Republic’s night in Ozark was part payback, part statement, and all business. The Lady Tigers — struggling along under .500 just a few weeks ago, delivered their loudest message yet with a 10–2 win over Nixa to earn a shot at the district title on Monday night.
The win avenged a regular-season loss to Nixa and pushed Republic’s remarkable late-season surge to 10 wins in its last 11 games. They were 11–13 once. Now they’re one win from a district championship.
From the first pitch, Republic played like a team with unfinished business. The Lady Tigers put baserunners on all night, and scored a single run on a bases-loaded hit batter in the first, but left the bases loaded. Addie Brown crushed a two-run homer in the second to make it 3–0, and the bats never cooled. Republic failed to score but left the bases loaded in the third.
“We were getting really hype in the dugout, and I think that kind of energy is really contagious,” Brown said of her homer. “She left it right over the plate, and I took care of it.”
Maddie Carter drove home two more runs in the fourth to make it 5-1. By the fifth, the bases were loaded for Piper Dishman, who was as nervous as she’d ever been before the game. But she took a breath, calmed down, saw her pitch and blasted a no-doubt grand slam to break the game wide open.
“That was probably my most relaxed I’d been all night. And I just took a deep breath, and that was definitely my pitch inside,” Dishman said. “I just drove the ball, and luckily it went over.”
Kaityn Stewart added an RBI single in the sixth for good measure, pushing the lead to 10–1.
Meanwhile, in the circle, Kara Goeke was nearly untouchable. The senior carved up Nixa’s lineup with a mix of curveballs and off-speed pitches.“Coach watched a lot of film and told me I needed to make sure my curveball was working,” Goeke said. “We planned to work them away, and that’s what I did.”
Even an injury couldn’t rattle them. When second baseman Mia Carnes left the game mid-inning after twisting her ankle in the field, a chain reaction followed: Emma Hoodenpyle to second, Maddie Taylor to third, Dishman to first. On the very next plays, each was tested defensively — and each made the necessary play.
“It’s just next-girl-up mentality,” said coach Lee Dishman. “Piper hasn’t played first all year, hasn’t seen the field. I don’t know in her high school career if she’s played first, but lineup-wise we needed her (there). Those girls handled it well and were locked in. They just played tonight.” He also praised Carnes for her “grit” in trying to play through the injury. She even re-entered the game to lay down a sacrifice bunt during an important moment.
Nixa’s Miah Johnson, who finished her season as Missouri’s single-season home run record holder, provided one late reminder of her power with a solo shot — her 25th of the season — but by then the night belonged entirely to Republic.
The Lady Tigers have now homered six times in two district games, by six different players.
Tomorrow night, they’ll meet Ozark for the district championship — the same Ozark team that stunned top-seeded Kickapoo in a 9–8 thriller earlier on Monday.
“I want to come out here and beat them on their home field,” Brown said. They’ll have their chance starting at 5:00 pm on Tuesday night.
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