Lauren Alexander had a hard time hitting her spots and still struck out nine and got the win.
The first batter of the day smacked a fly ball to the fence, but it was the hardest hit ball Alexander allowed as Poplar Bluff beat Sikeston 4-2 Thursday at Bobby Strenfel Field.
Alexander allowed four hits and a walk and allowed two baserunners after giving up two runs in the first inning on a pair of doubles while she tried to find her command.
"People are going to hit. We are playing good teams this year. If we can get the win out of it, that's all that matters, working together as a team. Because if I make a bad pitch I know my defense has my back," Alexander said.
Alexander struck out the side in the second inning and retired 10 in a row at one point.
"I really wasn't hitting my spots until about the fifth inning, but in the fifth inning my rise ball started working, my outside pitch started working, all my pitches started having movement," Alexander said. "Whatever she calling, it was basically not working ... I guess I was lucky. I still had some movement on my pitches even though it wasn't going quite where I wanted to. I was hitting about the same location I should."
Poplar Bluff (4-1) didn't fare much better at the plate. The Mules scored four unearned runs in the first two innings after a pair of Sikeston errors and had two hits after getting the lead.
"We're used to having some faster pitching so we struggled tonight. We popped it up a lot. The only way we really got on base is by bunts," Alexander said. "I thought we all played pretty well."
Abby Gregory and Audrey Lack each had two hits and a run for the Mules while Lexi Nippe was 3 for 4 as Poplar Bluff finished with 10 hits, largely in the infield.
About half of Poplar Bluff's hits were either bunts or slap bunts.
"We weren't very successful with our bunting. We bunted it hard and didn't bunt it where we wanted to a lot of times. If we had placed our bunts a little better we could have bunted more," Poplar Bluff coach Lisa Boyer said. "We were just having a lot of trouble staying back and we weren't picking out very good pitches."
Gregory singled to lead off the bottom of the first and scored after a throwing error to first base.
In the second inning, a single got past the right fielder, allowing two runs to score, and Audrey Lack added a third to put the Mules ahead 4-2.
Freshman Caleigh Chilton was called up from the JV team and caught her first game for varsity and also had a hit.
"I was pleased with how she did. We have some work to do, but yesterday she found out she was catching," Boyer said.
Abby Cooper had one strikeout and one walk for Sikeston (0-2). Her slower pitching consistently had the Mules offbalance.
"I thought she did amazing. She kept everything down and low, and she is so offspeed ... it kept them off-balance," Sikeston coach Laura Brown said. "We had a hard time getting baserunners on base. We were chasing pitches that we shouldn't have, swinging at ball four, not getting ahead in the count and not being very disciplined, not near as good as we should have been, and we know better."