'Dogs' season ends

SIKESTON -- All season long Sikeston has won games with its pitching and defense.

But those two aspects, that were so consistent during the regular season, had an off-night at the most inopportune time as Sikeston lost to Farmington 9-4 in a Class 3 Sectional game at VFW Stadium on Thursday.

Sikeston's season comes to an end at 20-7. Farmington (18-10) moves to the quarterfinal round where they will host Sullivan tomorrow.

Farmington pounded Sikeston's pitching for 13 hits while the Bulldog defense committed three very costly errors in one inning that ultimately proved to be the difference in the ballgame.

In addition, Sikeston's bats were silent, collecting just four singles in the game.

Sikeston's Scott Droddy swipes the first of his two stolen bases.

Sikeston's Scott Droddy swipes the first of his two stolen bases.

It's disappointing to lose, but when you don't play well in this kind of game then you're not going to win," said Sikeston coach Kevin Self. "We really didn't have too many mental mistakes. We just had a lot of physical mistakes."

Even from the start, Farmington's bats were zeroed in on Sikeston pitcher Jerod Scott, hitting hard shots off the Bulldog hurler.

"They hit the ball well -- it didn't matter who we threw at them, they were going to make contact and hit it hard," said Self. "They hit a lot of breaking balls. It seemed like they were sitting on breaking balls. Even balls they didn't hit hard seemed to find a little hole between defenders. A lot of things went their way today. They've got a good club."

Farmington's big inning came in the bottom of the second as they plated five runs, which by itself proved to be enough.

A walk, an infield single and two clean singles were the only hits. Two errors in right field and one in left field also hurt the cause.

Sikeston's Jerod Scott throws a pitch.

Sikeston's Jerod Scott throws a pitch.

"We dropped a few balls in the second inning, so the score should've been 2-0," said Self. "Those are plays that should be made but we didn't get it done. (Farmington) made a lot of good plays on defense. They made the plays and we didn't."

Sikeston never could put together any kind of rally. Most of the Bulldog runs were scored on the wildness of Farmington pitcher Isaac Armstrong. The junior right-hander threw a whopping 143 pitches with 68 going for balls.

But Armstrong, despite his control problems, stifled the Bulldog bats in picking up the win. In seven innings of work he walked 11 and hit a batter while allowing four hits. He struck out seven, with several of those coming in crucial situations.

"Isaac (Armstrong) didn't have his good stuff," said Farmington coach Craig Gibbs. "He just battled and battled. He was having trouble with his fast ball with location and he had to gut it out for us."

His worst inning came in the top of the fourth as he brought in three runs with the bases loaded on two walks and a hit batter. All of a sudden Sikeston had closed the gap to 5-3 while managing just one hit.

But Farmington erased the Bulldogs' three runs with three of their own in the bottom of the fourth as the Knights' started the inning with five straight singles to push the lead to 8-3.

The Knights made it 9-3 in the bottom of the fifth and threatened to 10-run rule the Bulldogs, but they stranded the bases loaded.

Sikeston tacked on a final run in the top of the sixth on Nick Lambert's RBI-

single.

"We hit a lot of balls hard but most of them seemed to be right at their left fielder," said Self. "Overall though we just didn't bring our bats. Their pitcher threw the ball well. He walked several but we never could get the big hit when we needed it."

Sikeston stranded 12 base runners in the game. Farmington left eight.

Scott was saddled with his first loss of the season to finish 8-1. He threw 4-

plus innings, allowing 11 hits with one walk and one hit batter. He struck out four, allowing eight runs with four being earned.

Joey Williams threw one inning of relief, allowing one run off one hit and two walks. Garrett Limbaugh threw one scoreless inning.

Lambert had two RBIs for Sikeston. Freddie Gilliland, Limbaugh and Chase Ferrell had Sikeston's other hits.

Derek Stroup led Farmington, going 3-4 with an RBI. Armstrong helped his own cause by going 2-3 with two runs and two RBIs. Alex Freund went 2-3 with two RBIs and two runs. Bryan Krause went 2-3 with an RBI, two runs and two stolen bases.

"We win games when we have 1-9 contribute," said Gibbs. "Everybody did that today, and it was great."

Sikeston graduates seven seniors, including all-conference players Josh Jackson and Scott. Also graduating is Dustin Barker, Gilliland, Austin Williams, Joey Williams and Gerald Winfield.

"I'm proud of this team," said Self. "I'm proud of the way we finished and the way they conducted themselves today. I still say this group was overachievers."

Farmington 9, Sikeston 4

Sikeston 000 301 0 -- 4 4 3

Farmington 050 310 x -- 9 13 0

WP - Armstrong. LP - Scott. 2B - McBride (F). Multiple hitters - Sikeston: none. Farmington: Freund 2-3. Armstrong 2-3. Stroup 3-4. Krause 2-3. Records - Sikeston 20-7. Farmington 18-10.

Cape Central lost 11-0 at home against Howell Central in a Class 4 state sectional game.

The Tigers (17-11) were limited to two hits and one walk by senior Brad Bira, who struck out eight in a game stopped at six innings at the mercy rule.

Howell Central scored six runs in the top of fourth against Central ace Brad LaBruyere to break open a 2-0 game.