Bulldogs clip 'Jays

CHARLESTON -- The Sikeston Bulldog baseball team improved to 10-2 on the season with a 6-1 victory against Charleston on Tuesday at Hillhouse Park.

The Bulldogs rode the arm of senior hurler Jerod Scott to victory.

Scott had a shutout through six innings, allowing Charleston's only run in the bottom of the seventh.

He struck out seven, walked one and allowed six hits.

"We ran into a good pitcher today," Charleston coach Michael Minner said. "He threw the ball well and he's one of their better pitchers. That's a tribute to where we're at. Sikeston's a good ballclub and I appreciate the fact that they threw one of their better guys at us -- but he just shut us down."

Sikeston's bats weren't on fire either, but the Bulldogs scratched out more than enough runs to secure the win.

The Bulldogs collected nine hits in the game off Charleston pitcher Jamie Barber.

"We had a hard time staying back -- a really hard time," Sikeston coach Kevin Self said. "You can talk about it all the time, but our kids seem to have a hard time adjusting when a guy just barely thumps it up there. It's been a problem ever since I've been coaching here. Maybe it's always been that way, I don't know."

Barber threw all seven innings and taking the loss. He only walked one, but he had no strikeouts.

"Jamie's probably been our ace this year," Minner said. "He doesn't throw hard, he hits spots, he mixes it up well. Sikeston's a fastball hitting team. We want to keep them off balance and I thought he did a real good job. A few of their hits weren't very hard, but they found holes. For the most part, he battled his tail off. I was real proud of our defense today -- that's the first time we haven't made an error."

Sikeston grabbed a 2-0 lead in the top of the second inning. Tyler Dame brought in Seth Baker on a ground out and Freddie Gilliland's sacrifice fly brought home Dustin Barker.

Charleston (2-8) had a golden opportunity to get back in the game in the bottom of the second with the bases loaded and two outs. But Billy Butler's long flyball into the right centerfield gap was snared on a diving catch by Baker.

"The biggest play of the game was the diving catch by Baker in the third inning with the bases loaded," Self said. "That could've tied the game and who knows, they might've gotten up off the mat and scored five or six. Because they're not a bad club. They've gotten a lot better. They didn't make any errors. They didn't give us anything."

Sikeston extended the lead to 6-0 in the top of the sixth inning. Barker had a run-scoring double. Dame followed that up with a two-run double. Austin Williams had an RBI-single.

Charleston scored its lone run in the bottom of the second on a run-scoring single by Jarryd Smith to bring in Nick Johnson.

"We didn't do some little things," Minner said. "We didn't get a couple bunts down. We didn't put ourselves in positions to score runs."

Sikeston's Josh Jackson went 2-3 with a run. Baker went 2-3 with two runs. Williams went 2-3 with an RBI. Dame went 1-3 with three RBIs.

Collin Gilooly and Smith each had two hits to lead Charleston.

Sikeston will host Fredericktown tomorrow at 4 p.m. Charleston will host Scott County Central at 4 p.m. today.

Sikeston 6, Charleston 1

Sikeston 020 004 0 -- 6 9 0

Charleston 000 000 1 -- 1 6 0

WP - Jerod Scott. LP - Jamie Barber. 2B - Sikeston: Dustin Barker, Tyler Dame. Charleston: Nick Johnson. Multiple hitters - Sikeston: Josh Jackson 2-3, Baker 2-3, Austin Williams 2-3. Charleston: Colin Gilooly 2-3, Jarryd Smith 2-2. Records - Sikeston 10-2. Charleston 2-8.