FULTON -- As they did in their fairy tale postseason run last year, the Fulton Hornets had a huge sixth inning at the plate Tuesday at Darrell Davis Field.
Fulton, ranked ninth in Class 4 by the Missouri High School Baseball Coaches Association, beat the Battle Spartans, the largest enrollment school they play this season, 11-1 in six innings.
Before the sixth inning, it was anyone's game with the Hornets ahead 2-1, reaching on seven hits -- flew out in the outfield five times. Then, in the sixth, Fulton scored nine runs on nine hits, a walk and a hit by pitch.
"Third time through for those guys, and that kid (Battle starting pitcher Jack Putnam) didn't have nothing super-duper special," Fulton baseball coach Jacob Lorentzen said. "Third time through these kids make some of the best adjustments of a group of kids I've had a chance to coach. It's either they find the right adjustment from the beginning or second or third time through the order, most of those guys taking great approaches. I think that's just what it was."
When the Hornets struggled to get on base, their starter, Ethan Milius, and fielders kept them in the game. Although Fulton made one error to Battle's none, it outhit the Spartans 16-3.
Milius (3-1) helped make that happen, tossing a six-inning complete-game victory. He struck out eight and walked three while giving up one earned run.
"He's put in some really good games," Lorentzen said of Milius. "The last outing he had was good at Kirksville. So, kind of throwing him back-to-back games to line him up a little bit later, too. We could have gone either way with our guys tonight. But, just to switch some things down the road. We're like, 'Hey, let's put Milius back on the bump tonight.' He took a couple of guys in their lineup that are really good hitters lately that have had some success, and he made them look pretty bad today."
Two of the three walks and one of the three hits Milius allowed came when Battle scored its lone run in the top of the second. Putnam helped himself, driving in a run when he grounded out to his counterpart Milius to give the Spartans a 1-0 advantage.
Fulton's Justin Case responded during the next frame, hitting a leadoff home run to left field on the second pitch to tie it at 1 in the bottom of the second.
After two scoreless innings, the Hornets took the lead for good in the fifth.
With two outs in the bottom of the fifth, Milius cranked a standup double over the left fielder's head before Gabe DeFily sent him home on his RBI single up the middle. Battle's shortstop fielded it, but he threw over the first baseman.
While no one was on when it happened, Fulton shortstop Wyatt Wilfley denied Battle's Dawson Peters of a hit when he hustled to his right to field a grounder up the middle and made the throw to Caden Bowers at first base for the second out.
"You're gonna chalk that up to a team that's just not used to playing on dirt a lot; it's way different," Lorentzen said. "It's hard today. We put the tarp out in hopes to keep the rain off, so it feels a little harder than what we'd even like, too. That's tough for those guys. Their shortstop ranged some baseballs that I don't think anybody could even got to, let alone get a throw off in time. He did a phenomenal job there."
That play happened in the top of the sixth, and in the at-bat after it, Milius struck out his eighth and final batter to send the Spartans down 1-2-3.
Making Battle pay for its inability to get on base, Fulton followed it up by getting hit after hit and run after run to end the game an inning early. The Hornets recorded nine straight singles to begin the bottom of the sixth.
Ben Leslie plated Fulton's first run of its nine-run sixth inning with an RBI single up the middle. Two batters later, Hornets designated hitter Tucker Dzurick caught Battle off guard with a sacrifice bunt single down the first-base line to load the bases.
"He (Dzurick) came in to DH the two innings before or whatever and had a good AB, took six pitches, and struck out," Lorentzen said. "He came in there in that spot, and I knew that guy. He'll do whatever he wants. He's a senior. He's been around this program for four years. He never complains about anything. He just wants to play baseball. Nothing's better. We celebrated the home run by Justin Case, which was nice. But, I love to see every single one of those guys were just as excited, if not more, about 'Big Tuck' laying down that bunt and making it safe to first base. What a shout-out."
Dzurick's bunt single ended Putnam's outing. Taking the loss, Putnam gave up six runs on 11 hits and one walk while striking out six batters in five innings.
The Spartans used two more pitchers in the sixth inning before Fulton ended it.
With Battle's Brayden Groseclose on the mound, Wilfley slapped a two-RBI single to shallow center field, Milius stroked a two-run base hit up the middle and DeFily bounced a two-RBI single through the shortstop's glove and into center.
That gave DeFily a game-high three RBI and Milius a game-high two runs.
Jace Cooper took over for Groseclose two batters after DeFily. Fulton scored the two runs it needed to get the run rule on Leslie's bases-loaded walk and courtesy runner Declan Tate advancing home on a wild pitch.
With the result, Fulton (9-4) has the upper hand over St. Charles West (7-9), who's vying with the Hornets for the top seed in Class 4 District 6 in the common opponent department. On March 19 in St. Charles, the Warriors beat Battle (4-14) 10-8, eight fewer runs than the Hornets won by.
Additionally, Fulton lost 3-2 in nine innings on March 16 in Ashland against Class 4 No. 3 Southern Boone, and St. Charles West lost 6-3 to the Eagles on April 5 in Ashland.
"We talked about it for over a week now since we're (Fulton and St. Charles West) district opponents," Lorentzen said. "We just don't have a whole lot of guys we play that are the same since we're so far away. We had basically the same thing with Southern Boone. It's both a loss on a game both of us probably would say we could have won. I think we should have won that game for sure. But this was one of those we had to come out and put a game together.
"It was a game until the sixth, and then we decided we just had enough of letting them stick around. Man, put some at-bats together right there. Just guy after guy doing the right thing. That's baseball; you just hope you haven't peaked too soon."
While Fulton does have the advantage in common opponents, it has faced one Class 6 (Battle) and Class 5 team (Hannibal).
Meanwhile, St. Charles West has played three different Class 6 and six Class 5 teams--Class 6 Pattonville and Class 5 North Point twice.
Three of those Class 5-6 teams are private schools: Helias and St. Dominic -- the only Class 5-6 team SCW faced currently receiving state ranking votes -- and SLUH. The Warriors have taken on three Central Missouri Activities Conference teams, Battle, Capital City and Helias, compared to the Hornets' one, Battle.
Even though that's the case, Fulton moved back into the MHSBCA state rankings released Tuesday, while St. Charles West, previously ranked 10th in Class 4, dropped out and didn't receive votes.
"I didn't even know that. I don't pay attention to it enough, I guess," Lorentzen said. "But, I think it feels deserving. Our losses are super close, other than Blair Oaks, who has a phenomenal team there. I think it's deserving. These kids deserve it. They've worked their tails off. They're hungry still.
"We just keep feeding off of last year. We're just gonna go out there and play baseball. They don't want to be the guy. We see it tonight. Nobody wants to be the first out. Nobody wants to be the last out that makes for some good baseball."
Fulton (5-2 North Central Missouri Conference) has another important game to end the week, hosting Hannibal (9-8, 4-0 NCMC) at 5 p.m. Thursday. The Pirates are the only team still unbeaten in the NCMC, and they won 3-2 against Fulton on April 5 in Hannibal.
"We want that (NCMC) title; we know that we won it last year. We want to defend it because we don't want anyone else to take it from us," Lorentzen said. "We know just here on out, every game, we got to put it together. You fall one game here; it might be a difference in a seeding spot somewhere. It might be a difference in a conference title. We know how important they all are. So, we're ready. It's here at home again."