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Former Polk County baseball standout J.P. Ruth showed no home hospitality to his alma mater on Monday.

Ruth, now the head baseball coach at Forest Hills, watched as his Yellow Jackets built an early 5-1 lead en route to a 10-4 victory over the Wolverines in a non-conference matchup in Marshville.

Forest Hills improved to 6-9 under Ruth in his first season leading the program. Polk County dropped to 7-11.

How it happened: Polk landed the first blow, scoring a run in the first as Gunnar Alm reached on catcher’s interference and scored on Lawson Carter’s one-out double.

Forest Hills quickly responded, loading the bases on a walk, hit batter and single. Evan Greene drilled a single to score two runs, with Jake Baucom’s infield groundout scoring another run and Carson Horning driving in Greene with another base hit.

Forest Hills added another run in the second, with Polk matching that in the fourth. Carter singled to open the inning and scored on Karson Scruggs’ one-out base hit.

The Jackets answered with two runs in the bottom of the fourth as Lexin Tarkka singled and scored on Devin Vogelsang’s double. An error and balk eventually scored Vogelsang, and a dropped third strike with two outs allowed another Forest Hills runner to score to make it 8-2.

The Jackets put together three hits, a walk and a wild pitch to score two runs in the sixth, and Polk answered with two runs in the seventh. Alex Perry walked, Alm singled and Avery Hensley followed with a two-out triple to score both runners for the final margin.

At the plate: Carter finished 2-for-4, with Alm, Hensley and Scruggs adding base hits. The Wolverines played without leading hitter Alex Tipton, sidelined with an injury. Greene finished 3-for-4 to lead Forest Hills’ 12-hit attack.