DEXTER - The Class 3A, District 1 baseball tournament had no upsets in the first round on Tuesday at Dexter's East City Park.
Second-seeded Kennett squeaked by Perryville 9-8; No. 3 Dexter rallied past No. 6 Doniphan 9-8; and No. 4 New Madrid County Central beat No. 5 Fredericktown 6-1.
NMCC will play top-seeded Sikeston today at 4 p.m., followed by Dexter versus Kennett at 6 p.m.
The Eagles (7-6) had a huge day from Ben Stricklin, who not only picked up the win on the mound, but went 3-for-3 with two doubles.
He pitched all seven innings, allowing one run off two hits. He struck out six and walked one.
"Ben Stricklin came up big and had a whale of a ballgame at the mound and at the bat," said NMCC head coach John Jones. "Give that young man a lot of credit."
The Eagles, leading 2-1, scored two runs in the fourth inning and added one run in the sixth and seventh innings to pull out the win.
"We got some timely hits, we had no errors, we turned three double plays," said Jones. "They booted the ball a couple of times in the fourth inning and we were able to get a couple of runs across."
Hitters for NMCC were Jake Kimball (2-4, HR), Tyler Wagner (2-4, 2 runs), Brian Murph (2-4, RBI, run), Mark Adam Wade (1-4, 2B, RBI, run), Scott Allen (1-4) and Josh King (run).
Now NMCC will set its sights on the defending champion Bulldogs, who are ranked No. 4 in the state.
"When you play in this district you go through Sikeston," said Jones. "They're the one that eliminated us last year. Hopefully we learned from last year that we can play with them but they're awfully good. In the last three ballgames they've had the 10-run mercy on. Hopefully we can stay with them and carry them deep into the ballgame. If we can do that I like our chances."
Dexter (13-4) averted an upset with an 11th hour rally in the bottom of the seventh.
The Bearcats plated four runs in the seventh to overcome an 8-5 deficit.
With one out and runners on first and second, Doniphan's pitchers walked two batters and hit two batters in a row to tie the game at 8-8.
With Willie Dooley at the plate, the Doniphan pitcher uncorked a wild pitch, allowing Garrett Williams to score the winning run.
"We were fortunate to get the win," said Dexter head coach Brian Becker. "I was proud of the way our boys battled back. After they scored in the seventh inning it would've been real easy to get our dobber down and give up. But the bottom of our lineup got us going. They showed good patience at the plate, drew some walks and we were in business. Fortunately the pitcher hit a couple of guys, threw a wild pitch and that won the ballgame for us."
Dexter led 5-3, but Doniphan plated four runs in the top of the fourth inning to lead 7-5.
Bearcat reliever Justin Sanders picked up the win in 2/3 of an inning. He struck out two batters and allowed a hit.
Starter Josh Miller threw 6 1/3 innings, allowing eight runs (five earned) off nine hits. He struck out five and walked two.
Miller went 3-4 with two RBIs and a run scored. Others were Dooley (2-3, 2B, RBI, run), Cody Boyer (1-2, RBI, run) and Kermit Thomley (1-2, 2 runs, RBI). Doniphan's Ethan Wright was the losing pitcher.
Trailing 9-5, Perryville scored three runs in the seventh inning but came up one run short of the state ranked Indians.