The Mavericks fan to whom that was directed took slight exception.

Two hours later, there was little doubt which team proved it belonged atop the district.

Randy Picard clubbed a grand slam and a three-run home run in back-to-back at-bats in the middle innings, leading Katy to a 13-0 victory in five innings.

Katy amassed 14 hits against three Morton Ranch pitchers, sending the Mavericks to their first 18-5A loss (8-8, 3-1) and improving the Tigers to 12-5 overall and 3-1 in the district.

It was something of a statement game for Katy, which lost to Katy Taylor last Friday. The Tigers aren’t the same team as last year – they start only one senior, Joey Fuda, next to six juniors and two sophomores.

“Our loss was a real eye-opener,” Tigers pitcher Keifer Nuncio said. “We have a lot of talented individuals on this team and we’re starting to play a lot better. In the games we’ve lost, we’ve beat ourselves a lot. We’re completely capable of running this district.”

Especially if more performances like Thursday’s are in store.

The Mavericks repeatedly kept the door open for Katy, which got to starter Dalton Smith for two runs in the first inning.

They started the third with back-to-back seeing-eye singles by Andrew Stumph and Jarred Fancher. They advanced on a passed ball and Cale Hanson walked to load the bases ahead of Picard, the team’s leading home-run hitter with five.

His grand slam was a line drive which just cleared the left-field wall for a 6-0 lead.

“We have a bunch of great hitters; it just seems we haven’t been able to put it together all the time,” Picard said. “Today everybody started hitting the ball. We did a really good job hitting and everyone started doing their jobs.”

Fancher led off the fourth with a double. Justin Cudd singled and Hanson singled home Fletcher before Picard launched a no-doubter to left to make it 11-0.

“I’m not really that known (as a player) but they were just throwing me straight fastballs and that’s what I was gonna hit,” said Picard, a former Cinco Ranch player in his first year at Katy. “It worked out a lot better than I thought it would. Ever since I was little I’ve been a better power hitter than anything else.”

Fancher had a team-high three hits and scored three runs.

“We’re learning a lot about the game right now,” Tigers coach Tom McPherson said. “We did a good job adjusting (to Morton Ranch’s pitchers today). They weren’t particularly fast but we have to adjust to the guys who can throw 90 too. We’ve been hit-and-miss all year with the batting so I was pleased to see us hit as well as we did today.”

Nuncio was sterling for the most part, allowing only three hits but easing out of first- and third-inning jams unscathed. The junior has lost only three high school games.

“He’s pitched well enough to win every game this year,” McPherson said. “This is the first time we’ve given him run support.”

Katy hosts Cinco Ranch Tuesday. Morton Ranch visits Katy Taylor.

“We don’t want to beat teams just 5-1,” Nuncio said. “We want to win big and have the same mentality every game as we did today. We’ve had a bad habit of not really kicking it in until about the sixth or seventh inning. Now we’re just trying to start from the first inning and go from there.”

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