Another no-no

Kelsey Kessler took the mound at Blue Springs High School looking like a reject from an Alice Cooper contest.
The slender freshman had long, spidery black streaks under each eye, that reminded the old guard of the 1970s shock rocker.
“Alice Cooper?” she said, when asked about her extreme face paint job following a 1-0 no-hit gem against Suburban Big Seven rival Lee’s Summit, Wednesday afternoon, “I think I’ve heard of her.”
Alice happens to be a man.
Upon hearing the comment, Wildcats coach Roger Lower put his arm on Kessler’s shoulder and said, “First off, she’s a freshman. Second, she’s a blonde. She automatically has two strikes against her.”
Everyone was laughing.
Kessler, who is 9-0 for the 10-0 Wildcats, doesn’t really have two strikes against her.
She has more like 12, which was the total number of Tigers she fanned in her third no-hitter of the season.
Only a seventh inning dropped fly ball kept her from throwing a perfect game.
The Wildcats scored their lone run in the bottom of the fifth when Ashtin Stephens opened the inning with a walk. She was forced at second by Mackenzie Sykes, who reached first and then stole second.
Amanda Self then drove in the lone run of the game with a two-out single.
“I don’t know how many times we’ve needed the big hit and Amanda has come through for us,” Lower said. “You know, we had two runners on base each of the first three innings and their pitcher (Rachel Gillespie) always came up with the big out pitch.
“We finally came up with the big hit.”
Which pleased Kessler.
“I just pitch so much better when I have a lead, and Amanda and the girls got it for me in the fifth,” Kessler said.
When asked about her third no-hit gem, she said, “I don’t think about that. I just go out and pitch and let the girls play defense behind me.”
Self said Kessler came into the contest with her best stuff.
“Every pitch was working for her,” said Self, who had a smiling sun painted on her cheek.
When asked about the contrasting face decorations, Self grinned.
“This is a really good story,” Self said. “… Well, my sophomore year I was playing softball with (Blue Springs South pitcher) Mariah Glasscock and she said, ‘Come on, Sunshine,’ to me. So I had the sun painted on my face as kind of a joke, and it just kind of became something we did before our games.”
She paused, and added, “I did know who Alice Cooper was. He was in KISS, right?”
Lower just threw his hands in the air and walked away after that comment.