SIKESTON - The Sikeston Senior American Legion Post 114 baseball team dropped a tough district game to Cape Ford & Sons Legion, falling 7-5 on Tuesday at VFW Stadium.
The win by Ford & Sons ties them for first place in the district. Sikeston falls to 3-3 in the district.
"Anytime you come down here it's always going to be a good ballgame between Sikeston and Cape," said Ford & Sons coach Michael Minner. "We just hope to come out on top and tonight we did. Anything can happen in the district. Sikeston's always a good team and they're not going to lay down. We had them down but they battled back and made it a ballgame."
Cape (15-22) scored four runs in the top of the first inning to take the early lead on Sikeston hurler Lance Rhodes.
Rhodes lasted just 3 2/3 innings, allowing six runs in taking the loss. He left with an Achilles injury in the fourth inning.
Jordan Kimball entered the game and threw 4 1/3 innings, allowing just one run.
But the initial Ford & Sons lead was too much to overcome.
"They swung the bats good in the first four or five innings," said Sikeston coach Charlie Dye. "I don't think Lance had his best stuff today but they didn't miss a pitch. They hit about anything we threw up there. You give them credit for that."
Cape hurler Cory Husky threw six innings in picking up the win. He allowed two runs.
"He threw the snot out of it," said Minner. "He came out and worked ahead and we made some plays behind him defensively."
Scott Bruekner went 2-3 with a home run. He had three RBIs and three runs scored for Ford & Sons.
Kent Deason had three hits and two RBIs and Kendal Deason had two doubles with a run.
Sikeston had 10 hits but stranded numerous runners. J.R. Bizzell led the way with three hits, with a run scored and a stolen base.
Matt Smith went 2-5 with a double. Richard Landers had a double with an RBI and a run scored. Others were Brandon Crook (1-4, RBI, run), Rhodes (1-1), Jordan Penn (1-2), Tyler Stahl (RBI), Joey Bickings (1-3, run), Kimball (run) and Brad Deere (RBI).
Josh Miller threw one inning for Sikeston, allowing one run.
"Our biggest problem was we did a very poor job of pitch selection ourselves," said Dye. "We were really helping their pitcher out instead of being patient and drawing some walks. We were swinging at pitches we shouldn't have been swinging at. I think that was probably the biggest disappointment in the game itself."
Sikeston's game scheduled today against Mayfield has been canceled. Sikeston will close out the regular season on Saturday with a doubleheader against Festus at 4 p.m.