy batters. The Hawks clung to a 1-0 lead until the fourth, when Nichols led off with a single and scored on Mudd’s flair to make it 2-0.
All three of Troy’s runs against Mudd were unearned. A double by Kenadie Suddarth in the fourth plated Jacey Meyer and the Trojans were down 2-1.
With one out in the fifth, Sanders singled. Senior Skye Batchelor’s bunt moved Sanders to third base, and Nixon intentionally walked Nichols before Boyd’s three-run blast gave the Hawks a 5-1 lead.
“It gets under my skin a little bit when teams walk a batter to get to me, and I want to make them pay for it,” Boyd said.
Errors by Hillsboro allowed Troy to cut its lead to 5-3 in the fifth, but the Hawks got one of those runs back in the sixth when Mudd singled and courtesy runner Jensen Knudtson advanced to second on a wild pitch, reached third on a bunt by Maria Erxleben and scored on a wild pitch.
Troy’s leadoff batter reached in the sixth, but Mudd retired the next three batters. Sanders’ second home run of the game in the seventh added more insurance for Nichols who came in relief of Mudd in the seventh and retired the Trojans in order.
“Emily went right at their hitters and they put the ball in play,” Lucas said. “Our defense had a couple of missteps late, but they did great. We’ve got two new girls in the outfield and now we know we have some work to do.”