ST. ELIZABETH - It was a bit of brotherly love.
Zach Voss had some jitters before he took the mound Monday for the St. Elizabeth Hornets in their Class 1 sectional game against the Santa Fe Chiefs. So his older brother, Hornets head coach Nick Voss, said he used the opportunity to provide his sibling with some sage advice.
"Don't mess up," Nick Voss said with a smile.
Little brother didn't.
After some struggles in the first inning, Zach Voss dominated as St. Elizabeth posted a 10-0 victory in five innings in Class 1 sectional baseball action.
"I was a little nervous," Voss said. "But then I got into a rhythm."
Voss fell behind on all four Santa Fe batters he faced in the first, including issuing a four-pitch walk with two outs. But the freshman faced just one above the minimum the rest of the way, finishing with a one-hitter while recording 10 strikeouts.
"After that first inning, he settled in and filled (the strike zone) up," Nick Voss said. "He mixed up his pitches and did a great job."
With the win, St. Elizabeth (13-6) advances to Wednesday's quarterfinal game at Wellsville. Wellsville (9-11) defeated Pilot Grove 5-1 in its sectional Monday.
After getting out of the top of the first unscathed, the Hornets got on the board in the bottom of the inning. Nolan Heckemeyer led off with a walk, then moved to second on an errant pickoff throw. One out later, Mason Kemna lined a single to right to make it 1-0.
The Hornets left two runners in scoring position in the second before breaking the game open with an eight-run third.
St. Elizabeth sent 12 batters to the plate, with the first six reaching base. The Hornets totaled five hits and a walk to go along with three Santa Fe errors in the inning.
The Hornets only hit three balls out of the infield in the inning, but were successful playing small ball with three bunts after struggling to get bunts down in the first two innings.
"I didn't want to give up on the bunt just because we weren't successful with it early," Nick Voss said. "You have to be who you are and that's the type of team we are."
With the nine-run lead, Voss urged his team not to lose focus before it ran out to play defense in the top of the fourth.
"We still had to finish the game," he said.
St. Elizabeth got its final run in the fourth. Ross Struemph hit a one-out double, advanced to third on a wild pitch and scored on a sacrifice bunt by Brady Heckemeyer.
Zach Voss then struck out four Santa Fe batters to close out the game in the top of the fifth after the first Chiefs' batter reached on a passed ball on strike three.
Nolan Heckemeyer scored three times for the Hornets, while Struemph scored twice. Kemna had a team-high two hits and drove in two runs. Brady Heckemeyer also had two RBI.
Alexander Smith had the lone hit for Santa Fe (10-11), a single to lead off the fourth inning. He was thrown out at second trying to stretch it into a double.
St. Elizabeth, which started five freshmen Monday, has won nine of its last 10 games and was tied for seventh in the final regular season Class 1 poll by the Missouri High School Baseball Coaches Association.
The Class 1 Final Four will be played Monday and Tuesday in O'Fallon.