Sports

SPRINGFIELD — A baseball or softball fan at any level will have to watch a lot of games to see one being played for high stakes turn more topsy-turvy than last Saturday’s stunning 16-14 victory by the Westphalia: Fatima Comets over the Chillicothe High School Lady Hornets in the title game of the 2022 Missouri State High School Activities Association Class 3 Championships tournament. “The game was not at all what I expected it to be,” baffled Chillicothe head coach Lee Rucker admits.

PLATTE CITY — After a 7-years absence, Chillicothe High School’s boys’ cross-country running team is headed back to the Missouri State High School Activities Association Class 3 Championships this Saturday with two Lady Hornets also on hand to compete. Last Saturday at Platte Ridge Park in Platte City, three Hornets – freshman phenom and third-place finisher Luke Thompson, 10th-place runner Cain Evans, and 17th-place Laik Graham placed in the top 20 individually to be assured of personal advancement to Saturday’s noontime 5-kilometers race on the Gans Creek course southeast of Columbia.

COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — Brady Cook didn’t let Missouri’s early struggles this season change his outlook on what the Tigers could accomplish. He made sure his teammates wouldn’t let that happen, either.

Virtually a month after seeing their unexpected opportunity to be at least Midland Empire Conference co-champions when they fell at home to the Savannah Savages in a closer-than-it-looks 21-7 defeat, the Chillicothe High School football Hornets will try to reverse that outcome and advance to next week’s Class 3 District 8 championship game when they visit Savannah Friday night at 7 o’clock. “We were really good in the second half,” Chad Smith, CHS second-year head coach, recalls of the early October loss to the Savages (9-1).

SPRINGFIELD — Perhaps the quietest of the 2022 Chillicothe High School softball Lady Hornets’ half-dozen senior members let her bat speak very loudly and clearly in last Friday’s high-tension Class 3 state tournament semifinals game against Bowling Green’s Lady Bobcats. 2021 All-State second baseman Bre Pithan, unsuccessfully having given her team a great chance to win its scoreless duel at Springfield’s Killian Softball Complex when she led off the bottom of the ninth inning with a rifle-shot double to the left-center field gap, found a thighhigh, 11th-inning, 2-2 delivery from tough BGHS right-handed junior pitcher Megan Graver even juicier, launching off the barrel of her bat high into the air more toward the center field side of the same gap and watching it fly over the fence for a walk-off home run and 1-0 CHS victory that delivered her team a second-straight spot in the state title game the next day.

EXCELSIOR SPRINGS — Knowing they’d need to sweep to an upset repeat as district champions to avoid a losing record, the 2022 Chillicothe High School soccer Hornets boldly took a first step in that direction last Saturday when they defeated the Savannah Savages 5-0 while setting a team offensive record in the first (quarterfinal) round of the Class 2 District 8 Tournament at Excelsior Springs High’s Tiger Stadium. It was Chillicothe’s second-straight shutout of Savannah, having edged them 1-0 on the Savages’ pitch a week ago today with a late goal by Sam Reeter.

SAVANNAH — To have a chance to repeat as district champions, the Chillicothe High School soccer Hornets will have to repeat their ability to defeat the Savannah Savages yet again at midday today. Having topped Savannah 3-1 at home with a pair of second- half goals – the last one in the final two minutes – only 16 days earlier, the Hornets on Wednesday cut things much, much closer.

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — Kansas City Chiefs defensive end Frank Clark was suspended two games by the NFL on Tuesday after pleading no contest last month to two counts of misdemeanor possession of an assault weapon in Los Angeles.

While a whole lot of cold weather and probably some ice and snow remains to be enjoyed or endured, depending on your perspective, for the summer and baseball lovers, the pieces already are falling in place for season No. 21 of Chillicothe Mudcats baseball in 2023.