Calvary Lutheran had scored at least eight runs in its last three games and six times in the last eight games.
The ball hardly left the infield Thursday evening against Vienna.
"He looked pretty good to me," Calvary coach Rusty Bourg said of Vienna's Owen Kloeppel after the Eagles defeated the Lions 7-0 at Calvary Lutheran High School. "Mixed the fastball around and mixed in a curveball here and there, kept us off-balance. I just told the kids you've got to tip your hat to good pitching."
Calvary was limited to one baserunner in each of the first five innings, including a one-out single from Jonathan Lieb on a fly ball in the third inning and a leadoff single in the fourth on a grounder hit up the middle by Alex Procter.
Neither Lieb nor Procter got past first base.
Calvary (7-9) had won two of its last three games, defeating Stover 12-2 at home and M.M.A. 12-5 in Mexico before falling 12-8 at Jamestown.
"That's our biggest improvement is probably putting the ball in play," Bourg said. "We've been scoring some runs."
The defense was solid behind Kloeppel, who recorded 11 outs by ground out, fly out or pop out in six innings. Kloeppel struck out five and walked none.
"Even the ones that struck out, struck out swinging," Bourg said. "One of those things that we really try and work on hard is get your three swings in."
In the seventh inning, Logan Meers lined a single to left field and Ben Hardin followed with a fly ball to left.
But Cash Stricklan struck out the next batter and a lineout to second baseman Will Veasman led to the runner at first being doubled off to end the game.
Jesse Jorgensen got the start on the mound for the Lions and was relieved with two outs and the bases loaded in the second inning.
Lieb got the first batter he faced to strike out swinging to end the five-run outburst for Vienna (9-8).
"He's come in and put out the fire a couple times in relief," Bourg said of Joegensen. "I wanted to give him an opportunity to start a game just to give him that experience."
Lieb got out No. 2 in the third inning on a strikeout and catcher Meers threw out the runner attempting to steal second base.
With runners on the corners and two outs in the sixth, the runner at first got caught between the bags and Lieb began to run that way for a possible tag. Then Lieb threw home to get the other runner trying to score.
"He does a fake to third and goes to first," Bourg said. "He's done that a couple times and he handled the whole thing himself. Everybody else just stood around and watched to see what was going to happen. He's just a good athlete and he's a smart kid."
Vienna got four hits and a run off Lieb, who struck out five and walked three in 5 innings.
Landon Kloeppel tagged the Lions for three hits and two RBI, including a fly ball to left field for a single that drove in a run in the first inning and a grounder to right field for an RBI single in the second.
Stricklan singled twice, including a ground ball through the right side to plate two runs in the second inning.
Owen Kloeppel added a double, a single and an RBI.
Vienna will play today at Iberia (14-1), which is ranked first in Class 2 by the Missouri High School Baseball Coaches Association. Game time is 5 p.m.
Calvary plays at 2 p.m. Saturday at Belle before hosting Higbee at 4:30 p.m. Tuesday and Versailles at 4:30 p.m. Thursday.
The Lions begin play in the Class 1 District 8 Tournament on Monday, May 17, in St. Elizabeth.
Calvary, the No. 3 seed, will take on No. 6 seed Climax Springs with the winner facing No. 2 seed Stoutland (9-9) the next day.
St. Elizabeth (13-5), ranked No. 10 in Class 1, is the top seed.
The championship game is scheduled for 6 p.m. Thursday, May 20.
"That's our goal is to get to that game," Bourg said. "We're going to do whatever we have to do to get to that game and then whatever happens after that is just gonna be a crapshoot. I may have to pitch that game."