Jackson silences Kelly

JACKSON — An error, three walks and a hit batter helped the Jackson offense score three runs in the first inning Monday.

Junior right-hander Caleb Hosey took care of the rest.

Hosey tossed a shutout as the Indians downed Kelly 9-0 in a SEMO Conference baseball game.

"He was pumping a lot of strikes with a lot of fastballs, and that really sets the tone for him," Jackson coach Rob French said of Hosey. "When he's throwing a lot of strikes and spotting up his fastball, he can throw that breaking ball in there. If he's on with his breaking ball, he's a tough pitcher to hit."

Hosey struck out five and walked one. He relied on two pitches to keep the Hawks off balance.

"The two-seam was probably the pitch that I used mostly, besides the curveball," Hosey said. "The changeup didn't really work today."

When Hosey did get into a little trouble, his defense helped him out. In the first inning, Dustin LeGrand led off with a single and went to second on a sacrifice bunt. But Hosey retired the next two batters to keep the game scoreless.

Kelly's Levi Felter couldn't reach a pitch from Jackson's Caleb Hosey as he struck out during Monday's game at Jackson City Park. Hosey threw a four-hit shutout and struck out five Hawks. KIT DOYLE kdoyle@semissourian.com

In the third inning, Kelly's Josh DeBrock was thrown out trying to steal second.

"He was hitting his spots and his curve was working great," Jackson center fielder Matt Lang said of Hosey. "A good pitcher is going to get you ground balls and pop flies. When he's hitting his spots, in the outfield, you can kind of tell if a pop fly is going to go to right field or left field, and that's just huge."

Kelly coach Nate Wills said Hosey did a nice job of confusing his hitters.

"He's their No. 1 guy," Wills said. "He mixes it up real well, has great location, great offspeed stuff. He's probably one of the better pitchers we've faced this year. We were up there guessing."

Evan Watkins and Caleb Guilliams both earned RBIs in the first inning by walking with the bases loaded. Michael Mouser drove in a run by getting plunked with the bases loaded as Jackson opened a 3-0 lead.

"It feels real good knowing you still have to work hard, but you've still got that behind you," Hosey said of the early lead. "Pretty much I throw the same way. I still try to attack the hitters and go right at them."

Ryan Cheney drove in a run with a single in the second, then the Indians used three hits and three errors in the third to score four more and take a commanding 8-0 lead.

"We give up that one inning where we'll have more than one error and it brings runs on the board for them," Wills said. "Then we're in a hole and we're playing catch up the whole game."

Lang led Jackson's offensive attack with a 3-for-5 performance. He scored twice and stole a base. He said patience is the key to hitting when the other team's pitcher is struggling.

"That's what we kind of do in practice," Lang said. "You've got to focus on keeping your weight back and picking out the pitch that you want."

Jackson will try to build off the momentum as it prepares for the SEMO Conference tournament. The Indians earned the No. 3 seed and will face Kennett in the quarterfinal round Friday. French said he likes the way his team is rounding into shape.

"Beginning of the year, we really struggled to put runs across," he said. "Now as we've got along in the season a little bit, we've gotten to put some more runs up on the board. We're scoring earlier and that's taking a lot of pressure off our pitchers."

The Hawks, meanwhile, enter the tournament as the No. 9 seed and will face New Madrid County Central in the first round Thursday.

"I'm just disappointed in the way we're approaching the game right now," Wills said. "We've kind of hit the skids here lately. A lot of it has to do with some focus issues."

Kelly 000 000 0 — 0 4 4

Jackson 314 100 x — 9 11 1

@z_agate_no tab_no indnt_bld ld:WP — Caleb Hosey. LP — Bryce Faulkner. 2B — Andy Winkleblack. Multiple hits — Jackson: Matt Lang 3-5, Winkleblack 2-2. Records — Kelly 3-8, Jackson 6-9.