North Kansas City defeated Fort Osage 14-8 on Tuesday to make it back-to-back wins against the Indians and also two wins in a row in the Northland Tournament. Hornet bats picked up a shaky Andrew Krueger, who allowed seven runs, walking five through four innings of work. The Northtown offense combined for 12 hits and 14 runs at Creekside making it 38 runs in the past three games. Ironically the game before this three game stretch was a 1-0 win against these same Fort Osage Indians. The win pushed the Hornets above the .500 mark for the second time this year.

The weather could not have been more opposite of the night before, when NKC beat Excelsior Springs Monday 11-9 with temps in the mid-80's and gusty winds. Thankfully, the winds were less, but it was also 45 degrees cooler with light flurries at game time on Tuesday. The weather and a tight zone factored into an unusually spotty outing from Krueger as Northtown trailed 6-0 heading into the bottom of the third. That's when the Northtown bats woke up and broke out. Kevin Pelico continued his hot hitting with a 2-RBI double driving in Bobby Grado and Israel Ramirez. Then, in the fourth, Ramirez had a 2-RBI double that tied the game at 6. Eli Lewis also had a leadoff double in the frame.

Fort Osage would regain the lead in the fifth 7-6 when the Hornets committed their own two errors of the game, but the lead would be short-lived thanks to a 10-batter blastoff in the bottom of the fifth. Every Hornet would reach base except Dayton Horn, who contributed a sacrifice bunt that led to a 2-RBI single by Diamonds Cooper. Northtown would score six in the inning and the die had been cast. Ramirez would collect his third RBI of the game in the sixth capping off a four-hit day.
 

Dakota Harris would relieve Krueger in the fifth and allow only one run in two innings of work striking out four. The victory put the Hornets at 7-6 on the season with one more game remaining in the Northtown Tournament Thursday at Kearney, then closing out the week at St. Pius X sports complex on Friday - a makeup of an earlier rained out game. The week of non-conference games will be the last as conference season opens in full next week and NKC appears to have their offense clicking heading into conference.