The Thunderbirds (3-0) played their first game in Auxvasse and the first of a three game homestand on Tuesday, Mar. 25th. They left the day with their undefeated record still in tact as they cruised to a 3-0 victory over the Wright City Tigers. The win also marked North Callaway's first district game and win of the season.
Both teams would start go scoreless through the first inning, and stellar pitching from senior Carter Moore would ensure that trend kept up the entire game for Wright City. Carter finished the game with 10 strikeouts and just a single hit allowed. Moore also landed a hit on the day as well
Head Coach Kirt Kleindienst prasied Moore's performance after the game.
"It's the start we wanted," Coach Kleindienst said about the win. "It starts with the guy who was on the bump throwing strikes all day."
Moore's pitching continued to keep the Tigers at bay for the entire game as he started and ended the game on the mound.
"Carter threw ahout 80 pitches or so. More including the warmups between innings. He was stellar today."
In the second inning, senior CJ Cunningham would put the Thunderbirds on the board with an RBI double. A few innings later in the fourth, junior Carson Bassett batted in a run of his own giving North Callaway a 2-0 lead. The final run would be scored in the same inning after a wild pitch allowed for senior Lucas Yelton to score the third run of the game for the Thunderbirds.
The Thunderbirds and Tigers played two more complete innings, with neither team scoring runs.
After three more outs in the seventh inning, both teams gathered to shake hands as the Thunderbirds walked away victorious from their first home game of the season.
"We played a pretty clean game today, maybe a few passed balls but I don't remember an error on our side," Kleindienst said about how the team played. "That's the way we want to open up district play. Everybody did their job from pitching to the defense to the offense."
Kleindienst also stressed the importance of doing less to maximize everyone's abilities.
"Slow down. As I keep saying, they have to do less. Less movement in the box. All I want moving are feet. Keeping the hands still on defense. As a team, when we're not focused we make errors. When we play like how we did today, you'll see a happy coach after the games."
The Thunderbirds will host Hallsville on Thursday, Mar. 27 and California on Monday, Mar. 31 in their next two games before travelling to Vandalia to continue disrtice play against Van-Far.