Hornets hurdle ‘hump,’ take down Hannibal in NCMC win

Fulton senior right fielder Trenton Clines safely steals second base in the fifth inning of the Hornets’ 6-3 NCMC victory over Hannibal on Thursday night at the high school athletic complex.
Fulton senior right fielder Trenton Clines safely steals second base in the fifth inning of the Hornets’ 6-3 NCMC victory over Hannibal on Thursday night at the high school athletic complex.

The Fulton Hornets may be starting to gain some swagger.

The Hornets avenged a 5-4 loss at Hannibal on April 8 by beating the Pirates 6-3 in a North Central Missouri Conference game at the high school athletic complex Thursday night.

“Our guys felt it,” Fulton head coach John Brinkmann said. “The first thing I asked them after the game was, ‘Winning feels pretty good, doesn’t it?’ Winning as a team feels even better, and that’s what it was.”

The Hornets (7-6, 4-5 NCMC) came into Thursday night having lost five of their previous six games, starting with that setback in Hannibal.

“All six of our losses, we’ve lost by a total of seven runs,” Brinkmann said. “We’ve been right there all year. It feels good to get over that hump and you can tell they felt good, and I think they got confidence from it and know that we can win these close games.”

Fulton trailed 3-2 in the bottom of the fifth inning. Junior center fielder Alex Fleetwood drew a leadoff walk, stole second and eventually scored on junior second baseman Luke Gray’s two-out double to tie the game.

“Luke Gray is one of our hottest hitters right now and he’s swinging the bat well,” Brinkmann said. “One thing he’s doing is letting that ball travel. He goes the other way with it really nice and he has a nice approach.

“He doesn’t want to do too much and one thing we talked about today was, ‘Guys, do your job.’ In that situation, his job was to hit the ball and drive the run in, and he did it.”

After junior first baseman Jared Peery drew a walk in the next at-bat, Gray stole third and sprinted home on junior designated hitter Cameron Vititoe’s single to right to put the Hornets in front at 4-3.

Fulton then gave itself some breathing room by adding two runs in the sixth. Senior right fielder Trenton Clines led off the inning with a triple to center, Gray drew a one-out walk and stole second, and Peery ripped a single to right to bring home both runners.

“Big hits are always nice,” Brinkmann said with a grin. “Trenton Clines with that triple in that last inning was huge. (Senior reliever) Tristan (Steffens) comes out on the mound with confidence and he doesn’t have to worry about being perfect, and he starts throwing strikes.

“We got a few (strikes called) that I think weren’t strikes, but the umpire was getting used to just calling strikes because he was hitting the zone.”

Fulton produced the first run of the game in the second. Senior right fielder Zach Franklin and junior catcher Isaiah Pani drew consecutive walks, with sophomore courtesy runner Solomon Huff replacing Pani. Huff went to second when Franklin was thrown out trying to steal third, advanced to third himself on a wild pitch and scored on junior shortstop Devin Masek’s sacrifice fly to center.

Hannibal scored two runs in the third and one in the fourth to take a 3-1 lead, but Masek came through for the Hornets again in their half of the fourth. After Vititoe hit a one-out double and went to third on a groundout by Franklin, Pani drew a walk. Masek then singled home Vititoe to bring Fulton within a run.

Peery was 2-for-3 as the Hornets collected seven hits. Vititoe finished 2-for-3, while Gray went 1-for-2 with two stolen bases. Masek was 1-for-2.

“We hit the ball pretty well all game; we didn’t find the hole at first but the guys came through,” Brinkmann said. “Jared Peery and Devin Masek have turned it on recently and those are the hits we are going to need later in the year for when we get ready for our tournament and districts.

“Having those guys stepping up is big for us.”

Steffens (3-1) threw three scoreless innings in relief of junior starter Taylor Nelson to pick up the victory. Steffens allowed just one hit and struck out four.

Fulton hosts a makeup game against New Bloomfield at 5 p.m. today.