Between Ryan Hook's legs and Sedalia pitcher Aaron Kleekamp's curveball in the dirt, the St. Joseph Mustangs found a way to win on Thursday night.

Hook scored the game-winning run on a wild pitch with two outs in the bottom of the ninth inning as the Mustangs defeated the Bombers 4-3.

"I knew he was going to dirt it. He threw Johnny (Coy) a couple of curveballs in the dirt, and I knew the catcher couldn't get them all," Hook said. "I knew with anything in the dirt I was going to go, even if it was a little ricochet. You've got to take a chance. Luckily, that one got far enough away that it was a no-doubter."

The unearned run, scored with the help of a T.S. Reed error in the inning, put a dramatic end on what had been a game dominated by the pitchers.

While St. Joseph starter Bill Disselhoff sailed through 4 1/3 innings without allowing a hit, the Bombers' Zach Hardoin seemed to get stronger after allowing a leadoff single to Brent Seifert in the second. He struck out five of six batters over the third and fourth innings and retired nine straight before running into trouble in the fifth.

"It was a good pitching performance on both sides," Mustangs manager Matt Johnson said. "We just put ourselves in a position where anything could happen."

The Mustangs (19-9, 14-8 MINK) scored three runs on four hits and an error in the fifth. Houston Slemp - dropped from sixth to ninth in St. Joseph's batting order - came up with the big hit, a two-run double to the gap in right-center that scored Coy and Ross Brayton. Sam Lind followed with a double down the right-field line to score Slemp and give the Mustangs a 3-0 lead.

"(Slemp) is a guy that, in that nine-hole, can turn it over to get us in that top half of the lineup," Johnson said. "He did that tonight."

Jon Wegener closed the gap for Sedalia (16-8, 12-8 MINK) to just one run with a two-run home run to left field in the top of the sixth, but Disselhoff recovered and left with the 3-2 advantage after seven innings pitched.

Reliever Drew Garwood, however, got roughed up in the eighth, giving up three hits, including a triple to Travis McComack and an RBI single to Reed that tied it up.

But Garwood still got the win, thanks to the run scored by his former Benton High School teammate in the bottom of the ninth.

"We always are a late-inning team," Hook noted. "We always find ways to scratch up some runs somehow."

The Mustangs continue their three-game homestand at 7 tonight when they play Mac-N-Seitz on Salute to Heroes Night. The festivities include a 6 p.m. softball game between local police and firefighters, and free admission for active and retired military, EMS, police and firefighters. It also will be the first of two consecutive nights of postgame fireworks.

Sports writer Rick Dunaway can be reached at rickd@npgco.com