BY JIM MISUNAS

jmisunas@gbtribune.com

DODGE CITY — Great Bend's Kya Behr tripled and homered and pitcher Chayla Prendergast earned the victory for a 4-2 softball victory over Maize South Friday.

Behr (.556) blasted a third-inning homer and scored the Panthers' fourth run on a Alyssa McCauley sacrifice fly after a fifth-inning triple.

"Kya added a spark offensively with a bomb to center, and a triple off the wall," said Panther coach Shawn Behr. "She did a great job defensively with a couple nice plays."

Prendergast (7-0, .081 ERA) yielded no earned runs and struck out seven batters. Prendergast has 57 strikeouts in 43 innings.

The Panther bats came out firing against pitcher Grace Hargrove (3-2). Katherine Mazouch (.426) tripled home Camdyn Post after a leadoff double. Mazouch scored on a Callie Umphres single.

"Our girls surprised Maize with our pop," Behr said. "We burned their outfield a couple of times for extra base hits."

The Mavericks scored a pair of unearned runs. Prendergast nearly escaped two on, no out third-inning threat when she threw out Zoey Gaskill at third base. Kinley Davis scored on a throwing error by catcher Kamryn Koelsch. Taylor Hansen scored on Kiley Thornquist's sixth-inning single.

"Chayla continues to control the zone," said Panther coach Shawn Behr. "She has a pitch that wasn't called, but went to 'Plan B' and made the adjustment. It was a great team effort, The girls made it a point to have fun."

PANTHERS 10, WICHITA NW 0 (G2) — Pitcher Braelyn Turner (7-0, 2.08 ERA) threw a 3-hit shutout with four strikeouts for a run-rule victory over Wichita Northwest. Turner yielded a pair of first-inning singles.

"Brae fixed a pitch that wasn’t spinning good for her in the bullpen after the first inning," Behr said. "When she went back out, she was a different pitcher."

The Panthers scored seven runs in the second inning.

Mazouch doubled and Koelsch (.395) each doubled and drove in two runs. Umphres batted home two runs.

McCauley (.426) tripled a run home. Post and Turner drove in one run.

"Our bats are hot," Behr said. "Our lineup one to nine is seeing the ball really well. We're able to start scoring easily at any point, with any batter in our lineup."

The 5A Panthers (14-0) meet 6A Derby (13-0) at noon Saturday.

Maize South 001 001 0 — 2 5 1

Great Bend 300 010 x — 4 10 1

Hargrove, Gaskin (6) and Popp. Prendergast and Koelsch. W—Prendergast, 7-0. L—Hargrove, 3-2. 2B—GB—Post, Hogan; MS—Davis. 3B—GB—Mazouch, Behr. HR—GB—Behr.

Wichita NW 000 00 — 0 3 3

Great Bend 270 01 — 10 13 1

Hoffman and Thomas. Turner and Koelsch. 2B—GB—Post, Koelsch, Mazouch. 3B—McCauley.