Two aces took the mound Monday at Vivion Field. Both were gone before the end of the fifth inning.
The Jefferson City Jays put six runs in four innings on Missouri commit Trae Robertson and future Southern Mississippi hurler Jacob Weirich allowed three runs in five-plus innings.
"It's a cruel sport, man," Jays coach Brian Ash said.
Brandon Williams finished the game on the mound to help hold off Hickman as the top-ranked Jays defeated the sixth-ranked Kewpies 6-4. It's the Jays' second win against the Kewpies in four days.
The teams traded blows for the first four innings.
Derek Abeln created a thud with a two-run home run off the roof of the shed beyond left-center field to tie the game at 3 in the fourth. It was one of two hits for Hickman.
Eight Kewpies walked, two were hit by a pitch and two more reached on an error.
Hickman's first run came in the first as the game led off with an error, walk and an Anthony Hansen single.
A walk and and error with two outs in the sixth put runners at first and third for Hickman. The runner at first got caught between the bags but Grant Paten went home on the throw to second base to make it 6-4. But that was it for the Kewpies' offense.
Jefferson City (11-2) had already created enough offense in the fourth inning to take the lead for good.
With two on and two outs, Grant Wood sent one of his three singles through the left side of the infield to score Gunnar See. Gaven Strobel picked up RBI Nos. 2 and 3 for the game with a line-drive double to left field. Strobel is 11-for-18 with 12 RBI in the past five games.
"Compared to where he was last year to now, he's come a long ways offensively," Ash said. "Last year the off-speed stuff gave him fits. The ball he hit down the line here was a slider and he was able to turn on it and hammer it down the line."
Strobel bunted with runners on the corners and one out in the third. Payton Bodenstab was able to slide to the plate safely.
"Payton got a little bit of a late break but he's fast enough, he was able to recover and get his hand in there," Ash said.
Williams scored Jefferson City's first run in the second on a high throw to third base following a wild pitch that allowed See to advance to third.
Monday was the sixth time in seven games the Jays have scored at least six runs.
"I thought offensively we were really sharp," Ash said. "We had great approaches, we didn't swing at a lot of stuff out of the zone. With a guy like (Robertson) you can't."
Jefferson City got five hits and drew four walks against Robertson. Weirich walked six Kewpies.
"He was frustrated," Ash said of Weirich. "I think there were some pitches that he wasn't getting called that he felt were strikes. The only thing I kept reiterating when I went to visit him on the mound was to say look, 'You've got to find a way to will yourself and just keep competing.' Both of those guys, their balls move so much some times they are hard to call. I don't think anybody in this whole area would have thought this game would be 6-4."
Monday's win means the Jays are 2-0 against district opponents with four more of those matchups left this season.
"We're sitting pretty good, sitting good in districts but there's a lot more room for improvement for us," Ash said.
Jefferson City will face Battle, another district foe, at 5:30 p.m. today at Vivion Field.
"They've got a couple arms that are fantastic and I'm sure we're going to see one of them," Ash said.
Jefferson City's JV team beat Hickman 8-3 in Columbia.
Landon Dunlap, Blake Terry and Justin Wood each had a hit for the Jays.
Jack Shinkle struck out 10 and allowed one hit to earn the win. The Jays JV will face Battle following today's varsity contest.