The Capital City Cavaliers are looking for some consistency. They're hoping that comes with more time on the baseball field.
The Hickman Kewpies kept the Cavaliers still searching for their first win Monday, coming away with an 11-0 victory in a Central Missouri Activities Conference game at Capital City High School.
"We've just got to get that game experience," Capital City coach Brett Skinner said. " It's going to take some time, that's the hardest part.
"The players have to trust it, be patient and understand it is going to be better in the long run. They're just a little overmatched at the plate right now."
Hickman pitchers Ray Schroeder, Owen Lamb and Richard Weng combined to pitch a one-hitter in seven innings.
In its first two times through the batting order, Capital City was only able to put two balls into play: a flyout to center field by Taggert Bodenstab in the second inning and a flyout to left field by Colin Flaherty to end the fifth.
The other 13 outs in the first five innings were strikeouts for the Cavaliers, with eight by Schroeder in three innings and five by Lamb in two innings.
"We were definitely overmatched," Skinner said. "Give them credit, those were two pretty good arms. They come in, throw hard and they fill the zone up. They're going to get the close calls when they're all around the zone."
Hickman led 5-0 through two innings, scoring all five runs with two outs.
A pickoff play was unsuccessful with two outs in the second inning for Capital City. Hickman responded with three straight RBI hits to score four runs.
"If we get the pick, we have an easy out and we're out of the inning, down 1-0," Skinner said. "It's just the little things like that."
Bodenstab pitched the first two innings for the Cavaliers, walking four and striking out two. Trey Jennings pitched into the seventh inning in relief, allowing just two more runs prior to the seventh.
"That was good to see, we need some guys to step up," Skinner said. "Pitching depth is already hurting us a little bit, so it was good to see Trey come in and do that."
Capital City broke up Hickman's no-hit bid when Brock Miles lined a two-out single back up the middle out of the reach of second baseman Tait Robertson in the bottom of the sixth.
"You tell them to put the barrel on the ball, and good things will happen," Skinner said.
The Cavaliers drew five walks against the Kewpies but were unable to advance a runner past second base.
Hickman (4-2, 1-0 CMAC) added four more runs in the seventh to extend its lead to double digits. The Kewpies finished with 14 hits and were led by Braden Hemmer, who was 4-for-5 with four singles and three RBI. Joseph Villareal added a double and two singles from the No. 9 spot in the order.
Carlos Ayala closed the seventh for the Cavaliers, getting a walk and a strikeout.
After playing just four games through the first two weeks of the season, Monday was the first of five games this week for the Cavaliers.
Capital City (0-5, 0-2 CMAC) will host Battle on Thursday in another conference contest, then play Neelyville, Dixon and Steelville in the Dixon Wood Bat Tournament on Friday and Saturday.
"The most important thing is getting live at-bats," Skinner said. "We'll get plenty of those."