Makenna Chilton felt more comfortable hitting eighth in the order than the clean-up spot that Van Buren coach Jack Childress had the senior penciled in to start.
Turns out she was right.
Chilton drove in five runs with four hits as the Lady Dawgs cruised past Naylor 10-0 in six innings Wednesday in the MSHSAA Class 1 District 1 semifinal.
"I had her up in the fourth spot and she said 'coach put me down in the order, I don't like it up there,'" Childress said.
Logan Crafton had three hits with an RBI and scored twice batting in front of Chilton while No. 9 hitter Jalynn Morgan drove in a run as the bottom three in the order went a combined 9 for 10.
The Lady Dawgs (18-6) reached double digits in the run column for the 10th time this season to back Morgan's six-hit shutout.
Van Buren, the defending state champion, won its seventh straight postseason game and will face second-seeded Chaffee (14-10) in a rematch of the final last year.
"You just have to take that and throw it out of the way," Chilton said of trying to defend the state title.
"You can't think about that."
The title defense started with defense.
Naylor's Kailyn Johnson opened the game by drawing a four-pitch walk and later attempted to score from second base on a two-out single by Emma Moman. But center fielder Morgan Shockley's throw to the plate beat Johnson, who momentarily stumbled rounding third base.
"That throw by Shockley was perfect," Childress said. "The ball was waiting on her."
Morgan only gave up one more walk with two outs in the third, and struck out five.
Moman and Faith Sullivan each had two hits for Naylor (9-12) while Johnson and Maddy Cagle accounted for the other two.
The Eagles were without senior Callee Pickrell, who suffered a broken finger in a game over the weekend at Rains Field after hitting a home run in what would be her final at-bat. Starting third baseman Shelby Sullivan also did not play due to an illness.
"They came in here and battled," Eagles coach Gene Deckard said.
Naylor beat Bakersfield 9-2 in the quarterfinal before facing the top-seeded Lady Dawgs, who led 3-0 after three innings.
Shockley put Van Buren ahead in the first inning after reaching with a slap single and stealing two bases on the next pitch. She scored on a groundout to first base by Courtney Tripp.
Brooke Jackson and Lanae Flowers opened the second inning with singles before a sacrifice bunt by Crafton. Chilton lined a single to right and Morgan followed with a liner to left for a 3-0 lead.
Naylor pitcher Allysa Urich got out of a bases-loaded jam when she started an inning-ending double play.
Both teams turned a pair of double plays.
Van Buren erased a leadoff single in the fourth and sixth innings with double plays.
"That was sweet," Childress said. "We practice that every day."
Chilton's RBI double in the fourth put Van Buren up 4-0 while she came up with the bases loaded the following inning and delivered a two-run hit up the middle. Crafton kept the inning alive by beating a throw to first base while the Lady Dawgs scored their fourth run of the inning on an error.
Sanders had a one-out RBI single earlier in the inning after Tripp's double to the right-field gap.
Crafton and Chilton provided two-out RBI hits in the sixth to end the game early.
"Hats off to Van Buren, they're a good team," Deckard said. "They stayed in there and hit the ball. Allysa changed speeds and made pitches. They stayed back and hit the ball well."
NAYLOR 9, BAKERSFIELD 2
The Eagles scored five runs in the first inning thanks to six errors and a two-out RBI single by Sullivan.
Urich struck out four and allowed four hits to advance to the semifinal.