The Tonganoxie High baseball scored after a triple and a passed ball Thursday against Spring Hill at the Leavenworth County Fairgrounds.

That put THS up, 1-0, in the third inning. In a defensive battle, it turned out the one run was all the team needed. THS held on for the shutout victory and improved to 3-0 on the season.

Brendan Briley had that triple and then scored the lone run.

L Kesinger threw 6 1/3 innings and gave up just two hits. He had struck out 11 and walked seven. Trevor McGraw then faced the final three batters. He gave up a walk and struck out two. THS also had just two hits on the night, with Talon Langford connecting for the other one.

Tonganoxie coach Mitch Loomis was proud of how his team battled and protected the one-run lead on a night when defense shined for both teams.

“For a team that hadn’t been in that spot before,” Loomis said. “They have a chance to some good things.”

The Spring Hill game marked the first contest of the season in which THS did not commit an error.

After the big victory at home, THS followed up with an 18-3 victory in 4 innings Friday in Kansas City, Kan., against Turner.

Tonganoxie scored in every inning on its way to a mercy rule-shortened game.

The Chieftains now are 1-0 in Frontier League play and 4-0 overall.

THS now heads down to Fort Scott for the Adam LaRoche Varsity Baseball Tournament, which runs Thursday through Saturday.

Other teams in the tournament are Fort Scott (2-2), Blue Valley North (1-4), Carl Junction, Mo. (2-5), Ottawa (3-0) and Pittsburg (2-0).

Tonganoxie will play Fort Scott at 1 p.m. Thursday and Blue Valley North at 3:15 p.m. Thursday.

Pittsburg, Carl Junction and Ottawa will go against each in pool play Friday.

The third-place teams from each pool will square off for fifth place at 10 a.m. Saturday, while the second-place teams will meet at 12:15 p.m. that day for third place.

The winners of pool play will then play each other in the championship at 2:30 p.m. Saturday. All games will be played at the LaRoche Baseball Complex.

Tonganoxie will be on the road next week as well, with Frontier League games Tuesday at Paola (3-1) and April 13 at Louisburg (3-1).

THS’ next home game is April 14 against Basehor-Linwood (3-1).

LINESCORES

Tonganoxie 8, Jeff West 7

JWHS 021 300 1 — 7 8 1

THS 002 105 x — 8 11 1

Tonganoxie 12, Jeff West 3

THS 102 800 1 — 12 10 2

JWHS 000 020 1 —  3 4 0

Tonganoxie 1, Spring Hill 0

SHHS 000 000 0 — 0 2 2

THS 001 000 x — 1 2 0

Tonganoxie 18, Turner 3 (4 inn.)

TONG 457 2 — 18 10 2

TRNR 210 0 — 3 6 2