This story will be updated.
CENTERVIEW, Mo. — The East Carter softball team advanced to the MSHSAA Class 1 final four with a 6-3 win Saturday against Leeton.
Jordan Moore hit a tiebreaking home run to start the bottom of the third and drove in a pair of insurance runs with two outs in the sixth. The senior struck out 10 and allowed six hits, four in a three-run third as the Bulldogs pulled even.
East Carter (22-9) will face Maysville (22-3) in the state semifinal at 11 a.m. Friday at the Killian Softball Complex in Springfield, Missouri. The winner advances to the championship game at 10:30 a.m. Saturday while the loser plays for third place at 3 p.m. Friday.
The other semifinal features St. Elizabeth (18-7) and La Plata (25-7).
The Redbirds scored first in the second inning when Caliegh Chilton led off with a single, Anna Crowley was hit by a pitch and Karla Ochoa singled to load the bases. Jaci Douglas sent a 0-1 pitch into center field with a line drive to score two runs and Elizabeth Crowley hit an two-out RBI single for a 3-0 lead.
Leeton, which lost 12-5 to Salisbury in the state quarterfinal last year, answered with three runs in the third.
With one out, the Bulldogs got consecutive doubles by Jordan Crooks and Rowan Schmidli to get on the board. Miranda Winders and Jayden Parsons hit consecutive RBI singles to tie the game but Leeton left the bases loaded for a second straight inning when Moore again struck out the No. 9 hitter for the Bulldogs.
Leeton loaded the bases with two outs in the second before Moore's strikeout.
Moore led off the bottom of the third with a home run over the left-center field fence.
The Redbirds then had four straight singles but nothing to show for it on the scoreboard as Leeton threw out two runners at the plate to keep it a one-run game.
The Bulldogs, wearing familiar yellow and black uniforms similar to another Carter County school, had the tying run on third base in the fourth and fifth.
Crooks, who had two hits, doubled in the fourth but Chilton held on to a third-strike foul tip for the second out and a grounder to first baseman Rylee O'Dell ended the inning.
A one-out walk and stolen base put the tying run in scoring position for Leeton in the fifth but Moore struck out the Bulldogs' No. 9 hitter looking to end the inning.
In the sixth, center fielder Janica Holloway catch a fly ball near the fence for the second out as the Bulldogs were retired in order.
With two outs in the sixth, Elizabeth Crowley singled up the middle and O'Dell followed with a perfectly-placed bunt. With nobody covering third, Crowley went from first to third and O'Dell moved up to second on the play. Moore then lined a 1-0 pitch into center to score both runners for a 6-3 lead.
Five different Redbirds had two hits apiece and six different players scored.
The game was set to be played in Leeton, a 274-mile drive from Ellsinore, but rain forced the game to be played at Crest Ridge High School, west of Warrensburg, and the first pitch was postponed by two hours.