Lea Moose had a record-setting day on Tuesday, Sept. 4 against St. Michael’s the Archangel Catholic.
Down 1-0 after the top of the first, Moose hit the first of three inside-the-park home runs in the bottom half of the inning. The three home runs in a single game tied a MSHSAA state record, is tied for second in home runs in a game and her 13 total bases are now tied for the second most in a single game.
“I love running the bases, you might not hear that a lot,” Moose said. “I love running into the coach and telling me that you are up (you don’t need to slide). It’s a feeling I don’t know how to describe.”
Moose last had an inside-the-park home run as a freshman. Her four home runs since were all out of the park.
“This is nothing I could imagine, coming from one my freshman year inside-the-park to have three in one game, let alone three in a season,” she said. “It is amazing and I love this sport and everything about it.”
Moose’s only non-home run, a single, helped set up Karah Dunham’s two-run double in the third. Alyssa Stewart followed with an RBI groundout to make it 4-1.
Moose accounted for six of the next seven runs. She hit a three-run inside-the-park home run to center field in the bottom of the fourth, scoring Taylor McNair and Hailey Shepardson.
West Platte (4-1) led 9-1 when Moose came to bat in the bottom of the fifth and her two-run inside-the-park home run turned into the game-ending runs.
Moose tied a state record first set by Carolyn Adams of Osage in 1996 and tied in 2006 by Eugene’s Kelsey Schulte.
Her 13 total bases ties her with Autumn Walker of Central Park Hills (2003), Jordan Shewmaker of Buffalo (2013), Maci Marshall of Dixon (2014) and Haylie Mathes of Seckman (2016).
The state record for total base is 14. She also is now tied with 19 other players for three home runs in a game, one off the state record.
Moose now has five home runs this year and the first two game in the season opener against North Platte. Those two sailed over the fence, so there wasn’t the rush to get home like there was in this game.
“I think inside-the-park is quite a rush,” Moose said. “Can I get one more base? It is fun, almost like playing cat and mouse. Can I catch them (my teammates on the bases)? Should I? Probably not, but I want to see if I can.”
Dunham struck out eight and gave up only three hits to the Guardians.
West Platte 13
South Holt 1
An 8-run first inning was more than enough for the Bluejays to pull out a five-running victory on Monday, Sept. 10 in Weston.
West Platte had two runners on and two outs when three straight errors led to three runs. Bases-loaded walks to Ashlynne Sanchez and Hailey Shepardson made it 5-0 before Lea Moose hit a triple in her second at-bat of the inning to make it 8-0.
Taylor McNair had an RBI in the third inning and Karah Dunham had an RBI single in the fifth inning. The rest of the runs scored on errors by South Holt, which had seven of them.
West Platte had only six hits in the win — two each by Moose and Dunham, who earned the win on the mound, fanning 10 and giving up five hits.
A West Platte error in the top of the third accounted for the Knights’ lone run.