It hasn’t been often that Mexico baseball had as good of a start as Monday’s game.

Mexico vs North Callaway Photo Gallery

The Bulldogs tallied six of their nine hits in a five-run first inning before holding their lead to defeat Class 3 North Callaway 7-3 at home. Brady Fox induced two double plays in his 4⅔ innings on the mound and had three RBI on two hits.

Head coach Daniel McCarty said Mexico (8-6) hasn’t had an inning that good since the Bulldogs’ 12-0 victory earlier this season at North Central Missouri Conference foe Marshall. They scored six runs in an inning, but that didn’t happen until the third.

“It’s good to see us put some hits together in that first inning,” McCarty said. “They weren’t errors but straight hits in the gaps on doubles and singles.”

Drew DeMint led off Mexico’s offense with a triple that was followed with a RBI double by Jaydon Eldridge and then RBI hits from Fox, Kaden Benne, Sam Ryan and Cooper Bledsoe. 

North Callaway starting pitcher Carter Moore mostly settled down after that in his four innings of seven runs on eight hits and three walks and four strikeouts. However, his counterpart Fox didn't give him a good farewell with a two-RBI single with two outs and the bases loaded. 

“He helped himself out there,” McCarty said. “He pitched a stellar game but also got those two big RBI to help himself out on the mound. I’m proud of the guys after how they battled and stayed focused. Our challenge is to keep that pedal down this week and not let up.”

McCarty admitted that there might have been complacency on offense after the big initial inning, but that wasn’t true with his pitchers and defense. Fox had five hits, four strikeouts and one earned run in 4 2/3 innings and didn’t allow North Callaway to have any big innings.

In the second inning, Moore just tapped a RBI single to third baseman Sam Ryan, who laid out in an attempt to throw out the runner trying to score. The runner was safe, but Ryan then fielded a ground ball induced by Fox to turn an inning-ending double play.

“That was a turning point in the ballgame,” McCarty said. “It killed their rally and boosted our confidence.”

McCarty called moments like that “uplifting” and Fox and the Bulldogs had another such moment in the fifth inning right before Fox was removed in favor of Cooper Rowe. The first two North Callaway batters hit safely before Fox threw a pitch that made it to second baseman Chance McCarty, then shortstop Austin Maxwell and finally to first baseman Jaydon Eldridge for a double play. The Thunderbirds (6-4) plated a run after that, but that was it.

Rowe, who struck out three and allowed a run on three hits in two innings, had two runners on and was behind 3-0 against Coltyn O’Neal. He came back for the inning-ending strike out.

“He battled with two strikes, and that’s key when you come in is to throw strikes,” McCarty said. “If they hit you, so be it. If you come in relief out of the bullpen and start walking people, that’s when we have issues going on.”

McCarty said they went with a different matchup against O’Neal again to end the two-runner seventh inning threat for North Callaway after the Thunderbirds gained another run in the frame. Drew DeMint shut the door and closed a solid day on the mound for Mexico.

“Brady was doing good, and Cooper was doing good but both were on pitch counts tonight so I could save them this week,” McCarty said. “Drew came in nicely with two outs there and shut the door.”

Mexico plays at Centralia (6-2) at 5 p.m. Thursday.