Mexico has been in situations like Tuesday before, especially the team’s six seniors.

Mexico vs Hannibal Senior Night Photo Gallery

On Senior Night, all six of those Bulldogs contributed to defeat North Central Missouri Conference foe Hannibal 3-1 at home, scoring three runs in the fifth inning for the comeback victory. Seniors Jack Wilburn and Andrew Runge covered the seven innings on the mound while senior Ty Sims had the game-tying RBI hit, and Landyn Kleinsorge scored the game-winning run.

While Mexico’s senior group has played together for a while, the Bulldogs faced a similar test at the plate against Hannibal’s southpaw Evan Harsell. In Mexico’s 6-4 loss in Hannibal earlier this season, Harsell pitched six innings of three-run ball that game, quieting the Bulldogs’ bats until the sixth inning. Head coach Daniel McCarty said Mexico (8-8, 4-3 NCMC) was able to make adjustments sooner this time, answering his challenge this week.

“I challenged them — during practice, during our huddles — to compete,” McCarty said. “We didn’t make adjustments until the fifth inning when we started using the opposite field, we started hitting the holes and we started putting more pressure on them.”

After several innings of Mexico lifting lazier fly balls to the outfield that were caught, its bats became noisier in the fifth inning from the outset as Tyler Thoenen led off the inning with a double. Kleinsorge followed with a single and then Sims found a hole on the left side to tie the game at 1, making it to second base on an error. 

Now the seniors had started the offense, the underclassmen kept the Bulldogs going as freshman Drew DeMint hit a sacrifice fly and then sophomore Sam Ryan lined a RBI single to left field. 

“It all came together that inning,” McCarty said. “All the seniors came through tonight. Matt McCurdy led off (the second inning) with a hit down the line, we had Sims with a base hit in the 6 hole that scored a run, we had Thoenen lead off an inning with a double, we had Jack pitch three innings, we had Runge hit and he was also stellar on the mound, and Landyn Kleinsorge had some hard-hit balls.”

Thoenen was blistering the baseball on Tuesday as he lined into an out in his next at-bat after the leadoff double in the fifth inning. He said facing the same pitcher as before helped the Bulldogs this time.

“We just had a different approach at the plate,” Thoenen said. “He was throwing offspeed first so I was looking at offspeed, but I wasn’t really trying to attack it. I was really trying to get to the second or third pitch where he threw another offspeed or a fastball right down the middle of the strike zone where I could just hit it. He did it every time so I just hit it.”

McCarty said he has players that tend to pull so adjusting to Harsell’s offspeed pitches were important for the offense to thunder back.

“Keeping the hands back, keeping your foot down and seeing the ball deep. We were struggling with that during that game in Hannibal in the first one through five innings,” McCarty said. “He probably throws 65 mph, but he was locating his offspeed and kept it down. He threw us off-balance so hats off to him.”

Mexico needed to make some adjustments on the pitching side as the No. 1 pitcher Wilburn didn’t feel like he was at his best through three innings as the Pirates (8-11, 4-2 NCMC) took a 1-0 lead in the third inning on a RBI single up the middle by Kane Wilson. 

“He felt like it was going to be the second time through the lineup, through the heart of the order, and he felt like he was getting hit hard,” McCarty said. “We knew they were starting to time him very well. He wasn’t locating on the outside pitches so we had to make an adjustment.”

Runge came in firing, losing command at times in the form in five walks and working into trouble but ultimately threw up zeroes, allowing two of Hannibal’s seven hits.

While he had locating issues in the form of five walks, Runge said he maintained his composure and trusted his teammates to help him out of jams. Thoenen turned an unconventional 3-6 double play after fielding and throwing perfectly to second base, and the Bulldogs made all the routine plays as well to finish without an error.

“My curveball wasn’t working that well, but I try to throw my fastball and just throw strikes,” Runge said. “I know my defense is really good so I put trust in them and threw strikes. I was 3-0 a lot of times and came back so I just slowed it down and kept my composure.”

While playing a challenging schedule that will include a reigning state champion Father Tolton at 5 p.m. Friday, McCarty said Mexico’s core senior players have made this year’s team stronger mentally.

“As a club, we are focusing more on ourselves — on mental health, small-game approach,” McCarty said. “We’re trying to adjust midseason and get back to small things and do those right.”

“We focused more on the hitting side and less on the defensive side,” Runge said. “Our defense is very strong so that’s why I think we can definitely go farther this year.”

Thoenen said the crowd that came out to honor the team’s six seniors serves as additional motivation and has made his four high school years and previous baseball experience worthwhile.

“This is a family, we’re all together and we’re all here for each other,” Thoenen said. “If somebody is down, we all pick him up. It’s just a nice community to be with.”

Bulldogs shut down by Ferguson, Kirksville in 2-0 loss

Mexico was the one who fell during Thursday’s duel.

Kirksville’s Tanner Ferguson shut down the Bulldogs by allowing three hits and one walk while striking out five in seven innings in a 2-0 loss for Mexico (8-9, 4-4 NCMC) — its second loss against its North Central Missouri Conference and district foe. Landyn Kleinsorge in five innings and Brady Fox in one inning combined to counter with five hits and three walks allowed and three strikeouts.

Landon Hilderman and Austin Maxwell each hit doubles but each happened in different innings when there were two outs. 

Kirksville (7-11, 5-4 NCMC) scored both of its runs in the fourth inning, which began with a walk and bunt single. 

Mexico had a slow turnaround on Friday at defending state champion Father Tolton (5-4) before hosting Class 5 No. 2 Helias Catholic (12-4) at 5 p.m. Monday.