Fulton senior starter Tristan Steffens showed off his typical tenacity in taming the Marshall Owls.
Steffens threw a two-hitter for his first win of the season and Fulton picked up its fourth straight victory as the Hornets throttled Marshall in a 6-1 North Central Missouri Conference triumph Tuesday night at the high school athletic complex.
Steffens - who lost his shutout when the Owls tallied an unearned run in the top of the sixth inning - struck out five and walked only one in going the distance to even his record at 1-1.
"Tristan is a strike-thrower and he comes right after guys," Fulton head coach John Brinkmann said. "He takes the mound with a bulldog attitude that nobody is better than he is and he's going to get outs, no matter what."
The Hornets, who also prevailed at Marshall 4-3 in nine innings March 24 - improved to 5-1 overall and 2-1 in the NCMC. Fulton put up a single run in the bottom of the first inning Tuesday night, added two in the fourth, one more in the fifth and closed out its scoring with two in the sixth.
Junior designated hitter Cameron Vititoe finished 2-for-3 with a two-run single in the fourth inning as the Hornets collected nine hits. Senior right fielder Trenton Clines was also 2-for-3 with an RBI single in the sixth, scored a run and had a stolen base, while junior shortstop Devin Masek went 2-for-3 with a run-scoring single in the sixth.
Junior catcher Isaiah Pani was 1-for-2 for Fulton with an RBI groundout in the first and an RBI triple in the fifth, while senior left fielder Zach Franklin finished 1-for-2 with two runs scored and two stolen bases. Junior third baseman Luke Gray went 1-for-2 with a double and scored a run.
"One thing we focused on was driving the ball down," Brinkmann said. "I don't know what the wind speed is, but it was blowing straight in. If we hit the ball up in the air, it was going to hold up there and they were going to catch it.
"We were hitting line drives and it worked to our advantage."
Fulton remains at home for an NCMC clash with rival Mexico at 5 p.m. Thursday.