Jeremy Ritts doesn't get paid by the hour.

Moniteau's junior right-hander pitched a gem Tuesday night at Pullman Park, defeating Karns City 4-0 with a three-hit shutout that took an hour and 45 minutes to complete.

Ritts threw just 55 pitches — never more than nine in an inning — and all but 12 were strikes.

"First-pitch strikes, that's what we preach," Moniteau coach Ross Martin said. "When Jeremy is locked in like this, this is what he does.

"With these types of surroundings and atmosphere, he could have thrown the first 15 pitches in the dirt. But this didn't bother him at all."

Ritts didn't walk a batter and Karns City never had more than one baserunner in any inning.

"I was just throwing fastballs, mainly, with a few curveballs mixed in," Ritts said "Everything seemed to be working for me."

Karns City pitcher Jarrett LaVan was throwing a solid game in his own right, allowing only one hit through the first four innings.

LaVan got some help from his defense in the third inning. With runners on first and second and two outs, Warriors designated hitter Zack Wheeler hit a hard grounder up the middle for a would-be single, but KC shortstop Josh Stimac made a lunging stop and flipped to second baseman Brad Fuhrer for the inning-ending forceout.

Moniteau broke through in the fifth inning, when, with one out, Dakota Campbell lofted a fly ball down the right field line. KC right fielder Brian Best dove for the ball, but he came up empty and Campbell had an easy triple.

Campbell scored the game's first run when the relay throw to third bounced into the stands.

Heath Lominski reached on an infield single and Tony Campbell drilled a run-scoring double to right. When Zane Slater singled to right to score Campbell, LaVan's night on the mound was through.

"They started to time him up," Gremlins coach Tom Stewart said. "Jarrett battled tonight, working out of a couple of early jams. But he threw a lot of pitches in the process."

LaVan threw 77 pitches in his 4Z\c innings.

The Warriors added an insurance run in the seventh when Lominski reached on his third infield single of the night. Tony Campbell bounced into a force play, but stole second and third, then scored on an errant throw by the catcher.

Fuhrer had two of Karns City's three hits — all singles. Ritts struck out only two batters, but walked none.

"We hit four or five games' worth of fly balls tonight," Stewart said. "We're the type of team that hits a lot of ground balls and beats them out.

"Their kid pitched a heckuva game," Stewart said. "He was throwing strikes, but kept us guessing on location. We never did square him up."

Martin was surprised at how aggressive Karns City hitters were against Ritts, swinging at a lot of first pitches.

Ritts wasn't surprised at all.

"I thought they'd have me figured out after a while and would swing away rather than fall behind in the count," he said. "They were hitting the ball, but we were catching everything."

Moniteau 000 030 1 — 4 6 1Karns City 000 000 0 — 0 3 4W: Jeremy Ritts (7 IP) 2 K, 0 BB.

L: Jarrett LaVan (4 1/3 IP) 3 K, 2 BB.

Moniteau (7-5, 6-3): Dakota Campbell 3B, Heath Lominski 3-1B, Tony Campbell 2B RBI 2-R, Zane Slater 1B RBI

Karns City (5-6, 5-2): Brad Fuhrer 2-1B, Brad Francis 1B

Today: Union at Karns City

Monday: Keystone at Moniteau