Sports

As the Major League Baseball season curved from its traditional opening third toward its lengthy heart with the passage of the Memorial Day holiday Monday, for Missouri’s teams, it did so with a mutual positivity not seen in nearly a decade.Although the boys in blue followed their 6-games winning streak last week with three losses in a row to begin this week, those waiting for the Kansas City Royals to fade away likely have been dissuaded and now consider the club legitimate contenders for American League postseason play, although an injury to either Bobby Witt, Jr., or Salvador Perez still might derail them, were one to occur.Much less cemented into playoffs contention, but at least revived from their horrid start, the St.

Although, with a defense-first mindset and somewhat-limited offensive firepower it has been a grind with consistently little margin for error, Chillicothe High School’s soccer Lady Hornets have resurrected their record after an all-shutouts 0-5 start to 2024.Hosting Sedalia: Sacred Heart/Lamonte’s co-op team at Jerry Litton Memorial Stadium II last Thursday, the Lady Hornets won for a third-straight match and made their record over their prior 13 matches a winning one (7-6) via their third “shootout” victory of the season.That came on the heels of a 2-0 non-conference triumph at Cameron two days earlier.With their winning streak, Coach Jimmy Chapman’s Lady Hornets improved to 7-11 on the season before dropping their last regular-season outing at Kirksville 5-0 on Monday.The CHS girls will tote the resulting 7-12 record into the postseason, which will begin with a Class 2 District 4 quarterfinals match against that same KHS squad at Cameron this coming Monday at 6:30 p.m.If the Lady Hornets capture Monday’s decision, they’d play in the semifinals next Thursday at 5 p.m., almost certainly against top-seeded Maryville.

MARYVILLE — After his strong start led to a 36-holes total of 158 and a tie for 14th place – making him the program’s first state-tournament medal winner since 2008 – in last year’s Class 2 state competition, 2024 Chillicothe High School golf Hornets senior Jackson Trout this coming Monday and Tuesday will try to be the CHS’ boys’ first back-to-back state medal earner since Kyle Marcolla posted three top-15 finishes in a row from 2002-04 (including the 2003 state title).For the first time, though, Trout will go it alone at state as his 11th-place (overall) round of 80 in this past Monday’s Class 3 District 4 Tournament made him the only Hornet to earn a spot among the top 13 individual finishers (beyond the eight advancing members of the first- and second-place teams).Each of the past two years, classmate James Mathew also had been among the individual-qualifier ranks, but his 87 at the Lake Mozingo Course this week left him three swings shy of continuing his season.In going to state – this year’s Class 3 tourney is scheduled to be played at the Rivercut Golf Course outside Springfield this coming Monday and Tuesday – three times, Trout alone joins lone 4-times qualifier Marcolla (2001-04), Hayden Montgomery (2016-18), Logan Gilliland (2006-08), Spencer Whiteside (2005-07), Adam Barnhart (1993-95), Bryan Minnis (1985-87), and Matt Arnold (1980-81, ’83) as Hornets who’ve advanced to state three or more times.With his 80 at district, Trout will carry a 76.8 average per 18 holes into state play.

As the 2024 Midland Empire Conference Track and Field Championships at Chillicothe’s Jerry Litton Memorial Stadium II unfurled in near-ideal weather conditions (albeit with soggy landing areas for some of the field events) this past Monday, it seemed like every few minutes the public address system would intone the host teams as winner of another event, creating a sense that the Hornets or Lady Hornets or both would end the day with a team championship over keen rival Maryville.In fact of matter, the CHS boys did claim the top spot eight times, just shy of half of the 19 total events, and the Chillicothe girls emerged victorious seven times, the Lady Hornets’ the largest number of triumphs of any of the eight schools and the Hornets’ sharing their division’s lead with MHS.However, even before the last event, despite relatively-close margins, it was certain that Maryville would haul both genders’ team-championship hardware back north with its coaching staff.At meet’s end, the girls’ crown had been claimed by Maryville with 177 points, 9-1/2 more than the Lady Hornets, with both of them far ahead of third-place Cameron’s 104.

The Missouri Department of Conservation recently set the 2024 fall hunting seasons with only one big change – reducing the limit on fall turkeys for hunters using both a gun and a bow.In the past, a firearms turkey hunter was allowed two turkeys during the month-long fall season and an archery hunter (could be the same hunter) could also take two turkeys.

Chillicothe High School’s 2024 Hornets tennis season has hit its first significant turbulence.

The Chillicothe High School golf Hornets’ 2-plus-years stretch of dual-matches perfection continued on their Green Hills Golf Course home this past Monday when the senior-saturated squad’s low-4 team score of 149 – the program’s best in a dual match (or equivalent for an 18-holes tournament) since early May 2007 – earned it victory over the visiting Brookfield Bulldogs.With the win, the golf Hornets now have defeated a school-record 18-consecutive opponents in dual competition.

Missouri’s young turkey hunters, despite the high wind both days, had a great youth-only season on April 6-7, checking in 3,721 turkeys.The 2015 youth season’s total of 4,100 was the last of three previous seasons to exceed 4,000 turkeys taken and that includes the youth-season record of 4,441 checked in in 2015.The top three youth-season harvest counties statewide this year were Gasconade with 92, Franklin with 89, and Miller with 83.

Chillicothe High School’s boys’ golf team continued along its merry path in the past 10 days and the tennis Hornets kept pace right with them.Having not lost a dual match in three years, the CHS’ links lads extend that mastery at home a week ago today after grabbing the top hardware from their opening tournament outing of 2024 at Cameron two days prior.They’re currently on an unusual 10-days hiatus from competition before returning to play at Brookfield this coming Monday (Milan also will participate).