Mexico knows plenty about playing in one-run games and were in another one Thursday.

Mexico vs North Callaway Photo Gallery

The Bulldogs beat Class 3 No. 7 North Callaway 2-1 to open pool play in Mexico for the Southern Boone Classic tournament. Drew DeMint beat Carter Moore in a pitcher's duel that had a combined nine hits.

Head coach Daniel McCarty said Mexico (16-10) has had experience winning and losing one-run games this season. The Bulldogs have played in seven one-run games this season with the inclusion of Thursday's game and have now won three straight one-run games after losing the first four of that type this season.

"We're getting more accustomed to these pitcher's duel games -- a lot of games that are 3-1, 3-2 or 2-1," McCarty said. "Our experience this year in those early season games, losing by one or winning by one or two, helped us get to this point. We found that niche, I guess."

Carter Moore has been great this season for North Callaway (16-3) and was able to extend his streak of not allowing an earned run to 27 1/3 innings. Moore allowed two unearned runs to Mexico after he gave the Thunderbirds the lead in the first inning on a RBI single.

DeMint pitched seven innings for Mexico with five hits, four strikeouts, two walks and one earned run. 

"He settled down and kept hitter's off-balance," McCarty said. "Our defense today was flawless."

There were 16 groundouts in the game, and DeMint induced eight of them. DeMint said he wished Mexico had a better start at the plate in the game but was glad he could rely on his defense the whole game.

"My two-seamer was the pitch I was throwing the most," DeMint said. "My curveball was in there sometimes."

DeMint hit a two-out double in the fourth inning prior to Brady Fox connecting on a single. The throw in from the outfield became loose and then DeMint rounded third base to score. 

Kaden Benne drew a leadoff walk in the fifth inning and advanced to second base on another loose ball that happened on the catcher's throw back to the pitcher. Benne advanced to third on Brayden Arnold's groundout and then Sam Ryan scored Benne on his groundout for the lead.

"Those are detrimental moments in the game," McCarty said. "We didn't try to steal any bags tonight, so for them giving us mistakes, we just took advantage of it."

McCarty said North Callaway is so good that Mexico didn't expect a game anywhere close to the 15-2 five-inning victory at North Callaway earlier this season. In that game, the Thunderbirds committed a season-high seven errors.

Mexico remained alert on defense, including on a pivotal play in the seventh inning. North Callaway had two hits in the inning but had a runner thrown out at third base on the second one. Landon Hilderman threw the ball in from left field to cut down the runner that made a late break toward third base for the second out.

"It would have been a double down the line, but our left fielder got the ball immediately and threw to third and got that out," McCarty said. "That was a key point right there."

McCarty said he liked how his batters adjusted to Moore later in the game, which will hopefully bode well for the rest of this tournament, which he said is "the best of the best of pitching." He said it is a loaded field with four state-ranked teams, including North Callaway and Class 4 Nos. 2 and 5 Moberly (23-4) and Fulton (16-4) all in Mexico's pool and Class 4 No. 7 Southern Boone (19-7) in the Southern Boone pool.

In its two pool games Friday in Mexico, the Bulldogs face North Central Missouri Conference foe and Class 4 No. 5 Fulton (16-4) at noon and then conference and district foe and Class 4 No. 2 Moberly (23-4) at 7:30 p.m.

"We settled down and started hitting the ball more on Carter Moore from the fifth inning on," McCarty said. "We started squaring more balls up with right-at-them line drives. They were just guessing on the first two at-bats, I think, instead of just going up there and hitting the ball. They got into more hitter's counts versus pitcher's counts."