JEFFERSON CITY - When the Hickman Kewpies and the Rock Bridge Bruins face off tonight in the Class 4 District 10 semifinals at Duensing Field, they’ll likely be prepared. After all, if their quarterfinal matchups were any indication, the two teams had been eyeing each other long before the game had been set.

"I think we just kind of came out a little slow and kind of underestimating them," Rock Bridge’s Melissa Kiehne said after the Bruins had to come from behind to defeat Camdenton 7-2.

It wasn’t any better for the Kewpies. It might have been worse. Hickman Coach Courtney Haskell hardly had words to describe her team’s play.

"We had some mental lapses, base running … ," Haskell said, trailing off while recapping her team’s misdeeds in a 9-0 victory against Waynesville (8-18).

"Our intensity wasn’t that great at the beginning," Hickman’s Whitney Grathwohl said.

Despite the lopsided score, Haskell and her Kewpies were anything but satisfied with the victory. Facing a pitcher whose fastball might have been a tick or two slower than Kewpie Taylor Cowan’s changeup, Hickman had to wait until its four-run sixth inning to ice the game.

Cowan earned the win for the Kewpies (22-2) with three scoreless innings of one-hit, seven-strikeout work, and Amy Johanning followed with four more shutout frames. Combined, the Kewpies allowed only three hits. Cowan had that many on her own on offense.

"Taylor started us off really well, and Amy came in and mixed things up," Grathwohl said. "They both pitched really well."

Haskell agreed, but pitching wasn’t the issue. The Kewpies made numerous base-running errors and showed little offensive life in a game that otherwise might have been over quickly.

Still, Waynesville Coach Mike Stockton liked what he saw in the Kewpies.

"Oh, they are a favorite," Stockton said of Hickman’s chances in the tournament. "Watching them warm up, every girl can play. They’ve got nine players, and probably some on the bench.

"When you’ve got a team like that, you’re definitely a threat in districts."

For the Bruins, the story was similar, but it came with a major caveat: Unlike Hickman, Rock Bridge was in a position to lose before it got things together.

After Rock Bridge scored a run in second inning when Caroline Sicht followed her triple by scoring on a wild pitch, the Lakers scored two in the third inning, and looked poised to hold onto their 2-1 lead.

Unfortunately for the Lakers, the lead would not last. After maintaining it for most of the game with solid pitching and stellar fielding, Camdenton unraveled on defense in the game’s final two innings, making four errors after having none before.

While the errors hurt, Rock Bridge Coach Joe Henderson said his team’s good play was a factor in the outcome, too.

"We were hitting the ball, we were just missing it," Henderson said of the team’s offense early in the game. "You saw in the later innings we were hitting it hard.

Camdenton Coach Kim Vest "said, ‘Well, they thought they had a lot of errors,’ but how would you like to have been that third baseman? I mean, we were smoking the ball," Henderson said.

Though the booming bats brought them back, Henderson was sure to emphasize the finer points of the team’s victory.

"Tonight was about the fringe players, not the stars," Henderson said, praising freshmen Kelsey Neitzel, Sammi Bell and Kali Hall for perfectly executing their duties on the basepaths. All three scored runs, and Henderson couldn’t have been more pleased.

If the Bruins are to defeat Hickman tonight, however, they’ll have to work more on the more basic parts of the game - like actually getting on base. The last time the two teams met, Hickman’s Cowan threw the first of her two perfect games this season.

Obviously, Henderson knows this, and he has a plan. Whether the Bruins will be able to execute that plan is unknown.

"To beat Hickman, we need to hit the ball and score early," Henderson said. "If there’s a better pitcher in the state than Taylor Cowan, I’ve not seen her.

"That’s a good team, good defense, good hitters." Henderson said. "We’re just going to have to put the bat on the ball."

For the Kewpies, Grathwohl offered an idea that might be intriguing for both teams.

"We’re going to have our intensity throughout the game instead of just in the sixth inning, obviously," Grathwohl said. "We’re going to have to go out firing in the first inning."

The Kewpies and Bruins face off at 6:15 tonight, following the 4:30 p.m. semifinal between Jefferson City and Helias, which advanced by defeating Lebanon 5-0 yesterday.

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