NORTH CALLAWAY BASEBALL ROUNDUP: North Callaway frozen in 7-0 loss vs Montgomery County

By Jeremy Jacob, Sports Editor
Posted 5/10/23

Sam Pezold pitched well enough for a win on Monday but didn’t have the runs to do it.

North Callaway vs Montgomery County Photo Gallery

The North Callaway junior kept Montgomery …

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NORTH CALLAWAY BASEBALL ROUNDUP: North Callaway frozen in 7-0 loss vs Montgomery County

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Sam Pezold pitched well enough for a win on Monday but didn’t have the runs to do it.

North Callaway vs Montgomery County Photo Gallery

The North Callaway junior kept Montgomery County at bay mostly in a game that decided who would share the Eastern Missouri Conference title with Elsberry, but Jace Ellis allowed four Thunderbird hits in a 7-0 loss for North Callaway. The Wildcats (12-5) finished with a 9-1 EMO record while North Callaway (13-8) tied Wright City for second place with an 8-2 conference record.

North Callaway was shut out for the third time this season, with the first two happening against co-conference champion Elsberry and defending state champion Southern Boone. Ellis was at the forefront of why the Thunderbird bats stayed subdued, head coach Zeth Lavy said.

“We talked about (Ellis) a lot at the all-conference meeting this morning,” Lavy said. “He had a pretty solid year numbers-wise. I don’t feel like we were super-overpowered at the dish, but he did a good job locating all three or four of his pitches. Other than two line-drive singles, we didn’t square anything up.”


Lavy said Ellis, who was an all-state outfielder last year, worked well off the corners and kept North Callaway uncertain at the plate. In three straight innings, the Thunderbirds looked at strike three to end the inning. Ellis ended a fourth consecutive inning with a strikeout, but that was a swinging strike at a ball in the dirt after several well-placed pitches in previous innings.

Those strikeouts can happen once or twice, Lavy said, but a handful of times signals North Callaway needing to be prepared with two strikes.

“It’s just having a mentality of this guy is not getting one by me, at least without a hack,” Lavy said. “You swing the bat, a lot of things can happen in high school baseball, but if you keep it on the shoulder and let the umpire do his work back there, you’re not getting much done.”

In contrast, Montgomery did have the same issues with Pezold as the Wildcats were caught looking at strike three four times — part of six strikeouts and three runs on five hits for Pezold — but also benefited from putting the ball in play. The first hit of the game was a check-swing single by reigning all-state player Travis Hill in the fourth inning. Mason Leu and Harrison Bishop each followed with one RBI in their three-RBI days at the plate.

Bishop hit a slow roller just out of the reach of second baseman AJ Siegel for a RBI single to force the Montgomery lead to 3-0 and Pezold out of the game in the sixth inning. 

“That’s kind of the story of his season in a way,” Lavy said. “His first two outings, he pitched to eight or nine errors in three or four innings, or something like that. Right now, he’s looking like our No. 1.”

Pezold was efficient against the Wildcats as he finished his outing with 70 pitches when he was relieved by Matthew Weber. Lavy said there might have been some fatigue due to pitching in a weekend tournament, but Pezold has been great at recording strike one quickly. With a team-high 25 innings after Monday, Pezold leads the team with a 2.52 ERA and has struck out 38 and walked only five — a much better rate than the 11 free passes in just over 16 innings last year.

“He had some arm issues last year that plagued him,” Lavy said. “He came off a little (back) injury from basketball this season so that was slow getting him started. I really think it’s more about him feeling healthy and feeling confident in the way he feels.”

North Callaway won the EMO conference in 2018 but has dealt with teams like Montgomery, Elsberry and Wright City at the top of the standings since. The Thunderbirds liked how they performed in conference play this season.

“We talked all year that we want to be one of the top three or four teams,” Lavy said. “The last few years, those teams have been extremely strong and have done well in the postseason. If you’re in that company, you like where you’re at when playing ball.”

North Callaway found out it has the No. 4 seed in the Class 3 District 7 tournament at South Callaway in Mokane. The Thunderbirds play No. 5 Missouri Military Academy (9-7) at 5 p.m. Friday.

Thunderbirds take seventh after 10-inning victory vs Mexico

North Callaway fought hard for its seventh-place finish against tough competition.

The Thunderbirds dropped its first two games Thursday and Friday in the Fulton Invitational tournament after losing 8-5 to Class 4 Fatima and 7-0 to Class 4 No. 7 and defending champion Southern Boone. North Callaway then defeated Class 4 schools it lost to earlier this season as it won 8-5 against Eldon on Friday and 4-3 against Mexico on Saturday in 10 innings.

North Callaway (13-7) had the winning run come to the plate in Thursday’s loss to Fatima (14-13) following four RBI singles in the seventh inning but couldn’t get anything going Friday against Southern Boone (24-9). The Thunderbirds tallied four hits against the Eagles’ Brayden Beckmann while Southern Boone finished four doubles and a home run.

In the Versailles/California Turf War championship game earlier this season, North Callaway lost 13-3 to Eldon (18-10) but were able to come back to win 8-5 on Friday. The Thunderbirds were down 5-0 thanks to errors but eventually made it a new ballgame after a three-RBI home run in the fifth inning by Matthew Weber, who also pitched two shutout innings. Kyle Pennell finished 3-for-4 with three RBI, and AJ Siegel was 2-for-3 with two runs scored.

On Saturday against Mexico (8-17), Braydn O’Neal scored the winning run in the 10th inning on a wild pitch to walk off the Bulldogs as the home team on the scoreboard at Mexico’s field. Weber almost hit another three-RBI home run in a three-run first inning but settled for a two-RBI triple. Weber, Pennell, O’Neal and Jordan Fishburn each had a multi-hit game for North Callaway while Keaton Bell managed to last nine innings with a pitch count south of 100, finishing with nine strikeouts, six hits and four walks. 

North Callaway falls with winning run at plate, loses 8-5 to Fatima

North Callaway certainly made its initial game in the Fulton Invitational Tournament interesting on Thursday.

The Thunderbirds fell behind Fatima 8-1, mostly due to a five-run third inning, but rallied with four runs in the seventh inning but then failed to take advantage of a bases-loaded, one-out situation to lose 8-5. North Callaway (11-6) lost its first of three Pool 2 games hosted by Southern Boone along with Southern Boone (21-9) and Eldon (17-8).

After Keaton Bell was hit by a pitch and Bradyn O’Neal was walked, the Thunderbirds had four RBI singles from Matthew Weber, Davis Woods, Sam Pezold and Carter Moore to be within three runs. Blake Gentges settled down to strike out the next two batters to strand the bases loaded.

Weber’s RBI in the seventh was his second on his second hit of the game, Woods picked up his second hit in the rally, and Bell finished 2-for-4 with two runs scored.

Davis Woods battled through five innings on the mound for North Callaway, allowing eight hits and walked six. Fatima (13-11) countered with all-state pitcher Max Buscher, who was solid through six innings with eight strikeouts and seven hits allowed.


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