Sluggo Smith hasn’t seen many stranger victories than the one his Karns City baseball team pulled out over rival Moniteau Monday evening.

The Gremlins’ coach watched as his team was dominated by Moniteau pitcher Branson Carson the first time through the order, committed five errors and didn’t get its first hit until there were two outs in the sixth inning.

Karns City still found a way to win, 7-5, at Michelle Krill Field at Historic Pullman Park.

“We battled,” Smith said, smiling. “That’s what I tell our guys. Stay in the fight. You always have a chance if you stay in the fight. They always say in boxing that a puncher has a chance. I hate to quote Rocky, but you have to keep moving forward.”

Conversely, losses don’t come stranger — or more painful — than the one Moniteau absorbed.

Carson, who was coming off a no-decision last week in a game where he struck out 15 in 5 1/3 innings, fanned seven of the first nine Karns City batters he faced.

Then control problems plagued him.

Carson walked the bases loaded in the fourth, but got out of that jam with three more strikeouts.

The right-hander wasn’t as lucky in the fifth.

He walked three more and was chased.

Karns City managed to score four runs in the fifth without a hit for a 4-2 lead.

“This one is hard,” said Moniteau senior Mason Mershimer. “We have to clean things up.”

Moniteau was also torpedoed by runners gunned down and stranded.

The Warriors left 11 on base and had two runners caught stealing and another thrown out at the plate.

“All respect to KC,” said senior Tanner Williams, “but we have to get big hits. We just didn’t.”

Mallick Metcalfe got the win for Karns City, striking out two and walking no one in five innings of work.

The long-haired right-hander was effective at keeping Moniteau hitters off-balance.

He managed to get a slew of ground balls and pop ups.

Mike Neff, a left-hander, got the save. He did much of the same thing as Metcalfe.

“We don’t have the guys who are going to light up a radar gun,” Smith said. “Those are two 10th graders. We have guys who can battle and throw strikes.”

Moniteau jumped out to a 2-0 lead, keyed by a RBI single by Cooper Boozel in the bottom of the second.

That seemed at the time to be more than enough for Carson, who was spotting his moving, sneaky fastball on the outside corner — thanks to some expert framing of pitches by catcher Brady Thompson — and buckling knees with a sharp breaking pitch.

After Karns City took a 4-2 lead, Moniteau battled back with single runs in the fifth and sixth to tie the game.

But the Gremlins scored three in the seventh against reliever Brock Matthews, the big blow a two-run double by Broeden Rodgers.

Moniteau made things interesting in the bottom of the seventh, loading the bases with two outs with a run already in, but Neff got a tapper back to him on the mound to end the threat and the game.

And give Karns City an improbable win.

“I’ll take these guys to battle every day of the week,” Smith said. “We battled a good team in Brookville and won on a walk-off. Moniteau is a well-coached team. (Coach) Ross (Martin) is a great coach. He always has them ready to go. There’s mutual respect between us. I love coaching against him.”

Karns City 000 040 3 — 7 4 5

Moniteau 020 011 1 — 5 11 0

W: Mallick Metcalfe 5IP (2K, 0BB). L: Brock Matthews 2.2IP (3K, 0BB). SV: Mike Neff 2IP (2K, 2BB)

Karns City: Conner Schaffner 1B, Cole Sherwin 1B, Broeden Rodgers 2B 2-RBI, Luke Garing 1B

Moniteau: Tanner Williams 2-1B RBI, Keagan Book 1B, Mason Mershimer 1B, Branson Carson 1B, Dawson Wallace 2-1B, Matthews 2-1B, Cooper Boozel 1B RBI

Wednesday: Forest at Karns City; Punxsutawney at Moniteau