Rounding the bases with an ecstatic group of teammates waiting at the plate, Donovan Mozee glowed from ear to ear.Without a doubt, he was back as a valuable part of a team he had to watch from the sidelines last season.There was little question — on that day he was the hero, stepping up when the Wildcats needed it most.Mozee delivered a two-run walk-off home run in the bottom of the seventh inning to complete a tremendous rally and lift Wright City past Warrenton 7-5.“It feels good to know that I can help my team win again,” said Mozee, who had to sit out last season due to academic reasons. “I knew that was ballgame. He made a mistake, and I took advantage of it.”The fact he blasted two shots over the fence in one game was perhaps more fathomable than why Warrenton pitcher Ben Stephens decided to throw Mozee a strike on his final at-bat. Mozee says the two are familiar with one another, having played together during the offseason, and he hoped the Warriors’ ace would take a chance.“I knew he was a good pitcher, because I played with him a few years,” said Mozee. “I just tried to stay short to the ball, hit it and get the runner in.”“I’m still surprised they threw a strike to him,” added Wright City Coach Shannon Wells. “If you make a mistake, he can make you pay.”A game that coaches implied they expected to be more of a shootout turned out to be a contest of runs.Warrenton opened up a 5-0 lead against a Wildcat team that had been hitting well to this point in the season. Stephens gave up just two hits through the first four innings, and Burle was pleased with his effort, crediting defensive holes for the meltdown.“Ben was pitching well, but we’ve still got to make the plays behind him,” said Warrenton Coach Eric Burle. “We can’t expect him to strike everybody out.”Trailing 5-0 in the bottom of the fifth, junior Troy Muse singled to spark the rally. Senior Devin Telkamp and junior Tyler Brittain also reached base on mistakes, and all three would advance home. Two of those runs came at the hands of a double by junior Chase Jones.“It was key for us to keep whittling away at them,” said Wells. “We wanted to keep hitting the ball and putting it in play and eventually they would make a mistake. We got a couple base runners and put some pressure on them, which allowed us to get back into the game.”Mozee led off the sixth with his solo shot, and senior Adam North scored to notch the game at 5-5.“Both I and the defense made some mistakes that added up,” said Stephens. “We definitely could have won it, but we let them come back. We were real confident, and I think that was kind of the problem. We stopped taking good approaches at the plate and playing good defense.”Then, with Kyle Tuepker already on base, Mozee delivered the knockout punch.“I figured he would a least get a hit, but I wasn’t looking for him to hit one out,” said Wells. “I would never tell him to go up there and do that, but it was nice that he did.”Stephens became slightly more hittable in the latter innings but never lost composure. He ultimately gave up nine hits, with seven of those coming in the final three innings. Stephens struck out seven batters and walked just one through a full seven innings of work.Telkamp pitched for the Wildcats, striking out five and walking three, while allowing five hits.

Wright City's Donovan Mozee was named to the Eastern Missouri Conference first team.

Derrick Forsythe photo.