Schulte sparks Force’s state title run

SUBMITTED PHOTO
The Northwest Force 10-and-under softball team won the USSSA State Championship this past weekend in Kansas City. Pictured; front from left; Delaney Wolf, Barnard; AnnaBelle Ball, Gallatin; Maleeah Bliley, Conception and Alayna Williams, Lathrop; back from left; coach Lesley Schulte, Maryville; Amelia Wallace, Stanberry; Carsen Burns, Maryville; Maggie Collins, Conception; Maci Duley, Stanberry; Ella Schulte, Maryville; Braelyn Hannigan, Maryville and coach Chris Burns, Maryville.

KANSAS CITY — Maryville’s Ella Schulte was dominant as she led her Northwest Force 10-and-under softball team to the USSSA Missouri State Tournament championship this weekend in Kansas City. The Force finished with a 4-0 record.

Schulte finished the weekend with 22 strikeouts and gave up just one hit in eight shutout innings.

In its first game of the tournament, the Force faced the Dirt Devils Black from Raymore and emerged with a 6-0 victory as Schulte threw a no-hitter.

Schulte pitched all four innings and struck out 11 batters.

The pitcher also scored the team’s first run in the first inning on an RBI from Barnard’s Delaney Wolf. The Force tacked on another run in the second when Amelia Wallace scored on a single by Alayna Williams.

The Force put the game away with four more runs in the third inning with AnnaBelle Ball, Maci Duley, Wolf and Collins all scoring to account for the final margin of victory.

The Force received a much stiffer challenge in its second game, edging out a 4-3 victory over Titanium from Lee’s Summit.

With Wolf and Schulte leading the way again, the Force got off to a great start in the first frame as Wolf shutout the Titanium in the first frame. Schulte worked a walk, she promptly stole second, third and home to manufacture a run.

The score remained 1-0 until the third inning when the Titanium struck for two and took a 2-1 advantage.

Conception’s Maggie Collins led the fourth inning off with a triple and came around to score on an error to knot the game back up at 2-2. The Force wasn’t done there though with Bell also connecting on a triple and scoring on a Wallace RBI.

The Titanium answered right back with a run to tie game at 3-3, but with time about to expire, Wolf came through with a game-winning double to left-center to score Maryville’s Casen Burns and give the Force a 4-3 win.

In the state semifinals, the Force defeated the Diamond Club Storm from Blue Springs, 7-3.

Maryville’s Braelyn Hannigan set the tone for the Force early with a shoestring catch in right field in the first inning. Hannigan quickly relayed the ball into the infield and after a series of throws, Schulte got the ball to Collins to get an out at the plate and erase an initial run-scoring situation for the Storm.

Despite the defensive heroics, the Storm took a 1-0 lead in the top of the first, but the defense translated into offense and the Force exploded for a 5-run first inning and took a 5-1 lead.

Duley took over from there and held the Storm offense quiet with her pitching to send the Force to the title game.

In the finals against the Warsaw Torque, the Force again gave the ball to Schulte and she delivered.

Schulte struck out 11 in four innings for the second time that weekend. She allowed just one hit and the Force took the title with a 7-0 victory.

The Force scored two runs in the first – RBI singles by Ball and Wallace – and one in the third – RBI from Wolf.

Three runs in the fourth provided the final margin of victory.

Collins led the offense with four hits while Schulte, Wolf and Woods each added three.

The Force finished itsseason with a 23-7 record. The team will return to action this fall.