After being disappointed after one inning Tuesday, the Bulldogs were ecstatic after the game.

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A few Mexico hitters couldn’t bring home any more runs in the sixth inning at home against Class 2 Eugene but came through in the eighth inning to give the Bulldogs a 3-2 extra-inning victory. Mexico moves to 2-4 in one-run contests through 11 games this season.

Brady Fox was a big deciding factor with his eight innings of four hits, three walks and two runs with 87 pitches but was the one to plate the winning run in the eighth. Fox smoked a ground ball to a Eugene (3-3) infield playing in, triggering an error and the walk-off victory.

“It felt pretty good because, last time I got up, I rolled over when I was trying to score a couple more runs,” Fox said. “It felt pretty good to just put the ball in play and get the winning run in.”

Fox and the Bulldogs (5-6) did have a chance to do more damage in the sixth inning following five and half frames of shutout baseball. Chance McCarty was hit by a pitch to force home a run, but the bases were still loaded with no outs. Jaydon Eldridge grounded into a fielder’s choice, Austin Maxwell popped out and Fox grounded out to let Mexico’s lead sit at 1-0.

The eighth inning had some deja vu with the major difference of Mexico trailing 2-1 following Ryan Lepper’s RBI double in the top of the inning. McCarty was hit by a pitch, again, but Eldridge didn’t go down this time with a single. Maxwell then lifted a RBI single that turned into a second-and-third situation following a Eugene outfield error to set up Fox’s moment.

Head coach Daniel McCarty said Mexico’s season has definitely had an emphasis on situational hitting based on how many one-run games they’ve played already. The Bulldogs’ previous game ended in a 4-3 walk-off loss at North Central Missouri Conference foe Kirksville — received votes in the first Class 4 poll released on Tuesday — even though the score was tied at 3 for a majority of the game.

“After the last few games, we kept looking for those big hits,” McCarty said. “Tonight, we got that. In the last inning, it was timely hits. Guys knew how to find ways to get on base, whether it was a hit or walk or get hit by a pitch. Once we get runners, that’s how we can create some havoc.”

The win also meant that Fox’s stellar night on the mound wasn’t wasted. Fox stayed out the full game due to his efficiency as he faced three Eugene hitters for four straight innings in the game. He didn’t strike out a batter but had perfect defense to rely on.

Eugene, who received votes in the first Class 2 polls, committed two of three errors in that decisive final inning while Mexico didn’t have any errors all night. Despite pitching more than the standard seven innings, McCarty said Fox didn’t even reach his max pitch count of 95.

“After the third inning, he was already up to 40-something pitches,” McCarty said. “After that, he made some tweaks on his spin, and it worked very well tonight.”

Fox had a no-hitter through 5⅓ innings that was broken up by a Chase Morrow double. Morrow advanced to third base after center fielder Drew DeMint — 2-for-4 at the plate — chased down a ball and then Fox proceeded to induce more weak contact. 

Outside of a few balls Eugene squared up, Fox didn’t allow much strong contact and relied on his defense to throw out Lepper to end the sixth inning. The Bulldogs also fielded ground balls to strand Eagle runners at second base to end the seventh and eighth innings.

“I was locating really good, my offspeed was feeling really good and all of them were working pretty well for me,” Fox said. “I was getting a lot of rollovers. They weren’t making a lot of solid contact.”

McCarty said it was nice to see his players adjust to a high-caliber start by a pitcher. Eugene pitcher Cole Bradley had seven innings with five hits, five strikeouts and one run in 82 pitches. He said the Bulldogs showed improvement in the fifth inning and persisted until the eventual victory.

“It’s good to see we can win these close ballgames,” McCarty said. “We had a good pitcher’s duel, at least for the first six innings where it was 2-1 in hits.”

Mexico (1-2 NCMC) hosts conference rival Fulton (5-2, 2-0 NCMC) at 5 p.m. Thursday.