Developing an ace has proven to be more manageable for the Wright City baseball team thanks to consistent hitting and solid fielding.Those areas have guided the Wildcats to a 6-4 start.“We’re constantly improving,” said first-year coach Shannon Wells. “The more we play, the better we’re getting.”The Wildcats graduated a pair of prolific pitchers last spring and have needed time to find their replacement. One of those has come in the form of a younger sibling.Sophomore Kyle Tuepker is following in the footsteps of his brother, Tyler, who now pitches for Missouri Western University.On Tuesday, he made his second start of the season for the Wildcats, helping them to an 11-1 win over Clopton.“I feel a lot more confident throwing than I did at the beginning of the year,” acknowledged Tuepker. “I just need to relax and throw strikes. We’ve been scoring a lot of runs, so I feel comfortable not having to worry about one or two runs.”Wells says Tuepker is one of about five pitchers Wright City has been relying upon, with no designated ace having emerged yet. But that doesn’t mean the Wildcats struggled.“We’ve been swinging the bat pretty well these past few games, seeing the ball well,” said Wells. “We’re being a little smarter on the base paths.”Tuesday’s game was no exception, as the Wildcats kept the bases hot and took advantage of Clopton’s errors.Tuepker found himself in the occasional pinch, loading the bases twice. But each time he managed to escape with no damage done.“There were two innings they had bases loaded on us, and we were able to get out of it with some fly outs,” said Wells.Wright City was thorough at the plate, putting a runner on in each inning and scoring at least once in the last four innings.“As far as scoring, we’re pretty happy with the performance right now,” said Wells. “We just want to keep improving.”Andrew Pfuhl and Kyle Lang opened the second inning by reaching base on walks. Three stolen bases and a single by Tyler Brittain helped put the first two runs on the board. Wright City then moved ahead 3-0 after Austin Marsh reached on an error.Clopton’s lone run came in the third inning off a pair of singles and two walks.“It was nice to be able to avoid a shootout and minimize the scoring from the other team,” said Wells.Devin Telkamp and Tuepker led off the bottom of the inning with doubles and eventually scored on a single by Lang.Marsh singled and scored in the fourth to put the Wildcats ahead 6-1.Wells decided to pull Tuepker and put Dallas Deroy in for relief heading into the fifth.“He’s been throwing strikes, but we’ve just got to back him up a little better,” said Wells. “That’s part of our defense learning to adjust without us telling them what to do.”Six more runners crossed in the fifth, as the Wildcats ended the game early.

Wright City sophomore Kyle Tuepker, shown here throwing to first base, started on the mound for the Wildcats' during an 11-1 win on Tuesday.

Derrick Forsythe Photo.