MOKANE, Mo. - The season series between the South Callaway and Fatima baseball teams is now level at one win apiece.
But the Bulldogs have the only one that really matters.
While Fatima won the regular season meeting - a 3-1 decision on April 25 in Westphalia - South Callaway got a huge measure of revenge Tuesday night with a 5-2 win in the championship game of the Class 3 District 9 Tournament.
Kaden Helsel twirled a complete-game six-hitter and didn't allow an earned run to send the Bulldogs into the state sectional round. South Callaway (24-5) will host Mountain Grove (16-5) at 4 p.m. Monday.
"Coming out this morning, I didn't have doubts, but I felt a little weird since they beat us the first time we played and I threw that game," Helsel said. "I knew what it was going to take to win this game. And we were locked in and were ready to put the bat on the ball and score some runs."
After sending the minimum number of batters to the plate while getting just one hit in the first three innings, the Bulldogs got all the runs they would need in a four-run fourth.
South Callaway loaded the bases with one out before Landon Horstman drove in the game's first run by reaching on a fielder's choice. Dylan Lepper then plated another run with a perfectly placed squeeze bunt, and when Fatima threw the ball away on the play, another run came home.
"On that squeeze play with two outs - all we have to do is throw the ball to first and we just didn't get that done," Fatima coach Scott Kilgore said. "It's (risky), but it worked. When things like that are going their way, you realize it's just not your day."
Drake Davidson then rapped an RBI single to make it 4-0, and the Bulldogs were well on their way to the win.
"I think the deciding factor was we were probably a little more aggressive offensively," South Callaway coach Heath Lepper said. "We tried putting the pressure on them. We've talked all year long about how, all things being equal, the most aggressive team wins. We always try to be that team."
The Bulldogs tacked on their final run in the top of the fifth when Helsel walked with one out, stole second and scored on a single by Peyton Leeper, one of his two hits in the game.
That hit chased Fatima starter Skyler Dickneite from the game, as he took the loss after giving up five runs (four earned) on five hits with four walks and three strikeouts in 41/3 innings.
"We knew from the first time we saw them that if you don't get to Dickneite pretty early, if you let that kid settle in, he's going to beat you," Lepper said. "We started playing for one run (in the fourth inning) and we were fortunate enough that one run turned into four."
Helsel, meanwhile, kept limiting Fatima. He faced just three batters over the minimum through the first six innings Tuesday.
"I was feeling great," Helsel said. "Usually, I don't start flourishing until after the third or fourth inning. I felt comfortable with where I was and I knew if I could get through the first three innings, I wouldn't have any problems."
Kilgore said Helsel's command of his pitches was impressive.
"You've got to hand it to Helsel, he threw an absolute monster today in a huge situation," Kilgore said. "I tip my cap to him. There's not much you can do when a kid's commanding the two pitches he was throwing. His fastball especially, he was putting it where he wanted to."
Fatima finally got on the board twice in the bottom of the seventh, with both runs scoring on South Callaway errors. But it was too little, too late.
"We scrapped and scratched a few across," Kilgore said of the Comets, who end the season with a record of 16-9. "We were scrappy at the end."
Lepper said his team showed a bit of nervousness in the final frame.
"We started thinking, 'Well, it's only three more outs,'" he said. "No, it's one pitch at a time, one out at a time. Not one inning at a time."
But the Bulldogs secured the win and left the tying run in the on-deck circle when Helsel's final strikeout of the game recorded the final out.
Helsel and Lepper both said the Bulldogs have what it takes to make a deep postseason run, with Lepper adding the biggest key is a simple one.
"You don't settle," he said. "We've talked about complacency all year long, making sure that doesn't creep in.
"Our expectations were pretty high from last year, and with starting the season how we did, where at one point we won 10 or 15 ballgames in a row. But if you start relying on what you've done in the past, someone's going to sneak up and knock you down.
"But these boys show up. We worry about what we have control over, attitude and effort. Then we let the boys play between the lines."