A day after only trailing during a half-inning in two games, the Jefferson City Jays never led Saturday against Helias.
Both teams sent a sophomore to the mound for the championship game of the Capital City Invitational at Vivion Field, with the young Crusader coming out on top in an 11-7 win.
Zach Davidson made his first varsity start, allowing three runs on four hits in 51/3 innings to earn the victory.
"Who knows what was going through his mind when he stepped on that mound, but he did well," Helias coach Chris Wyrick said.
The win was Helias' first against the Jays since 2012 in the same tournament.
Walks were abundant Saturday, as the teams combined for 17 of them. There were also three hit by pitches. Davidson walked six but the Jays could only get runs across against him in the third inning.
"Zach really pitched well the second time, almost the third time through the lineup," Wyrick said. "I couldn't be more happy for him."
On the other side, the five Jefferson City pitchers combined to walk eight Crusaders and hit another. Six of those turned into a run.
"We walked too many guys," Jays coach Brian Ash said. "That's what happens when you get behind hitters. You walk too many guys, base hits, they found holes, we didn't and that's the bottom line."
Brandon Williams kept hope alive for a Jays rally by getting three Crusaders to ground out in the seventh.
In the bottom half, a walk and hit by pitch got runners on with one out. Brandon Ferguson then got a popout and groundout to seal the win.
"If the next two guys get on then things are a little bit different," Ash said. "Then you've got the heart of your order coming up. We just didn't get enough done, Helias did, they deserve to win and they were the better team today."
Helias scored in every inning except the third and seventh.
Zach Stiles led off the game with his first of three singles and later scored on Alex Buschjost's single to right field. An error on the play allowed Trevor Austin to score.
Stiles singled in Dylan Hood, who led off the second with a walk, for a 3-0 lead.
Jefferson City came back in the third, loading the bases with no outs before Payton Bodenstab's fly ball to left scored a pair of runs.
A double steal by Jacob Weirich and Bodenstab plus a groundout tied it at 3.
Helias got back going at the plate, scoring five in the fourth, two in the fifth and one in the sixth.
Austin Fennewald drove in the go-ahead run with a double past the diving center fielder. Matthew Dempf's line-drive single to center scored two, a groundout added another and Parker Schnieders finished the fifth-inning scoring with a double to the right-field corner.
"Our bats woke up today and that's really encouraging," Wyrick said.
Saturday was the third time this season Helias has scored at least 10 runs, but the Crusaders have also been limited to two runs or fewer in four games.
"It seems like this year we've been all or nothing," Wyrick said.
Jefferson City rallied in the sixth, loading the bases with one out.
The first of four runs was walked in. Two batters later Grant Wood singled in two runs, then Gaven Strobel beat out a throw on a grounder to second base to allow a runner to cross the plate. A strikeout stranded a pair of runners and kept the score 11-7.
"They have good hitters, they have an idea of what they're doing," Wyrick said. "I knew they were going to make adjustments."
The Jays' first four batters combined to hit 5-for-14 compared to 2-for-12 for hitters five through nine.
"We had some guys that were not thinking through the process of what a good at-bat is," Ash said. "When a pitcher walks two guys and you come up to the plate and you swing at the very next pitch, that's not good at-bats and we did that at least two or three times today. I guess baseball intelligence is the word I want to use."
Jefferson City (10-2) is back at Vivion Field at 5 p.m. Monday to face the sixth-ranked Hickman Kewpies for the second time in four days.
Helias (4-4) hosts Moberly at 5 p.m. Tuesday.
Other Capital City Invitational coverage:
Struggle in the second inning costs Blair Oaks against Hickman