In the first varsity start of her young career, Larissa Murphy was nearly perfect, tossing six strikeouts and walking just three batters as the Highland Huskie softball team took down the WACO Warriors for their first victory of 2025 in a 10-0 mercy rule win at Dick Wagner Field in Wayland.

Highland would jump on top early with a sacrifice fly in the first by senior Lilly Barre, scoring freshman Kamryn Fink. With no WACO response, the Huskies got back to work, notching a five spot in the second with help from three WACO errors highlighted by Maiya Singbeil’s RBI single that scored Barre. Murphy collected half of her strikeouts in the second inning alone. The Highland hitting would continue in the third, with four more runs coming across including a double for freshman Ava Sexton that nearly brought in a fifth. Behind Murphy, the Highland defense would stand tall and end the game on six more batters in the last six Warrior outs to secure the dominant win.

Unofficially, the victorious Huskies scored 10 runs on six hits and committed no errors. WACO scored no runs on no hits and committed three errors. Kayce Schnoebelen and Singbeil led the way with a combined 3/6 night with three singles and three RBI. Fink added a double and Barre brought in two with a pair of sac flies. Barre joined KCII Sports postgame to talk about the win and the teamwork on display.

“I team teamwork is a great thing,” Barre said. “I mean, you can’t really look at it as a self thing. Granted, I may not be the happiest with my hits, but again, I got two RBIs there, scored two runners on popups. It’s just a team sport, so that’s how you’ve got to play in order to score runs and win.”

Madelyn Farmer, Drew Graber and Shanea Riley all earned walks to lead WACO.

In the circle, Murphy was the big winner, spinning a complete four inning no-hitter with her three walks and six Ks. Murphy earned Washington County Hospital and Clinics Player of the Game honors for her performance. Also making her first varsity start was Savannah Harris. Harris took the loss after pitching the full four innings, allowing 10 runs, eight earned, on six hits, 10 walks and her first career punchout.

With the win, Highland stands at 1-0 on the young season and will face Danville in their home opener Thursday. WACO drops to 0-1 and will face Winfield-Mt. Union/New London tonight in a game you can hear on FM 106.1, the KCII1 App and KCIIRadio.com. The Area Game of the Week will also feature a matchup on the KCII3 Stream tonight with South Iowa Cedar League action between the Keota Eagles and HLV/Tri-County Warriors.