One thing was for certain when the No. 4 seed Fulton Hornets and the No. 5 seed Fatima Comets took the field for their Class 3, District 8 quarterfinal game: the outcome would be a tight one.
And in this, the third meeting in as many weeks between the two squads, it was two plays by Fulton junior left fielder Jake Abbott - one with his arm and one with his bat - that gave the Hornets a 2-1 victory at Blair Oaks High School on Saturday.
They were two particularly late developing plays, in fact. The Hornets were up 1-0 with two outs in the seventh inning when Abbott slapped a 2-1 delivery from Comets senior reliever Micheal Scheulen past Fatima sophomore shortstop Patrick Schnieders to drive in senior third baseman Joel Matthews for an all-important insurance run.