COLUMBIA - After the first inning, it was easy to see why New Franklin is the No. 1 team in the state in Class 1.
The Bulldogs used a four-spot in the opening frame to quickly grab control of their sectional-round game Monday against Jamestown at Hickman High School.
After Jamestown fought back and stayed within striking distance, New Franklin scored five more runs in the sixth inning to put the Eagles away for good.
"Our game plan was to just play baseball and make sure our heads were in it," Jamestown coach Jordan Hoecker said. "We had a couple miscues, but fought throughout the game. As a competitor, you're disappointed."
The Bulldogs led off the first inning with a double and back-to-back singles to plate a run before recording their first out. A sacrifice fly scored another run, then Levi Bishop homered to left to give New Franklin the 4-0 advantage.
In the second inning, Jamestown's Christian DeVore led off with a double to right field. Evan Knierim followed that with an infield single to put two on with no outs and then Colton DeVore sacrificed the runners over.
But New Franklin got out of the inning with the help of miscommunication on the base paths. When Garrett Jones grounded out to the pitcher, Knierim advanced to third. However, Christian DeVore stayed at third because the pitcher looked his way before throwing out Jones at first. When Christian DeVore saw Knierim approaching third, he bolted for home, only to have the catcher tag him out.
"We had a couple of chances to come back," Hoecker said. "We made a couple base-running mistakes, which had been an issue throughout the season, and that kind of kept us in that hole for a while. We had a lot of fight and a lot of chances."
After the Bulldogs scored another run in the third to push their lead to 5-0, the Eagles were able to scratch across a couple of runs. Alex Gerlach and Garrett Wolfe started the fourth with back-to-back singles and Knierim doubled to left field two batters later to plate Jamestown's first run. Colton DeVore then hit a sacrifice fly to cut the lead to 5-2, but Knierim was thrown out at third a split-second after the run scored, ending the inning.
Wolfe started on the hill for the Eagles, but New Franklin chased him from the game in the third inning. He gave up five runs - four earned - on four hits and three walks. Gerlach pitched the next 22/3 innings, only allowing one earned run on three hits.
The Eagles' offense couldn't push across any more runs before New Franklin exploded for the five-run sixth inning.
"After their four-run (first) inning, we came in and were ready to compete," Hoecker said. "We didn't get out of the hole. We were fighting until the last out. New Franklin got the better of us today, and we weren't playing our best."
Knierim led the offense by going 2-for-3 from the plate with an RBI.
The Eagles (17-6), who dropped New Franklin 7-4 on May 6 at Jamestown, had seven total hits and committed five errors.