Sikeston slides past Perryville

~DeWitt breaks RBI record, ties home run record

SIKESTON - The top-seeded Sikeston Bulldogs baseball team advanced to the semifinal round of the Class 3, District 1 Tournament on Monday with a 12-3 win against eighth-seeded Perryville at Sikeston's VFW Stadium.

The tournament was originally scheduled to be played at Dexter but due to poor field conditions it was moved to Sikeston.

As of press time, the tournament was scheduled to be moved back to Dexter the remainder of the week.

On Monday, Sikeston (22-1) fell behind 2-0 in the top of the first inning when Jason Pruesser connected for a two-run home run.

Teammates greet Blake Dewitt after he homered in the fifth inning, tying the single-season school record with his 12th home run and setting the record for RBIs in a season with 50.

But it was short-lived for the Pirates as the Bulldogs came back with four runs in the bottom of the first, including a monstrous three-run homer by Jacob Priday, to take the lead for good.

Sikeston tacked on one more run in the inning to lead 4-2.

Perryville's Garrett Winkler hit a solo home run in the top of the second but that was as close as they would get.

Sikeston added a run in the second, two in the fourth and five more in the fifth to blow the game open.

"In the first and second inning we came out and scored some runs and I thought that's really good against a team like this," said Perryville head coach Dennis Glueck. "I told the guys we're going to have to play flawless in order to stay in the game with them."

But they didn't. The Pirates committed five errors while starting pitcher Tim Winningham allowed 13 hits and five walks.

"I threw a junker against them today, I've heard that hurts them a little bit," said Glueck. "He wasn't getting his change up and his knuckleball across the plate for strikes so he had to come back with the fastball, well everybody knows what they do with fastballs. I know these guys are a real good fastball hitting team. It worked for some of the batters and others it didn't."

Leading the charge for Sikeston was Blake DeWitt, who went 3-for-4 with four RBIs and three runs scored. He had two doubles and a home run.

Drew Lawrence, Lance Rhodes and Scotty Keenan each had two hits for the Bulldogs.

"The ball was carrying today," said Sikeston head coach Kevin Self. "They had two runs and then we came back with four. I thought we swung the bats well."

Sophomore hurler Cullen DeHart didn't have his best stuff but was plenty good in his own right.

He threw 6 2/3 innings, allowing just four hits with three runs. He struck out five and walked three.

"Cullen kind of settled in," said Self. "He gave up two in the first and one in the second and then after that he threw the ball well. He really just got a couple fastballs up that they put the bat on."

Although the Pirates made five errors, they did make some strong defensive plays, turning two double plays and throwing out two runners at the plate.

"We ran ourselves out of a couple innings, trying to push the issue," said Self. "But that's the way I want to play. We wanted to make them make plays, and they did."

DeWitt had a record-setting day for the Bulldogs. He tied the school record for home runs with his 12th of the year and he broke the RBI record with his 50th of the year.

The previous records of 12 homers and 49 RBIs were set by Blake Ledbetter in 1995. Clay Hooper tied the RBI record in 1998.

"That's a big deal, that's big for anybody," said Self. "Especially for Blake, he's such a good kid and he works so hard. You like to see guys like that have the years that he's having, because he's definitely having an all-state year. When you think about what he's done on the mound, at the plate, and then what he's done defensively for us -- geez, he's had a great year."

The Bulldogs also tied the school record for wins in a season set in 2001.

Sikeston will play the winner of the Kennett-Doniphan game on Wednesday at 4 p.m.

Perryville ends its season at 4-13.

Tied 3-3, the Bearcats rallied past New Madrid County Central with three runs in the bottom of the sixth to put the game away.

Josh Miller provided the go-ahead RBI with a sacrifice fly to score Mack Taylor.

"We played pretty well," said NMCC head coach John Jones. "I think we only had two errors the whole ballgame. We had opportunities to score runs. We were kind of anemic this year at the plate. Effort wasn't the problem. The kids did as much as they could do."

NMCC (6-11-1) hurler Ben Stricklin took the loss, throwing six innings with six runs (five earned) off eight hits. He struck out two and walked one.

Stricklin helped his own cause by going 3-3 with an RBI. Ben Pyles went 2-3 with a home run. Luke St. Mary was 2-3 while Chris Nance went 1-3.

Dexter's (14-8) Nolan Pixley got the win. He threw six innings and allowed three runs off eight hits with one walk and one strikeout.

He also went 1-3 with an RBI at the plate.

Taylor led the team with two hits and two RBIs.

Others were Cale Williams (1-3, 2B) and Justin Sanders (1-3).

NMCC loses five seniors, Josh King, Stricklin, Zack Krebs, Zach Dees and Jake Baehr, to graduation.

"We'll have the nucleus of our ball team back next year," said Jones. "Everyone of them's committed to playing summer baseball this year. Hopefully we'll have some success there."