Sophomore Luke Gray's stifling stuff helped prop up a sparse offensive outing by the Fulton Hornets.
Gray tossed a five-hit shutout in the Hornets' 5-0 North Central Missouri Conference blanking of the Marshall Owls on Monday at the high school athletic complex.
"Obviously, Luke pitched his best game of the year. He pitched the way I expect him to pitch," Fulton head coach Darren Masek said. "...He was outstanding tonight and got all three of his pitched over (the plate) whenever he wanted tonight."
Gray - who walked just two batters - bookended the top of the first inning with two of his five strikeouts in sitting the Owls down in order.
Sophomore left fielder Josh Quick reached on an error to lead off Fulton's half of the first, then moved to second on a groundout by sophomore second baseman Devin Masek.
After sophomore catcher Isaiah Pani and junior third baseman Tristan Steffens drew back-to-back walks, the Hornets got on the board via senior shortstop Blake Thompson's two-run double to center field.
Fulton (3-5, 1-2 NCMC) stretched its lead to 4-0 when Thompson and Steffens scored after sophomore designated hitter Cameron Vititoe's ground ball to the Marshall shortstop was misplayed.
Vititoe scored on another Owl miscue to cap off the Hornets' big opening frame.
Fulton collected two hits in that first inning, but managed just one hit over the final six.
"We didn't swing the bat very well tonight, we have the last several games, but we didn't tonight," Darren Masek said. "We got some help with Marshall's poor defensive play, but I wasn't pleased with how we swung the bat tonight."
Marshall committed five errors, while Fulton - which erred a combined 15 times over its previous two games - was saddled with just one.
"We definitely played a lot better defensively tonight," Darren Masek said. "We've had some poor outings, but tonight we played a lot more like we're capable of playing."
Thompson and Gray each finished 1-for-3, while Pani was 1-for-3 with a double. Vititoe was 0-for-3, but credited with a pair of RBIs.
The Hornets have a return NCMC encounter at Marshall at 5 p.m. today.