Mineral Area rallies past Sikeston

Boonville's Chad Oser slides in safely against Dexter during Friday's Missouri State 14-year-old Junior Babe Ruth Tournament (Photo by Tim Jaynes, Staff)

SIKESTON - The Sikeston 14-year-old Junior Babe Ruth All-Stars lost in the semifinals to Mineral Area on Friday afternoon 6-2 in the Missouri State Tournament at VFW Stadium.

Sikeston was scheduled to play in the loser's bracket on Friday night but results were not available at press time.

In the afternoon game, Mineral Area used a four-run fifth inning to break open a 2-2 tie.

Sikeston held an early lead of 1-0 through the first two innings but couldn't hang on.

"They're a good ballclub -- they're well-coached and well-schooled and they have a fine team," said Sikeston coach Ken Dicus. "We had some tough breaks and didn't get some bounces and it's hard to keep your heads up when that happens. But that's baseball."

Stuart Strom

Sikeston took the lead in the top of the first inning when Darin Dicus singled and eventually scored on a single by Tim Hart.

After a leadoff walk in the top of the second, Mineral Area pulled starting pitcher Jake Cavins in favor of Tyler Stacy, who eventually took the win.

Mineral Area took the lead in the bottom of the third when Jordan Thompson scored on a wild pitch and Brad Merseal scored on Stacy's RBI-single.

Sikeston managed to tie the score at 2-2 in the top of the fourth on a run-

scoring single by Stephen Beydler to bring in Blair Bohannon, but that was all the offense Sikeston could muster.

Following that hit, Stacy retired the final 10 batters in a row.

Mineral Area blew the game open in the fifth. Stacy ripped an RBI-double. Cavins and Torey Watson each had RBI-singles.

Sikeston's Logan Gilmore was saddled with the loss in relief. He threw 2 2/3 innings, striking out three.

Caleb Davidson started and threw 2 1/3 innings, allowing one run. He struck out one and walked four, but he did not allow a hit.

Stuart Strom threw one scoreless inning in the sixth.

"Our pitchers didn't have their best stuff today and Mineral Area's pitchers did the job," said Dicus.

"The road goes through them to win the championship and we expect to see them in the finals. They had some rock-solid hits today and we couldn't recover from it."

Both teams each had just four hits. Dicus, Ethan Lee, Hart and Beydler collected hits for Sikeston.

Stacy had two of Mineral Area's four hits.

In the early game Friday, Dexter scored two runs in the seventh inning to defeat Boonville 3-2.