The glove was never the problem for Jefferson's Sam Techau, but the stick was a question mark in the early portion of the baseball season.

Now it's an exclamation point.

Techau went 4-for-4 with a pair of doubles to highlight Jefferson's 14-hit attack and the J-Hawks downed North Scott, 12-8, Wednesday night in a non-conference game at Veterans Memorial Stadium.

The J-Hawks (11-21) scored in all six innings they batted. Besides the 14 hits, they also were aided by five bases on balls, two hit batsmen and five North Scott errors.

Techau did not drive in any runs, but he scored twice.

"We've always had confidence in Sam's defense," Jefferson Coach Mike Kuba said. "But his bat has gotten better as the season has gone along.

"Good for him. He's a very hard worker. He's probably the last one to leave the (batting) cage area each game day and each practice. He's put in his time and it's really starting to pay off for him."

Techau just missed a home run in Tuesday night's 6-4 win at Kennedy when his long fly ball hit the top of the fence and bounced back into the field of play for a double.

He had solid singles his first two at-bats Wednesday, then crushed the ball over the left fielder's head twice for doubles.

"I've taken a lot of extra cuts off the tee (and) I've taken a few extra rounds in the cage," Techau said. "I've been working pretty hard at it."

Techau is the No. 9 hitter in the Jefferson batting order and he said he thinks that has worked to his advantage.

"They're pumping in fastballs. That's all they're feeding me," he said. "I think they think they can just blow it by me, but I don't think anyone can, really."

Techau was playing third base early in the season on a limited basis, mostly when Alex Larson was pitching. But when Kuba decided to shift Larson to shortstop, Techau stepped in and made the position his home.

"(Kuba) said he had confidence in me, so I don't really have to battle for my job," Techau said. "But I feel like I need to battle for my job. We have Larson and Ky (Kramer) and Chance (Tiedtke) who could go there, so I feel like I have to battle for it."

Four J-Hawks had multiple hits against North Scott. Drew Striegel had three, and Jake Schmidt and Tanner Unkel had two apiece. Unkel also swiped two bases, giving him 22 for the season. Streigel, Schmidt and Jordan McCormick drove in two runs apiece.

None of Striegel's three hits left the infield. He beat out a bunt single, laid down a squeeze bunt that went for a base-hit, then hit a slow roller that died in the infield grass in the direction of the second baseman.

Striegel's squeeze bunt pushed across the J-Hawks' first run in their two-run fourth inning and boosted their lead to 7-4. Striegel nearly tipped the play off, squaring around early enough for North Scott's catcher to spy Larson, who was sprinting home from third base. The pitch and Larson arrived at the plate at nearly the same time, and despite it being around his ankles, Striegel got his bat on it and tapped it down the third-base line, where there were no defenders.

"I turned a little bit too quick.," Striegel said. "I didn't expect (the pitcher) to go from the windup. I guess I just wasn't paying attention to that.

"But I think if I didn't get it down, Larson was still going to slide in safe because I saw him right next to me when I put the bunt down."

Michael Rooney was the winning pitcher. He threw 55 pitches and fell behind 4-1 over the first two innings, but threw only 41 pitches over the next four innings and allowed only one hit. Rooney tired in the seventh inning, when North Scott came back and scored four runs. Jordan McCormick got the final two outs.

"He seemed to settle in nice," Kuba said of Rooney. "But getting that lead back, being two runs up, four runs up and taking that mound each inning, that helps."

John Kinney had a double and a home run and drove in four runs for North Scott (21-11).

Jefferson closes out the Mississippi Valley Conference portion of its season Friday night with a home doubleheader against Waterloo East. The J-Hawks play non-conference single games Monday and Wednesday next week against Western Dubuque and Davenport North, respectively, before facing Kennedy again in a Class 4A substate tournament first round game July 15 at Kennedy.

"We are in need of wins and we have to put the best lineup out there that we can and get on a roll going into the postseason," Kuba said.

NORTH SCOTT (8)
Brock Brade, 2b, 2 1 1 0, Brandon Voss, c, 4 1 1 0, Ben Engler, cf, 3 1 2 1, Aaron Huber, ss, 3 1 1 0, Devin Guerrero, p, 2 0 1 1, Corey Greenleaf, cr, 0 0 0 0, Alex Grunder, p, 1 0 0 0, JD Pumphrey, 3b, 1 1 1 1, Brandon Engler, 3b-p, 3 0 0 0, Dyllin Gorsh, dh, 3 2 1 1, Tanner Johnson, rf, 0 0 0 0, John Kinney, 1b, 4 1 2 4, Matt McKinney, lf, 4 0 0 0. Totals 30 8 10 8.

JEFFERSON (12)
Tanner Unkel, 2b, 3 2 2 1, Michael Rooney, p-cf, 4 0 0 0, Alex Larson, ss, 3 2 1 1, Jordan McCormick, 1b-p, 2 2 1 2, Bailey Hollingsworth, dh, 2 1 1 1, Drake Vanous, lf, 0 0 0 0, Jordan Dee, cr-1b, 0 1 0 0, Drew Striegel, c, 4 0 3 2, Aaron Gruwell, cr, 0 1 0 0, Jake Schmidt, rf, 4 1 2 2, Christian Knox, cf-lf, 4 0 0 0, Sam Techau, 3b, 4 2 4 0. Totals 30 12 14 9.

North Scott   220 000 4 -  8  10  5
Jefferson       114 231 x - 12 14  0

Guerrero, Grunder (3), Br.Engler (5) and Voss. Rooney, McCormick (7) and Striegel. W - Rooney (3-4). L - Guerrero (1-3). 2B - Be.Engler, Gorsh, Kinney, McCormick, Hollingsworth, Techau 2. HR - Kinney (5). SB - Brade (24), Unkel 2 (22), Gruwell (2), Techau (1).