Three one-run victories during a state championship run and a few inches in track and field vaulted Malden to the top of the 2018 Semoball Cup standings.
The Green Wave claimed the Cup for a second time in three years, edging defending champ Notre Dame in the closest finish of the five-year award presented Saturday night at the Semoball Awards.
While Malden's baseball team earned the program's first state championship and the track and field team featured a pair of individual state champions, none of the Green Wave teams finished with a losing record.
Notre Dame, a three-time Cup champion, had two teams reach a championship game while the girls golf team defended its state title. The Bulldogs also featured three individual state champions and 13 all-state performances. The winner is determined by a point system that uses a school's overall winning percentage plus bonus points for advancement in postseason play for both team and individual sports that are honored at the Semoball Awards.
Schools large and small are able to compete against each other for the Cup because the formula determining the points weighs a school's chance of advancement. At the heart of the formula is a school's overall winning percentage.
Last year saw Notre Dame post the highest point total at 182.66 while winning by the smallest margin at 4.79 points.
This time, Malden edged Notre Dame by 4.38 points -- 157.36 to 152.98 -- with St. Vincent (142.63), Oran (130.31) and Hayti (128.71) following. Neelyville, which won a state title in girls basketball, placed ninth.
Six of the top nine schools won a state championship.
Stoddard County schools Bloomfield (12th), Bernie (15th) and Advance (17th) were in the top 20.
Poplar Bluff finished 21st, same as last year.
The Green Wave won the MSHSAA Class 3 baseball title with a 9-8 win over Strafford in the championship game after opening the state playoffs with a pair of one-run wins, surviving the quarterfinals in extra innings.
To reach the playoffs, Malden first had to overcome a five-run deficit with four innings left in the District 2 semifinal, rallying past Clearwater 7-6 on a walk-off hit, then beat Doniphan in the final 9-5 with a seven-run fourth inning to pull ahead for good.
Malden's Aylexus Leshay won the MSHSAA Class 2 triple jump title by 2 1/2 inches while Jackson Wilson won the shot put at state by 1-foot, 8 3/4-inches.
If any of those three things don't happen, the Cup returns to Notre Dame.
The Bulldogs also could have overtaken Malden with just one more postseason win. Notre Dame featured five district champions and two more that finished as runner-ups.
Notre Dame featured individual state champions in Carly Pujol in the pole vault, Riley Burger in the long jump while Sarah Bell earned medalist honors at state golf.
The biggest difference between Malden and Notre Dame was overall team winning percentage with the Green Wave finishing nearly 10 points higher. Malden teams were a combined 117-39-1.