TROY, Mo. • Much like the Class 4 quarterfinal game last season between Troy and St. Joseph's, water was flowing freely afterward.
Unlike after the one-run loss by the Trojans last year, the water flowing this time came from a cooler aimed at Troy coach Lance Richardson rather than tears of defeat streaming down the cheeks of Troy players. Richardson got the bath, and enjoyed it, after host Troy beat St. Joseph's 10-0 in six innings Saturday.
"We knew we could beat them, but we (also knew) not to take them lightly," Troy's Whitney Richardson said. "We're really excited to have gotten this done, and we couldn't be happier. Last year we kind of choked against them, but that wasn't going to happen again."
The Trojans advance to a Class 4 semifinal against Eureka (23-5, No. 4 STLhighschoolsports.com large-schools rankings) at the Killian Sports Complex in Springfield on Friday at 10 a.m.
Against St. Joe's, Troy (27-4, No. 5 LS) used a formula that has worked well during the postseason.
With another first-inning run, the Trojans jumped to a quick lead and built from there.
Emily Crane led off the bottom of the first with a base hit, stole second, was bunted to third by Savana Grover and then scored on a squeeze bunt from Morgan Oliver.
"That's it," Richardson said. "We're going to do the same thing. Get 'em on, get 'em over and get 'em in. We're going to let (pitcher) Elizabeth (Wiegand) relax and let our defense relax. Then we try to pour it on, and we did."
Troy sent 13 hitters to the plate in the third inning, scored seven times and took a commanding 8-0 lead.
The biggest hit of the inning was a two out, two-run single from first baseman Ashley Murphy.
"I went up there thinking that if their pitcher gave me a good pitch, then I was just going to try as hard as I could to hit it," Murphy said. "I just tried to get something going because we needed run support."
Troy rounded out the scoring with an RBI single by Christa Reisinger in the fourth inning and a run-scoring sacrifice fly by Tiffany Hazelwonder in the sixth.
Troy's relentless offensive work left an impression on the opposing coach.
"They do what they do," St. Joe's coach JP Cummings said. "They put four balls in front of the pitcher's plate and then they have Emily (Crane) come out and hit a triple. We're very happy with (getting to the quarterfinals) with a sophomore pitching and three freshmen starting. We're all right."
Wiegand didn't allow a base runner past first until the sixth inning. In total, she allowed three hits, walked three and struck out 10 on 102 pitches -- 67 of which were for strikes.
"Liz is pitching awesome right now," Murphy said. "We really couldn't ask for her to do any better. She's just been awesome."
The semifinal game will mark the first final four appearance for Troy, while Eureka will be returning to the competition for the first time since 1999.
The winner of the semifinal game will play either Webb City (28-3) or Blue Springs (23-8) in the championship at 10 a.m. Saturday.
Sullivan 6, Nevada 2 • Sullivan (23-4) rolled into the Class 3 semifinals against Chillicothe (22-3) after earning the win at home in a quarterfinal game.
The Sullivan/Chillicothe winner will play in the Class 3 finals at 4 p.m. Saturday.
