Avila Splits with (RV) Missouri Baptist on Senior Day

KANSAS CITY, Mo. – For the second straight season, Avila softball faced off with Missouri Baptist on the final day of the regular season. And for the second straight season, the Eagles (31-19) earned a split with the (RV) Spartans (32-10) on Avila's Senior Day at The Z, sending both teams into the postseason next win with one final win.

Avila softball was part of history in the first game on Saturday, which began shortly before 11 AM local time in order to avoid some imminent weather looming later in the day. Unfortunately for the Eagles, they ended up on the wrong side of that history because Taylor Whitehead, MBU's #3 pitcher on the balance of the season, retired every single Eagle she faced in the game, authoring a remarkable perfect game to lift her team to a win in game one.

And her offense certainly picked her up, making it even easier for her to accomplish the feat. The Spartans scored four runs in the second inning and three more in the fourth to ultimately go in front by eight, and Avila had no answer against Whitehead. Thanks to the offensive output by the Spartans, Whitehead only had to face 15 Eagles, but she retired all of them to complete the 5-inning perfect game. Meghan Hager scored three runs in the leadoff spot and both Brooklynn Fischer and Allison Leigraf drove in two to power Missouri Baptist to an 8-0 win in the opener.

That certainly dampened the Senior Day atmosphere on an overcast Saturday in Kansas City, but Avila still honored all six members of its 2024 senior class between the two contests. The class features two one-year Eagles, Montana Stangel and Kelly Kight; two two-year Eagles, Brooke Belflower and Kennedee Lara; a three-year Eagle in Katie Wentworth; and one four-year Eagle in Chelsea Kurtz. Though they've all been part of the team for different lengths of time, they've all been instrumental parts of the team in their own ways, helping lift Avila softball back to an elite level in the KCAC and beyond.

And the whole Eagle squad helped lift the seniors – and the team overall – to a much-needed win in the regular season finale. MBU started hot in game one, but Avila was ready to return the favor against Alexandria Cafolla, MBU's #2 starter, in game two. Chelsea Kurtz led off the first inning with an infield single, and Leigraf's throw from third sailed past the first baseman and all the way into the corner in right field. Always hustling, Kurtz hightailed it around the bases and easily beat the throw in from right – after going without a baserunner of any kind in game two, Kurtz gave the Eagles both a baserunner and a run in their first at-bat of game two.

And they weren't done. Two batters later, Stangel unloaded on a Cafolla pitch, sending it up the left field line for a no-doubt solo home run, doubling the lead to 2-0. And in the third inning, those two Eagles combined again. Kurtz walked and added to her record-setting season with a stolen base. Maya Richards sacrificed her to third, and then Stangel followed with a sac bunt of her own, giving herself up at first to allow Kurtz to score Avila's third run of the game.

After losing game one, Avila went with No. 1 starter McKayla Cotton in game two, and she was rock solid over the front three innings as her team built a 3-0 lead. Finally, the Spartans mounted a rally against her in the fourth when Fischer, Natalie Archer and Leigraf all singled to start off the frame, adding up to MBU's first run. But Cotton recovered and struck out the final two Spartans in the inning to keep the lead intact.

That's where the score remained until the bottom of the sixth, where Hallie Campbell led off with a blistering double to left field off reliever Ashleigh Davis. That changed the approach for head coach Charlie Kennedy, who played his cards just right to enable to Eagles to eke out one more run. Kennedy left Belflower in to lay down a sac bunt pushing Campbell to third, and then Kennedy inserted Stephanie Hayes as a pinch hitter, and she delivered a sac fly to center to allow Campbell to score.

And that proved to be a crucial insurance run, because the Spartans had one more rally left in them in the seventh inning. An error, a single and a hit by pitch loaded the bases with nobody out for MBU, forcing the Eagles to summon Stangel from the bullpen to face the top of the order. Missouri Baptist bled across two runs on a groundout and a sac fly to pull all the way back within one run. The Eagles wisely elected to intentionally walk Fischer, MBU's two-way star, to face Archer with two runners on, and Stangel got Archer to fly out to Ka'Zem Wood in right to secure her first save as an Eagle and preserve a hard-fought 4-3 win for Avila in the final game of the regular season.

There will certainly be more games to come for Avila this year, starting next Wednesday in Great Bend, Kansas, where the Eagles will try to defend their impressive KCAC Tournament title from a year ago. The conference will announce the full bracket, schedule and overall postseason plans later this weekend; stay tuned to Avila Athletics on social media and avilaathletics.com for plenty of coverage all week long from Great Bend.