MARSHALL, Mo. - The Fulton Hornets could not weather one momentous inning by the Kirksville Tigers.
No. 2 seed Kirksville broke a 2-all tie by breaking out for six runs in the bottom of the sixth inning to send the Tigers to an 8-3 win over No. 3 Fulton in the Class 4, District 8 semifinals Monday night.
The loss stopped a five-game winning streak for the Hornets and brought their season to an end. Fulton - which took fourth place in Class 4 last season - finished with a 16-7 record.
The Hornets won 11 of their last 13 games.
"That's still an impressive record and the players should be happy with themselves about that," Fulton head coach John Brinkmann said. "That's not anything to shake your head at.
"The senior class should really be proud of the record they put together. We graduate 11 guys and they helped carry this program for the last couple of years. It was an honor to coach them."
The Hornets relied on the long ball to gain an early edge against Kirksville. Senior left fielder Josh Quick launched a one-out solo home run to left in the top of the third and senior catcher Isaiah Pani led off the fourth with a homer to center to give Fulton a 2-0 lead.
The Tigers, though, pulled even by putting up a pair of runs in their half of the fourth. The game then unraveled for the Hornets in the sixth as two errors resulted in three runs for Kirksville, which also had a two-run single and an RBI single in the inning.
"They got a couple of seeing-eye base hits and then it snowballed from there," Brinkmann said. "They had a little momentum and then they got a lot of momentum."
Fulton tried to fashion a rally in the seventh, receiving an RBI double from senior third baseman Luke Gray with two outs, but that would be all the Hornets would get.
Pani went 2-for-2 with an RBI and a run scored as Fulton collected nine hits but left seven on base. Quick finished 2-for-4 with an RBI and scored two times, while Gray was 2-for-4 with an RBI.
"In RBI situations, we struggled a little bit," Brinkmann said.
Senior Alec Fleetwood (3-2) was rocked for six runs - four earned - on three hits, a walk and a hit batter in just one-third of an inning of relief to take the loss for the Hornets.