Eagles’ Moore dominates one more time, helps Missouri win all-star softball series

by Michael Smith, Grain Valley News
 
Having to try and hit against Grain Valley senior pitcher Makenna Moore is not easy.
 
Just ask Blue Springs South senior Mikayla Deville, who had to bat against her back on Sept. 9 during the regular season in softball last fall.
 
“I think I got one hit off of her,” Deville said. “It was definitely a lucky one.”


While they were opponents that day, Deville and Moore joined forces on Team Missouri in the Mo-Kan All-Star Series Monday at the Kansas City Urban Youth Academy. It was a series of games featuring some of the best high school senior softball players from the Missouri and Kansas side of the metro area.
 
Moore was dominant as she allowed just two runs and struck out nine batters in Game 1 to help her team win 3-2. After Missouri lost Game 2 12-6, she got out of a bases-loaded, no-out jam by inducing a pop out and striking out the final two batters in a sudden victory, international tiebreaker rule Game 3 to power her team to a 1-0 triumph and a series win.
 
Game 3 went just one inning and Missouri pushed across the one run it needed for the win. Moore was at the forefront of that effort.
 
“I love watching her pitch,” Deville said of Moore. “We play on the same club ball team, too. Being around her gets you amped up and watching her do her thing. I knew she was going to get it done. When she got that first out, it was no doubter for me.”
 
Moore said she had fun teaming with Deville again like she had during her club season and reuniting with an old teammate like Avery Davis of Smithville.
 
“I thought it was really fun,” Moore said. “I know some of these girls but I don’t know all of them. I had a blast with all of them.
 
“Overall, I enjoyed playing with all of them. I got to pitch and meet new people.”
 
The Eagles senior showed why she was one of the best pitchers in the state as she kept the Team Kansas hitters off balance all night. It was her last hurrah after an excellent senior season in which she helped Grain Valley win a school-record 32 games. The senior earned first-team, all-state honors after going 11-2 with a 1.14 earned-run average, a .758 walks plus hits per inning pitched and 172 strikeouts in 2024.
 
She said it was a great way to cap off her high school career before she heads to Jacksonville State on June 10.
 
“I loved every second of Grain Valley, and I am going to miss it so much,” Moore said.
 

Photo credit: David Rainey, Grain Valley News