Keaton Bell was brimming with confidence on Friday.

North Callaway vs Missouri Military Academy Photo Gallery

The North Callaway sophomore started the Thunderbirds’ opening district game against Missouri Military Academy at South Callaway in Mokane for the Class 3 District 7 tournament, pitching a complete game shutout. Bell actually threw a no-hitter in North Callaway’s district opener last year against MMA, which was a 15-0 four-inning victory.

Bell needed to last a full seven innings this time but didn’t have many issues as he struck out eight and allowed six hits and no walks on just 71 pitches. MMA (9-9) put up more of a fight this time around as it countered with Ethan Hersh’s six innings with seven hits, five strikeouts, four runs and two walks, but Bell’s confidence never wavered.

“That was basically my only thought was to come in and dominate,” Bell said. “I planned on throwing a lot more breaking balls, but I just didn’t feel like I needed to. I stuck to the normal stuff, and it worked.”

What is normal to Bell is locating the fastball, and he has done that to great success this season with a 2.93 ERA in the 28⅔ innings going into Friday. Bell went in with three walks and left with three walks as the Colonels had to stay on their toes in pitcher’s counts.

North Callaway head coach Zeth Lavy said the MMA this year is the best baseball team the school has put on the field, as far as he has seen. The Thunderbirds (15-8) have faced the Colonels three times in five years in districts and have enjoyed Bell’s pitching in two of those meetings.

“He’s a guy that’s just a competitor,” Lavy said. “He doesn’t care what the moment is as he wants to get up there and go at it. As far as getting districts started, we want a guy where we know he’s going to throw strikes, you know he’s going to compete and throw to a quick pace to keep our defense on their toes.”

Lavy said the big game amps up Bell rather than fazes him as extra adrenaline and warmer weather later in the season has contributed to more velocity.

Bell was right when he said he didn’t need his breaking stuff much as he was throwing good velocity that oftentimes led to hitters fouling pitches off the opposite way with late timing as they tried to stay alive, let alone mount a scoring threat in an inning.

“He’s lived in the strike zone,” MMA head coach Thomas Roberts said. “The calls behind the plate were really because he stayed in that zone where you would want your pitcher to stay. A little bit on the outside corner and kind of lived on the outside a little bit. The official behind the plate called that consistently for us and them.”

Bell’s counterpart benefitted from those calls as well as MMA’s usual catcher Hersh handled North Callaway’s offense well, encountering one sticky inning in the second after two Colonel errors. Sam Pezold reached base on a leadoff single that turned into an extra base off an error and then scored on Carter Moore’s RBI single, only for Moore to end up at third base after an errant throw into the outfield trying to cut Moore down at second. Moore scored on Bell's RBI single up the middle.

The Thunderbirds finished with three doubles in the game but couldn’t string them together as Hersh’s pitching gave them fits at other times. Matthew Weber had an RBI groundout, and Kyle Pennell had a sacrifice fly.

“He doesn’t have a commanding fastball or anything like that, but the kid can throw some junk,” Roberts said. “He’s got a nasty slider, and it baffled them pretty much all day. You could hear them mumbling about it, which is good because that’s a pitch he has to live on because he doesn’t have that fastball.”

Roberts said Hersh didn’t pitch very often this year as Friday’s game was only his second appearance on the mound due to his importance behind the plate. Hersh pitched a complete game in his first appearance while showing value everyday when catching the rest of the pitching staff and batting leadoff. Roberts said he’ll certainly miss the senior that will graduate next week.

“He’s just a good ballplayer,” Robert said. “I would love to have nine of him on a team. He has to be behind the plate as that’s one position you just can’t sacrifice a whole lot. He’s definitely got the pop time and the throw down to second base you’ve got to have. A lot of people don’t run on him because he threw two runners out this year from his knees.”

North Callaway’s backstop came through like the team wants him to as well. Moore finished 2-for-3 with an RBI, which is the type of offensive production from the bottom of the order the Thunderbirds will take and need, along with some other things, when they face top seed and Class 3 No. 5 South Callaway (19-7) at 4 p.m. Monday. 

“That’s a sophomore who started his first day on campus behind the dish,” Lavy said. “He does a really good job defensively for us and on the mound. When you can get a little offense out of him too, that’s big. If he can keep contributing on the offensive side, I like our chances to compete.

“We’ve going to have to throw strikes, we’re going to have to field the baseball and we’re going to have to get some hits strung together offensively. It’s no surprise (South Callaway is state-ranked) because they’re a really solid baseball team, but I think we’re a really solid baseball team when we’re going right.”

MMA proved to be more than solid this season as well, which is a big improvement in recent years and in its full history. The Colonels defeated Marion County 10-6 on Monday to secure the team’s ninth victory, which tied a single-season school wins record that was set in 1969.

“This is probably the most fun I’ve had coaching MMA baseball,” Roberts said. “I had a blast this year because it’s a really fun group to coach, and I’m really going to miss these guys.”