Daily Scores

It was a busy day of sports in the Blue Springs area, with several teams in action. Check both schools' tabs for boys golf, boys tennis, girls soccer and boys track and field results.

Homers power Wildcats past Indians

Marc Hines usually has a simple rule for his starting pitchers the day they start a game – they won’t be in the batting lineup.

But the Blue Springs head baseball coach broke his own rule for Thursday’s home game against Fort Osage, and it turned out to be a good decision.

Blue Springs' Corbin Hare, center, high fives teammates
after hitting a solo home run in the first inning of
Thursday's 8-3 win over Fort Osage. 

Corbin Hare made his first start of the season on the mound but it was his bat that was impressive, as he smashed two home runs in an 8-3 win.

“I’m just trying to hit a line drive,” said Hare when asked if the winds blowing out and short fences had him thinking home run. “He threw a fastball both times. I just saw it and hit it. I wasn’t trying to do too much.”

The Wildcats hit three home runs for the game, as they came back from a 3-1 deficit by scoring seven runs in the final two innings, including five in the top of the sixth.

“They came alive when we needed them,” Hines said of his teams’ bats. “We come in spurts. Our bread and butter isn’t going to be hitting home runs, but it’s nice to get them.”

Blue Springs relief pitcher Bill Slivinski throws a pitch
against Fort Osage Thursday. He picked up the win. 

The Wildcats were quiet at the plate for four innings, as Hare’s first homer was all the offense they could muster. But Brian Burasco’s two-run homer to tie the game in the fifth seemed to get the ball rolling, as the Wildcats started to be more patient at the plate.

A costly error by the Indians on a Nick Gulotta grounder got the rally started in the sixth, which was followed by a James McKinley sacrifice bunt. The move paid off when David Stober hit the go-ahead single to left field.

“Nick set the table and then James, I told him before the inning that when Nick got on I might ask him to bunt and he said he would get the job done,” Hines said. “He set the table for the kids behind him. David got a big hit and the floodgates opened.

“In the end our patience paid off. He got a couple of pitches up and we hit them.”

Added Hare, “Their pitcher was overthrowing and trying to do too much. He was missing high and in the dirt.”

Blue Springs junior Wylson Lamb dives back to first base
during the fifth inning of Thursday's game. 

Fort Osage had the chance for a big inning in the top of the fourth. Hare fought his control on the mound in his first start of the season and with two outs in the fourth an error, hit batter and RBI single – all with two outs – gave the Indians a 3-1 lead and runners at the corners.

In came the Wildcats’ relief specialist, lefty Bill Slivinski, who ended the inning on a deep fly ball to center field.

“I knew I just had to make one pitch to get out of it,” Slivinski said. “I was nervous for a second that it would hit the gap.”

After that hard hit ball, Slivinski got on a roll, retiring the next six batters he faced, striking out four of them using a nasty string of off speed pitches.

Blue Springs senior James McKinley lays
down a sacrifice bunt in the sixth inning
Thursday. 

“I don’t consider myself a strikeout pitcher, but it worked out that way today,” he said with a laugh. “My plan is to keep them off balance, get ahead with the fastball and get them off balance the rest of the at-bat. My curve was working well. The coaches preach getting ahead in the count.”

Added Hare of Slivinski, “He picked me up. He’s been our best relief pitcher all year. He’s doing work and getting the job done.”

The win moved the Wildcats to 3-2 as they head into the Jefferson City Tournament this weekend.

“It definitely helps our confidence,” Hare said of the win. “We were able to swing the bats late and our relief pitchers shut them down.” 

Daily Scores

Check the Blue Springs South tab to see how the boys tennis team faired at the St. Joseph Central Tournament.

Nightingale dominates once again for Jags

Another meet and a couple of more meet records for Blue Springs South track and field star Samantha Nightingale Wednesday night.

The Jaguar senior won the mile and two-mile at the Springfield Hillcrest Girls Night Out meet with times of 5 minutes, 3 seconds and 10:47, respectively.

“That’s three seconds off her personal record at state last year in the two-mile and she broke the meet record by 23 seconds,” South head coach Ryan Unruh said. “Once you break that 11-minute barrier, it’s more of a mental thing than anything. And she did it on her third meet, and at an all girl meet with a quick turnaround, so she raced again an hour later after the mile.”

Another bright spot for the Jaguars was fellow mile runner Grace Klausen who is pulling double duty, as she also plays on the soccer team.

She took sixth in the mile with a time of 5:33 – the second fastest for a freshman in school history – and was also seventh in the 800-meter run.

“She had a really good cross country season and approached me a week before the season and wanted to do both,” Unruh said. “She does a little training on her own but it’s mostly fitness from soccer and talent. She’s been a really big surprise.”

The relays were fairly strong as well for the Jaguars, with the 3,200-meter team of Lindsey Woody, Nightingale, Taylor Gregston and Klausen taking third.

“Lee’s Summit West, Lee’s Summit North and St. Teresa’s are the class of the district in that event and then it’s us and Blue Springs,” Unruh said. “We’ve got a couple of legs that are still getting into shape. Hopefully, we can continue to be consistent and drop time. They’re doing a good job scoring points.”

The 800-meter relay also scored points, taking fourth, while the 1,600-meter team came in fifth.

Other than Nightingale, Brooke Stetzler had the highest finish on the track by taking third in the 300-meter hurdles.

Blue Springs’ results were not available. 

Daily Scores

Rain forced a couple of rainouts today, but the Blue Springs boys tennis team, baseball team and Blue Springs South girls soccer teams were still in action. Check each schools tab for results.

Daily Scores

Check out the Blue Springs and Blue Springs South tabs for today's results, which saw the Jaguar golf and baseball teams pick up victories. The Blue Springs boys tennis team also claimed another easy win.

Hensley's late goal leads Wildcats past rival Jags for first win

One word from senior Bailey Hensley expressed perfectly how the Blue Springs girls soccer team felt after a 2-1 home win over cross-town rival Blue Springs South, the teams first victory of the season.

“Finally,” Hensley said.

Blue Springs senior Bailey Hensley, right, high fives teammate Shilah
Rainey after scoring the Wildcats' first goal in a 2-1 win over Blue Springs
South Monday night. 

It was a sigh of relief for the Wildcats, now 1-5-1, while the Jaguars are still in search of that elusive first win, as they fell to 0-4 with three of their losses coming by one goal.

“I told them that I’m sure they’re frustrated and I am, too, and if they weren’t a fun team to get along with it would be miserable,” South head coach Todd Findley said. “It’s just a matter of trying again the next day and seeing what works.”

Both teams have had trouble putting the ball in the back of the net in the early going this season but Hensley was the x-factor on this night.

The speedy senior tallied both goals with assists from freshman Shilah Rainey, the game-winner coming with just 3 minutes, 9 seconds left in the game.

While Hensley got the goal, Rainey made the hustle play to stick with the ball with South defenders nearby. Her cross hit off a Jaguar player and went right to Hensley, who said that was no lucky bounce.

“I don’t think that gives her enough credit,” Hensley said of her freshman teammates effort on the play. ”She was working really hard and when you work really hard like that things go your way. It slipped through.”

Bailey Hensley protects the ball from a Blue
Springs South defender during Monday
night's win. 

Hard work encapsulated the entire Wildcat team in the second half, despite the Jaguars holding possession for more time. Throw in the fact that they gave up another goal in the final 4 minutes of the first half, this time to tie the game at 1-all – the third game in a row they’ve given up such a goal – and it seemed like South had the momentum.

“We came out great in the second half,” Rainey said. “(Head) coach (Doug) McLagan gave us a great speech and we played the way we needed to.”

Added Hensley, “One thing that helped was this was our rival. We knew whoever was going to win this game was the team that worked the hardest and we worked harder in the second half.”

Findley agreed the time to strike in the second half was early.

“When we did get our goal it’s all about trying to keep your energy level going and adding on when you have the momentum,” he said.

The young Wildcat defense did all it could to keep the Jaguars off the scoreboard in the second half, despite some good looks.

“We have a young defense,” Rainey said. “We wanted to mark tight and stay with them. Coach told us no soft tackles, to go in hard. We’re going to get there.”

Findley is hoping his offense gets where it needs to be soon as well. With no dynamic goal scorers, South is still trying to find the best ways to attack.

Blue Springs South's Jordan McNamara passes the ball to a teammate
while being closely defended by Blue Springs' Shilah Rainey. 

“We’re just a team that doesn’t really have a true finisher, so it’s difficult and takes time to manufacture goals,” Findley said. “I thought we possessed the ball pretty well and had some dangerous looks. If those don’t go in it puts pressure on you.”

On this night, the Wildcats handled the pressure better – just enough – to give their young team something to smile about.

“They had fun,” Hensley said of her youthful teammates. “They got a taste of what it can be like. “