The Jefferson City Renegades lost 5-3 to the Sedalia Bombers on Saturday night at Vivion Field, which snapped a franchise-record four-game MINK League winning streak the team set Thursday with an 11-6 win in Sedalia.
The Renegades, at 6-6, stayed atop the standings in the MINK South Division thanks to Chillicothe's 17-9 win at Ozark (5-6).
A win would have extended Jefferson City's league winning streak and set a record for overall win streak at six. The Renegades also won five consecutive games in 2018, beating the Springfield Redbirds twice and the Joplin Outlaws, Bombers and St. Joseph Mustangs once each.
But a miserable first inning, both on the mound and on defense, prevented that and put the home team in a five-run hole early. Starter Manny Martinez could not bring his fastball down to meet the top of the strike zone, and gave up three of his four walks and three of his five hits in a 39-pitch first inning. He was unable to cleanly field a grounder with one away, distracted by a runner scoring from third, and four hitters later the Renegades defense tried to complete a double play at the plate to end the inning but the throw was high.
"First inning was bad," head coach Mike DeMilia said after the loss. "Manny got off to a bad start and we couldn't play defense behind him.
"He's a guy that definitely needs to have the ball down. He has a little velocity but doesn't throw overly hard, so those guys have to stay low in the zone, and he just couldn't figure it out."
After that first inning, Martinez settled in and pitched four scoreless innings. Dylan Dunbar took the sixth, seventh and eighth, and his brother Blaine pitched a 1-2-3 ninth. The trio allowed one walk and five hits to the defending MINK League champions in eight scoreless innings.
But they were matched at nearly every turn by Sedalia's Justin Root, Brett Winkelman and Chase Hutson. Root threw seven innings and scattered seven hits, giving up two earned runs while walking none and striking out nine.
Winkelman and Hutson each threw a hitless inning with two strikeouts to keep Jefferson City's bats quiet.
"Offensively we had some things going at times, we just swung at a lot of bad pitches tonight," DeMilia said. "That's just kind of the way it goes."
The 3-4-5 of the Renegades' order combined to hit 1-for-11 with seven strikeouts. The top five hitters in the order were 2-for-19 with nine strikeouts.
Tom Reuther, Ryan Missal and Ethan Rackers (Blair Oaks High School) each had two hits, and Reuther and Rackers each drove in a run for Jefferson City, which didn't score until the bottom of the fifth inning.
Missal doubled in the fifth with one out, and Rackers guided a two-out, 0-2 pitch through the right side of the infield to bring Missal in. Dede Cole led off the sixth with a double just inside the third-base bag, and scored on Paul Haupt's infield single and an infield error. Reuther followed with a double to the same spot as Cole to draw the Renegades within two.
Jefferson City would go on to strand a runner at third base in both the sixth and eighth innings, and did not manage another run.
"We're still fine," DeMilia said. "We weren't going to run the table. They're a good team, their pitchers threw really well tonight. I like where we're at. We've got some improvements to make, but I think we're in there with everybody in this league, just have to keep plugging away."
The Renegades host St. Joseph at 6 p.m. today for Father's Day and rest Monday, the team's first scheduled off day since June 9.