By Mark Carpenter
People’s Defender
After a 2025 spring that saw them go just 3-9 in Southern Hills Athletic Conference play and 6-15 overall, Coach Amanda Myers and her Peebles Lady Indians have bounced back in a huge way in the spring of 2026. After sweeping three conference games last week, the Lady Indians improved to 16-5 overall and in quite a turnaround, 9-3 in the conference, just one win away from clinching the SHAC small school crown.
The Peebles girls have already clinched no worse than a tie for the small school crown, but can make it all theirs on Wednesday if they knock off Fayetteville on their home field.
Before that, though, the Lady Indians had to take care of business last week and they did that in exemplary fashion, beginning with a come from behind 7-4 win at Manchester on May 5, a 7-4 home win over Fairfield on May 7 and an 11-3 romp over Whiteoak on May 8. The wins over Manchester and Fairfield were particularly important as those were the other two top teams in the small school division and Fairfield has already completed SHAC play at 9-4 and with Peebles at 9-3, one win clinches the title.
At Manchester, things looked bleak for the Lady Indians as they fell behind 4-0 after four innings but roared back with seven runs in their final three at-bats to secure an extremely crucial victory. In the bottom of the first, the Lady Hounds jumped in front with a two-spot off of Peebles starter Kaelyn Musser, the first scoring on a Mahayla Brown base hit and Brown later coming across on a hit to right off the bat of Hayven Newland.
In the bottom of the third, the Lady Hounds added two more to their lead. Elliana Applegate led off with a single to left followed by a Brislynn McClanahan double just inside the third base line. Brown was the next hitter and she lined a shot just out of the reach of Peebles first baseman Izabella Hawkins, bringing both runners home and making it 4-0.
In the center circle for Manchester, Applegate silenced the Peebles bats over the first four frames but that changed dramatically in the top half of the fifth. Jerzi Tong led off with a walk followed by a Kendall Myers base hit to right. Musser laid down a sacrifice bunt to advance both runners and Tong raced home on a wild pitch for the first Peebles run. A Manchester error allowed Myers to score and Kendall Young to reach safely. A later bases loaded walk to Hawkins forced home the third Peebles run and made it a one-run game.
In the top of the sixth, the Lady Indians took the lead for good and did it in big fashion. Tong led off the inning with a single and the next hitter, Kendall Myers, found the first pitch she saw to her liking and drove it over the left field fence, scoring Tong ahead of her and giving Peebles a 5-4 advantage.
The Lady Hounds got a two-base hit from Kaiya Johnson in the bottom of the sixth but she was doubled off on a line out by Applegate, ending the scoring threat. In the top half of the seventh, the Lady Indians tacked on two very important insurance runs, the first being Young scoring on an error and the second coming on a sacrifice fly by Tong that scored Amryn Carroll.
With the three-run deficit, the Lady Hounds had one more chance and in the bottom of the seventh, but all they could muster was a one-out walk to Kloey Carter but Musser struck out the final two hitters to seal the clutch win for her side.
With that win under their belts, the Lady Indians came back two days later to host their now closest competitor, the Fairfield Lady Lions, looking to move into first place all alone. This time, the lady Indians led from wire-to-wire, getting four runs in their first two at-bats and then holding on for their second consecutive 7-4 triumph.
Musser was again the winner in the center circle. going seven innings, scattering seven hits, allowing just one earned run and striking out 16 Fairfield hitters. The Lady Indians banged out 14 hits in the win, three each from Tong and Katie Myers.
The third piece of the week’s trifecta came on Friday, May 8 when the Lady Indians traveled tot he turd at Whiteoak High School and handed the host Lady Wildcats an 11-3 thumping, scoring seven times in their final two at-bats to pull away.
It was Musser again tossing a complete game for the win, striking out 10 Lady Cats along the way. It was a big day for the Peebles bats as they pounded out 19 hits, led by a 4 for 5 performance from sophomore Amryn Carroll. Three-hit days were contributed by Katie Myers, Kendall Young and Kendall Myers.
With 16 wins in hand, the Lady Indians have some other business to take card of before the Wednesday match up with Fayetteville, that being a Division VI district quarterfinal tournament game on Tuesday, May 12. Peebles will play host to Federal Hocking, looking to move on toe the district semifinals.
Peebles
000 032 2 —7
Manchester
202 000 0 —4
Peebles Hitting (AB-R-H-RBI): McGhee 3-0-0-0, Tong 4-2-2-1, Kendall Myers 5-2-2-2, Musser 2-0-0-0, Katie Myers 3-1-0-0, Byers 4-0-2-0, Young 4-1-1-0, Carroll 2-1-1-0, Hawkins 3-0-0-1, Team 30-7-8-4.
Extra-Base Hits: Byers 2B; Kendall Myers HR
Manchester Hitting (AB-R-H-RBI): Hunter 2-0-1-0, Applegate 4-2-1-0, McClanahan 3-1-1-0, Brown 4-1-3-3, Newland 4-0-1-1, Carter 3-0-1-0, Conley 4-0-0-0, Spires 3-0-0-0, Barlow 1-0-0-0, Johnson 3-0-1-0, Team 31-4-9-4.
Extra-Base Hits: McClanahan 2B; Johnson 2B
Peebles Pitching:
Musser (W) 7 IP, 9 H, 4 R, 2 ER, 4 BB, 9 K
Manchester Pitching:
Applegate (L) 7 IP, 8 H, 7 R, 3 ER, 8 BB, 3 K
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