Kelly upends No. 1 Charleston 7-1 to win Class 2 District 2

BENTON -- "Pitching and defense," contends a time-honored baseball adage, "wins championships."

Kelly added credence to that claim with a 7-1 win over Charleston for the Class 2 District 2 title on Thursday at Kelly High School.

Second-seed Kelly (11-8) ended Charleston's, by most accounts, finest season ever. The top-seeded Bluejays finished with a 15-9 record.

But it was all Hawks on this day.

"You have to tip your hat to Kelly," said Charleston coach Chris Stanfield. "They played a lot better than we did today. They earned it.

Kelly's ace Trey Simmons tossed a three hitter and a near-flawless defense -- one late error allowed a meaningless unearned run -- made the plays.

"I've got a great defense behind me," Simmons said. "I just try to hit my spots, and I know my defense will always pick me up."

Simmons struck out seven, walked six and stranded nine Bluejays.

"He's one of those guys that you look at and say, 'How in the world is he doing it?'" said Kelly coach Cory Johnson, "but he hits his spots so well and he's such a smart pitcher. That's why he's so successful.

"Right now, with the way Trey's throwing, we're tough to beat. Defensively, we do a pretty good job and today we came out and swung the bats."

The offense certainly delivered as the Hawks won their first district championship since 1998. Kelly stroked 15 hits, 13 of which were singles.

Leadoff hitter Caleb Daughhetee set the tone on the very first pitch of the ballgame when he laid down a perfect bunt for a basehit.

The next batter, Kendal Deason, lofted a wind-blown flyball to right field that fell for a two-base hit.

Daughhetee later trotted home on Jon Simpher's bases-loaded sacrifice fly to give the Hawks a lead they would never relinquish.

In the third, Kent Deason singled and went to second on Simpher's hit, stole third, then came around to score on Dallas Tew's bloop single down the right-field line to send the Hawks up 2-0. Three Charleston errors in the fifth allowed the Hawks to add two unearned runs and extend their lead to 4-0.

Three more tallies in the top of the seventh on five hits closed out the Kelly scoring.

Simpher paced Kelly's offense with three hits, while Daughhetee, Kendal Deason, Kent Deason, Tew and Jordan Felter collected two hits apiece.

Josh Marshall had two of Charleston's hits.

Kelly, which showed steady improvement throughout the season, won its fifth straight.

The Hawks will host Caruthersville (13-5) in a sectional game on Wednesday. Caruthersville was a 9-8 winner over Hayti in the District 1 final.