FULTON -- Fulton sophomore Gage Tiffany outpitched Kirksville senior Jack Thomas, and the Hornets outhit the Tigers 9-2 Thursday at Darrell Davis Field.
Those factors led to Fulton, ranked eighth in Class 4 by the Missouri High School Baseball Coaches Association, run-ruling Kirksville 11-1 in six innings in a North Central Missouri Conference matchup.
Not only did the Hornets start a pitcher two grades below the Tigers', but they also used two fewer than Kirksville, who went through four, three of whom were upperclassmen.
"The best thing I like is that they gave up at the end," Fulton baseball coach Jacob Lorentzen said of Kirksville. "They just decide, 'Hey, let's throw a different guy, and we're out of this chance.' That's a testament to our guys, with our two-strike approach and our two-out approach tonight. We just kept hammering it to it. Just never letting our foot off the gas, and you preach, preach, preach. It's nice when something actually comes to fruition when those guys are still moving into the next guy. They don't want to be that guy that gets that third out. That's great."
Before the bats clicked, Tiffany's pitching and Fulton's fielding were. It was a pitcher's duel through two innings, tied at 0.
Only one starter remained in control after the second inning, Tiffany (3-0), who remained unbeaten on the bump and Fulton's wins leader on the season.
"It's big," Lorentzen said of Tiffany's start. "His pitch count crept up there a little bit at the end. I didn't watch, and it scared me just a little bit, only being a sophomore and that cap at 95, and he threw 90 today. He's got such a smooth and relaxing delivery that he's just not stressful on himself, and you don't see the fatigue because he's got such technique. You just watch him because he'll go forever."
As he only struck out four batters in five innings, Tiffany needed his fielders to back him up, and they did, committing just one error to the Tigers' three. Allowing no earned runs and one unearned, he walked three, gave up two hits and hit a batter.
"He did a phenomenal job, kept it low in the zone," Lorentzen said. "He had a little bit of a struggle getting that first pitch strike midway through. But once we got the lead, and I told him to, he just went back out there throwing strikes early. That's huge. He can have that confidence, knowing that he gets a couple runs, and the guys are gonna keep scoring. He just went out there and continued to pump strikes for us."
Meanwhile, Kirksville's defense didn't back up Thomas, who took the loss. He tossed the first 3⅔ innings and gave up seven runs (one earned) on five hits and two walks while punching out three.
Thomas couldn't keep the Tigers on top after they took a 1-0 lead in the top of the third. Logan Lehman scored Kirksville's lone run when Carter Pinkerton grounded to first base and reached on an error by the first baseman.
Following that, the Hornets went up 5-1 in the bottom of the third, plating five runs on three hits, two errors and a walk.
Ethan Burt picked up where he left off last week, coming up to bat with the bases loaded and lining an RBI single to center field, the first of his game-high three hits and three RBI, to put it at 1-all.
"Burt had such a phenomenal year last year, led us in runs and RBI, I think," Lorentzen said. "It's hard to repeat that type of season. It was a little slow for him to start so far. But that's the kind of guy he is. We know he's gonna get us hits. We know he's gonna put some timely hits together, and he's a senior. He played a lot of baseball in his career, so he's ready to get out there in a matter of time. It's good to see him have a great day like that."
The pads were still full, and Gabe DeFily gave Fulton the lead for good, driving in a run on his groundout to first base.
With two outs, the Hornets tacked on three runs in the third inning. Fulton's Wyatt Wilfley scored on a wild pitch, and in that same at-bat, Justin Case drilled an RBI single to shallow left-center field before Declan Tate scored when Ben Leslie reached on an error by the shortstop.
An inning later, Fulton reached base in three straight plate appearances with two outs and twice on base hits. In the last plate appearance of that stretch, Burt roped an opposite-field two-RBI single to shallow right field and used his speed to reach second on the throw to the infield.
The Hornets pressured the Tigers again in the fifth inning, loading the bases with one out on a single and two walks. With that, Kirksville pulled Carson Kelly and brought in his brother, Cole.
Cole Kelly got two straight outs to keep Fulton off the scoreboard in the fifth, the only inning it didn't between the third and sixth.
Like the two pitchers before him, Fulton figured out Cole Kelly, and it was the two Hornets swinging a hot bat of late.
Two at-bats after Burt reached on a base hit up the middle, Case joined his teammate with a multi-RBI game, two in his case, smoking an RBI single to left field. That would be the final batter Cole Kelly faced.
"Justin, I don't really know. I'd love to say we've done something different with him this year. I'm not really sure what it is, right?" Lorentzen said. "He's turned around his stroke at the beginning of the year. Right now, he's hitting to all sides of the field and really putting some great at-bats together. I don't want to jinx him or anything, but I don't think he has a strikeout on the year yet. His two-strike approach has just been phenomenal. Yet another two-strike RBI, two-out RBI in the same situation. So, he's killing it at the moment."
Maddux Jackson replaced Cole Kelly for the Tigers, and he didn't look like four-time National League Cy Young Award winner and 1995 World Series champion Greg Maddux.
Unable to get an out, Fulton tagged Jackson for three runs to end the game an inning early. To score those runs, Aaron Corey and Gage Baker had RBI bases-loaded walks and Miles Bethell advanced home on a passed ball to conclude the contest.
Unlike Kirksville (5-2, 0-2 NCMC), Fulton (5-1, 2-0) got good relief pitching, with DeFily sending two packing in his 1-2-3 sixth inning toeing the rubber.
The Hornets earned their second win in their last three meetings with the Tigers after going through an 11-game losing streak against Kirksville.
The Hornets' narrative has changed since their 13-4 triumph on March 21, 2023, in Kirksville. Last year, Fulton shocked the Tigers, but in 2024, it was another resounding victory in what's been a dominating start to the Hornets' campaign.
"We really feel like we should have won that Southern Boone game, too (Hornets' only loss this season -- 3-2 defeat in nine innings)," Lorentzen said. "Could've, should've, would've there. But it's different. It's different being the hunted. This program is pretty used to being the team that has to hunt people down for things, and so it could be a blessing, it could be a curse.
"Right now, we're living up to expectations and exceeding some of those expectations offensively, I'd say. Our pitching is holding up. It is a different sight to be the ones getting hunted down, but keep going. Kirksville threw a really good pitcher and a couple of other guys trying to help us get some timing off, and we just made adjustments. We're gonna be hard. I'm looking at us one through nine and all of our guys have a chance to keep putting runs across the plate."
A more difficult challenge awaits Fulton, who will take on Class 4 No. 10 Blair Oaks (7-2) at 5 p.m. today at Vivion Field in Jefferson City. The Falcons' two losses this season were an 8-4 defeat at Class 4 No. 6 Logan-Rogersville on Saturday and 9-2 to Class 1 No. 1 St. Elizabeth on March 16 in Jefferson City.
"They're Blair Oaks, they're always good," Lorentzen said. "They just seem to replenish pitching every year. They've got guys to get on the bump. It's kind of, what do they throw out at us? I don't really know. Last year being in their district, we knew we were going to see one of their top arms, and I'll be interested to see here at the end of the week what they got left.
"We're down a couple of guys from being sick and vacation with spring break. We're not going there to just roll over on them at all. But, we're gonna piece some things together and hopefully just continue to play some great offensive approach at the plate to help us out there."