By BRIAN ROSENER ~ DAR Sports Editor

For the Poplar Bluff softball team to make a run at the MSHSAA Class 4 District 1 title this week, the Lady Mules have a simple formula -- stay away from "that one bad inning."

More then half of Poplar Bluff's 83 runs allowed this season have come in just 12 innings, and the Lady Mules (13-9) are 4-7 in games which they allow three or more runs in a single frame.

"We dig ourselves a hole," senior Kelly Kelm said. "Sometimes it doesn't seem like we can get out of it, but we've overcome that a bunch of times."

One such time was against Farmington, Poplar Bluff's first-round opponent (4 p.m. Wednesday at Bacon Park). The Knightettes scored four times in the sixth but lost 5-4 at home back on Sept. 15.

It was one of many tight games in which the Lady Mules played against a district opponent this fall and a reason why coach Dustin Benson thinks the road to Saturday's championship game will be tough.

"We've got good pitching in this tournament," Benson said. "Cape Central, Jackson, I'm sure Hillsboro has a good pitcher. It's just going to be who can put two or three runs across the plate and who can play good defense."

Even though they are prone to "the big inning," the Lady Mules have played good defense this fall, Benson said. Poplar Bluff is averaging just over an error per game while pitcher Brandy Perry's ERA is at 2.83.

The junior who had just seven varsity innings pitched before this season has been steady with 77 strikeouts to just 17 walks in 22 games.

"She's been tremendous for us," said Kelm, the team's catcher. "She's just been throwing the ball real well and really hard and she's been hitting all of her spots."

Over the final 63 innings of the regular season, Perry walked just two hitters and the Lady Mules won six of their last eight games. Also during that span, the defense had six games of one error or less.

"That's what we always tell her, 'You've got a big defense behind you, don't worry about strikeouts, just let them hit, we've got it behind you,'" Kelm said.

Recently, the emphasis on defense has included a pre-warmup defensive drill in which the team takes an extra round of ground balls or pop flys. It started when the Lady Mules arrived early for a game and had time to kill. After playing well to earn the second shutout of the season, the drill has stuck.

"We still try to focus on offense too because you can't win if you can't score," Benson said.

While not as potent as last year, when Poplar Bluff hit over .330 as a team and averaged 6.7 runs, these Lady Mules feature plenty of pop.

Senior center fielder Alex West set a school record with four home runs this season and leads the team in RBIs with 14 while hitting .338. Junior shortstop Breanna Moore is hitting a team-high .459 and has struck out just 11 times in 217 career at-bats.

Meagan Stucker, a senior first baseman, is hitting .306 while right fielder Ashlee Mattox has been hitting above .300 for most of the season. All nine hitters in Poplar Bluff's lineup have at least 10 or more hits this season.

The Lady Mules have been shutout just once, a 5-0 loss at Kelly in which they managed just one hit. A week later against the same opponent, Poplar Bluff scored six times on seven hits and won.

Against district teams, the third-seeded Lady Mules are 3-2 with a loss to fifth-seeded Sikeston at the start of the season and a split with Jackson, the fourth seed. Hillsboro (18-5) is the top seed with a loss to second-seeded Cape Central earlier this season.