Mexico senior Jack Wilburn only needed 84 pitches to win on Monday.

Mexico vs North Callaway Photo Gallery

Wilburn’s seven innings of five hits, one earned run and one walk led the Bulldogs to a 9-2 victory at North Callaway, who allowed 10 walks to Mexico while committing three errors in a six-run fourth inning.

North Callaway hitters grounded out nine teams against Wilburn, who filled the zone with 59 strikes. By his own admission, Wilburn isn’t the type of pitcher with overpowering stuff and tries to have good control as four of his six outings have had one or fewer walks. Monday was the first outing Wilburn has completed his start, though, as he focused on throwing strike one.

“Changing speeds is the name of the game,” Wilburn said. “If I miss a pitch or miss a location, then you’re going to know it. We set a team goal so walks and hit by pitches, we want two or less a game. As a team, we succeeded with that tonight. That’s something that we take very seriously.”

Case in point, Wilburn’s first walk was issued to Braydn O’Neal in the sixth inning before he came around to score on an infield error. Wilburn tried not to waste any pitches, especially early in at-bats.

Mexico head coach Daniel McCarty said that’s what he liked seeing the most from Wilburn against North Callaway as his No. 1 pitcher has had his ups and downs this season.

“This game, he dialed in,” McCarty said. “He was working ahead, got ahead. He was very effective on getting strike one, he was good about locating, and mixing his pitches up. All night, they only strung one base hit together.”

That inning was the third inning as the Thunderbirds picked up three straight singles prior to O’Neal grounding out to drive in a run, making 2-1 Mexico.

The next inning is when the game went south for North Callaway as its defense followed two clean defensive games with errors in the fourth inning that loaded the bases with nobody out for Mexico. Woods fielded a ball that could have been a double play but his throw went into center field and then another error set up Sam Ryan to take a close 2-2 pitch then 3-2 outside pitch to bring home a run and bring Sam Pezold on the mound in relief.

“We talked about having an emphasis of playing seven innings of clean baseball,” North Callaway head coach Zeth Lavy said. “The last week and a half or so, we’ve been able to do that. We were playing a little more quality opponent tonight, and when you go from a 2-1 game and then you start out an inning walk, error, error, walk, and then have another error in the inning, you give that team an extra offensive inning. It’s not that we were incapable of making the plays, it’s that we have to make them more consistently.”

Lavy said the fourth inning was “the difference of the game” as it changed the whole complexion of the game. He said it wasn’t a guarantee North Callaway would have won the game if that inning didn’t happen, but the mistakes made it harder to win.

After the first couple of errors, Nos. 3 and 4 hitters Andrew Runge and Matt McCurdy hit a single and double, respectively, to make it 6-1 for Mexico in the fourth. The Bulldogs one through five in their batting order with Drew DeMint, Ryan, Runge, McCurdy and Wilburn combined to go 7-for-18 with eight RBI, five runs and five walks. 

“I think every single person had something to do with it that inning,” Wilburn said. “Even when outs were made, somebody advanced so there was no wasted at-bat that inning. Same thing the whole game, other than strikeouts, there were no wasted at-bats.”

“It’s patience,” McCarty said. “Their starter Woods was inconsistent, especially on his first and second pitches, so we were always ahead. I told the guys to be patient for the right opportunity.”

The senior Woods finished with seven walks while striking out four. North Callaway’s No. 1 pitcher picked up two of those strikeouts to wriggle out of a jam in the third inning, but Woods missed the zone too often. Still, other Thunderbirds were inconsistent to add up to the loss.

“He missed a lot arm side,” Lavy said. “He’s struggled a little bit to consistently throw strike, but his last two outings, he’s done a lot better job. Even the first three innings tonight, he wasn’t super sharp with his command.

“It’s definitely not one guy. It’s a team effort. There’s not one guy you can pinpoint. If it goes to somebody, it’s going to go to me.”

The seniors McCurdy and Runge each had run-scoring hits on Saturday in a tight loss against Class 4 No. 2 Southern Boone and Mexico’s 4-3 win against Richmond — its first win in eight games. Saturday also saw the Bulldogs hit their second and third home runs of the season after launching their first a couple days earlier in Fulton. 

From that point, McCarty said the team has made adjustments with the batting order and has shown a better approach.

“We’ve done some tweaking to our lineups, to our hitting stances, to our approaches, and we’re starting to be more of a complete ballclub as far as using the whole field,” McCarty said. “Our guys are coming up big on timely hits for extra base hits and running the balls out.

“Seniors are settling down, adapting to the pressure and focusing on their at-bat,” McCarty said. “If they have a bad at-bat, they’re going to be washing it away and get the next pitch.”

Mexico played at North Central Missouri Conference foe Marshall on Tuesday before hosting district foe Centralia (3-4) at 5 p.m. Thursday while North Callaway puts its perfect 4-0 Eastern Missouri Conference record on the line at 5 p.m. Thursday against 6-0 EMO team Elsberry (9-4).

Bulldog bats score runs early, Mexico loses 8-5 at defending champion Southern Boone

During Mexico’s early season losing streak, it has struggled to put runs on the board early.

This wasn’t the case Saturday morning as the Bulldogs took the first lead at Class 4 defending champion and No. 2 Southern Boone before ultimately losing 8-5. Mexico outhit the Eagles 7-4, including a two-RBI home run by Matt McCurdy for a 2-0 early lead, but Southern Boone plated six runs in the first three innings.

In the second inning, Southern Boone tied the game at 2 on a steal of home against Austin Maxwell. The Eagles took a 6-2 lead in the third inning thanks to an error early in the inning and two of seven total walks allowed to Southern Boone.

Tyler Thoenen hit a home run to make it 6-4 in the fourth inning and give him his second homer of the year and second in three days as he crushed his first in a 14-8 loss at Fulton on Thursday.

The Bulldogs had one final rally in them in the seventh inning, starting with a two-out single by Tyson Carr. Drew DeMint, Sam Ryan and then Andrew Runge kept the base hits going with Runge picking up the RBI until he was picked off at first base to end the game. Runge also pitched four innings with two hits, two unearned runs and two walks allowed and four strikeouts.

Mexico snaps losing streak, edges Richmond 4-3

Right after a tough loss to state-ranked Southern Boone, Mexico bounced back in Ashland with a win.

The Bulldogs ended their seven-game losing streak with a 4-3 victory against Richmond as Andrew Runge picked up the game-winning RBI double in the fifth inning. Landyn Kleinsorge was also stellar on the mound as she went the full seven innings with nine strikeouts, six hits, three walks and one earned run.

As the home team, Mexico had to respond to a Richmond first-inning run with RBI from Runge and Matt McCurdy in the bottom half of the inning, making it 2-1.

The Bulldogs needed another answer after a game-tying RBI double in the third inning, which they would post in the fifth inning. Sam Ryan grounded out to score a run and then Runge hit the gap in center field for the winning run. 

Kleinsorge stranded two Richmond runners by inducing his fifth groundout of the game.

Runge and Drew DeMint each picked up two hits and respectively finished 4-for-5 and 3-for-7 in the two games.