What began as a pitcher's duel quickly shifted to a rout in the fifth inning.
"Every time they had runners on they found a way to get them over and they found a way to get them in," Jefferson City Jays coach Kyle Lasley said following a 13-0 loss in five innings to the Hickman Kewpies on Tuesday at Vivion Field. " They went up there with a plan and they executed."
Justin Wood shut down the Kewpies for the first three innings, retiring the first six batters he faced and pitching around a walk and single in the third to strand two runners in scoring position.
Then the Kewpies began to catch fire in the fourth. Coulton Doyle launched a double off the fence in right field and scored on Austin Wilson's single to right, sliding past the tag at home plate just in time.
Gavin Bleything then sent Hickman's third straight single off the glove of a diving shortstop to double the lead.
Francisco Villarreal added a sacrifice fly for a 3-0 lead.
Wood finished with four strikeouts and two walks while allowing five hits in four innings.
"He threw well," Lasley said. "He was battling arm issues last week. We've been pretty slow with him in practice as far as the throwing goes, but he said he felt really good tonight and he looked really good."
Hickman put the game away in the fifth with 10 runs on 10 hits. The first eight Kewpies reached base, including four RBI singles.
A walk with the bases loaded made it 9-0 and Connor Ashton pushed a pair across the plate with a liner into center field off a diving shortstop's glove. Doyle, who had two hits and two RBI in the inning, followed with a deep fly ball to right field for an RBI double and Tyler Stine drove in the final run with a grounder to center field for a single.
"There's a lot of balls I thought outfield-wise and even some of the infield stuff we could have made plays on and we just didn't," Lasley said.
Ashton, Doyle, Wilson, Stine, Bleything and Villarreal each had two RBI for Hickman. Doyle and Stine each recorded a game-high three hits.
A single up the middle in the fourth by Jack Shinkle was the lone hit for the Jays off Kyle Brown, who struck out six and walked none in five innings.
It's the second straight run-rule shutout for Jefferson City (1-2) after winning the season opener 9-2 against Fatima on Saturday.
"Offensively we're just not there yet," Lasley said. "I understand hitting at this time of the year is maybe a little bit behind, but we hit a lot in practice and I feel like we're not that far behind."
The Jays will play Friday and Saturday in the Union Tournament.