Both Mexico and Hallsville had pitching struggles early in the game on Friday.

The Bulldogs weren’t able to match Class 4 No. 9 Hallsville’s offense as they lost 7-4 after being outhit 12-5 in Hallsville, dropping a game against a district opponent. 

After scoring four runs against Hallsville starting pitcher Kolton Garner, Mexico (7-8) didn’t cross the plate again while the Indians kept finding grass against Mexico starting pitcher Landyn Kleinsorge, who allowed four earned runs and four walks in 4⅓ innings pitched. Andrew Runge finished 3-for-4 with two RBI at the plate but lent an arm on the mound, striking out two in 1⅔ relief innings.

Runge scored leadoff hitter Drew DeMint in the first inning on a single, which was one of three times DeMint would cross the plate on Friday despite not having an official at-bat. DeMint walked twice and was hit by a pitch in the first inning and also stole three bases.

Hallsville tied the score in the bottom half of the first inning and then took a 3-1 lead in the second inning, when the Indians registered five hits. Mexico manufactured runs to tie the game at 3 in the third inning on a Sam Ryan sacrifice fly and a Matt McCurdy groundout and then knotted the score again at 4 in the fifth inning on a Runge RBI single.

After a walk and an error in the bottom half of the fifth, Hallsville took a 7-4 lead.

Mexico (3-3 NCMC) hosted North Central Missouri Conference foe Hannibal on Tuesday prior to traveling to conference and district opponent Kirksville (5-11, 3-4 NCMC) at 5 p.m. Thursday.

O’Neal, North Callaway has career offensive day at Mark Twain

The score began to resemble a football score pretty quick on Monday.

North Callaway’s Eastern Missouri Conference contest at Mark Twain ended after five innings as the Thunderbirds scored a season-high amount in a 25-2 victory — the most runs they’ve scored since a 29-1 win at Van-Far in 2015 — and were led by a career-high seven RBI from senior Braydn O’Neal.

O’Neal went 4-for-5 with four runs scored, three doubles and a triple after striking in his first at-bat. Caleb Sheets added five RBI and two hits off the bench, and Kyle Pennell finished 3-for-5 with two RBI to contribute to 13 North Callaway hits. Eight Thunderbirds (7-4, 6-1 EMO) finished with at least one RBI, eight finished with at least one hit and eight stole at least one base to total 15 stolen bases for North Callaway — including four swiped by Keaton Bell and three by AJ Haubner.

One run crossed the plate for North Callaway in the first inning but then the game was out of hand by the end of the second inning. The Thunderbirds scored seven runs in the frame, which also included five North Callaway RBI hits.

Seven runs scored for North Callaway in the next two innings prior to a 10-run fifth inning for the Thunderbirds. They took advantage of four walks — of a total 15 allowed by Mark Twain (1-9, 1-5 EMO) — to lead off the inning to set up more RBI for O’Neal and Sheets.

Fishburn drew four walks to lead the team but kept Mark Twain to three walks in his five innings on the mound. He also struck out 13, fanning the first nine Tigers he faced, and allowed two hits in his first varsity pitching action as a Thunderbird.

North Callaway faces its second conference undefeated team within a week as it hosts Montgomery County (6-2, 4-0 EMO) in what will also be a district game at 5 p.m. Thursday. The Thunderbirds lost 9-0 at home last Thursday against Elsberry.

Van-Far can’t recover after first inning, lose 15-0 at Wright City

Monday brought another early defeat for Van-Far as the game itself in Wright City went south early.

The Indians allowed 10 runs in the first inning to lose to their Eastern Missouri Conference foe 15-0 in three innings. Van-Far (0-8, 0-5 EMO) finished with eight errors that led to 11 unearned runs charged to pitcher Cody Smith, who allowed nine hits in his three innings.

Wright City (6-5, 3-1 EMO) sent 15 batters to the plate in the first inning, tallying five hits in the frame. Reigning all-conference and all-state player Hayden Waters tripled to make it 9-0 before the sixth Indian error a play later created the sufficient 10-run deficit for an early conclusion after five innings.

The Wildcats made the game end after three innings after a four-run third inning. 

Nikos Connaway and Tarion Aguirre each had a hit for Van-Far’s total of two hits against Wright City pitcher Bryce Williams.

Van-Far faced conference undefeated Montgomery County on the road on Tuesday before hosting defending EMO champion Bowling Green (5-8, 2-4 EMO) at 5 p.m. Thursday.

Missouri Military Academy bowled over 16-0 at Harrisburg

Missouri Military Academy’s game on Monday in Harrisburg fell out of reach quickly.

The Colonels allowed a season-high 16 runs in the first two innings and were no-hit to lose 16-0 in three innings. 

Harrisburg (7-3) finished with only six hits and six stolen bases as it only needed 12 walks allowed by four MMA pitchers to keep innings going. The Bulldogs walked seven straight times at one point in the second inning.

Bryce Slayton was the lone Colonel to not allow a run in his ⅓ of an inning. 

MMA (4-5) travels to a double-digit winner in South Shelby (10-2) for a 5 p.m. game today.

Colonels fend off Louisiana 5-4

After losing an 8-6 game three days before in Monroe City, Missouri Military Academy ended Friday’s game with a tight win.

The Colonels defeated Louisiana 5-4, clinging to a lead that shrank from three runs to one by end of the seventh inning. 

The top of MMA’s lineup scored three of its runs all in the first inning as Hunter Manderson ground out to plate one and then Avin Hernandez hit a ball that allowed two to score on an error by Louisiana (1-9). 

Luke Wolf made it 4-1 with an RBI single in the third inning and then No. 2 hitter Michael Moss came through in the fifth inning with what turned out to be the winning run, making it 5-1 at the time. Moss and leadoff hitter Ethan Hersh each finished with two hits while Moss also had two walks to his credit. 

Manderson struck out 10 and allowed four runs on eight hits and one walk in 6⅔ innings prior to William Delaplane getting the final out.