The Jefferson City Jays might not have reached their full potential.
But they're getting closer.
"We haven't peaked yet, which is nice," Jefferson City coach Brian Ash said after the Jays posted a 7-2 victory against South Callaway on Thursday at Vivion Field. "We're just trying to get better every day. Hopefully by the time districts rolls around, we're firing on all cylinders, everybody is healthy and we're ready to go."
Jefferson City tallied 10 hits and Travis Hennessy pitched four scoreless innings, allowing three hits and striking out five as the Jays claimed their seventh straight win.
"We're obviously playing better," Ash said. "I know it's seven wins in a row, but we've won some of these games kind of ugly - which is kind of a good sign because I think we can win a couple different ways. We can play small ball and win it ugly, but then we can also score a bunch of runs."
Jefferson City had just two more hits than South Callaway, but the Jays were able to break the game open in the bottom of the third when they scored three runs on one hit, while taking advantage of a walk, two hit batters and two wild pitches.
"Any mistakes that the other team makes, if you have an opportunity to score runs, you've got to take advantage of it," Ash said. "If a team is going to make mistakes, we have to capitalize, and we did today."
Hennessy allowed a baserunner in the first three innings and two in the fourth, but the junior right-hander was able to get out of each jam without allowing any damage.
"Having my defense behind me, giving me confidence, really helped me a lot," Hennsey said. "They made a couple of great plays."
Bret Jaegers allowed two runs on four hits in 1 2/3 innings and Cody Hager closed the door by throwing 1 1/3 scoreless innings, allowing one hit and striking out one.
"I'm trying to limit some of their innings," Ash said. "We've played a lot of games over the course of seven days and we obviously wanted to get a couple other guys some work with Bret and Cody. That was exactly the situation we were going into. For the most part, it went as scripted."
Jake Walker was 3-for-3 and drove in three runs, while Ripken Dodson was 1-for-2 with an RBI to lead Jefferson City at the plate. Jackson Walker and Rylie Klosterman both drove in a run to help pace the Jays, who have six regular-season games remaining.
"I was just trying to stay aggressive early in the count," Jake Walker said. "Whenever I got behind in the count, I was shortening up and just trying to make contact."
Jake Walker hit a one-out single and came in to score on a sacrifice fly by Klosterman to give the Jefferson City a 1-0 lead in the bottom of the first.
Alex Johnson led off the bottom of the third with a single, Jake Walker was hit by a pitch and Strobel drew a five-pitch walk to load the bases with no outs. Jackson Walker followed with an RBI on a fielder's choice and Jefferson City added two more runs on back-to-back wild pitches to take a 4-0 lead.
"They had a lot of walks early in the game and we capitalized with some key base hits," Jake Walker said. "They didn't capitalize because we didn't walk as many guys as they did."
Adam Grunden led off the fourth with a single and Jake Walker drove him in with a single to extend Jefferson City's lead to five. Dodson and Jake Walker drove in two more runs in the fifth to give the Jays a 7-0 cushion, and that's all they would need.
"I think we could have played a little bit better," Ash said. "I think we were playing a little bit tight at first. We weren't really attacking the ball offensively like we should or we could, but we did enough to get the win."
South Callaway, which stranded 10, added two runs in the sixth on RBI singles by Ethan Ward and Dax Helsel, but that's all the Bulldogs were able to get.
"South Callaway had runners on all day long and we were able to work out of jams," Ash said. "We were able to make stops when we needed it."
Smith Kemper received the loss for the Bulldogs, allowing seven runs on 10 hits, while striking out three, walking five and hitting three batters in six innings.
Helsel was 3-for-4 with an RBI to lead South Callaway at the plate.
Brenden Ogletree added two hits and Johnson was 1-for-2 with two walks to help lead the offensive attack for Jefferson City, which has outscored their opponents 60-15 since falling to Hickman 12-6 on April 21.
"Coach talked to us about a week ago about caring about our teammates more, and I think we're doing that a lot better," Jake Walker said. "We're caring more about our teammates than ourselves and our stats."
The Jays, who play at 5 p.m. Tuesday at Rock Bride, still think there's room to build.
"One day I feel like it's all going to click - our defense, our offense and our pitching," Hennessy said. "When we start getting all that coming together coming into districts, we'll be pretty tough."