Sikesotn 14-year-olds look to repeat

SIKESTON -- Coming off their second straight Missouri State Babe Ruth Championship, the 14-year-old Sikeston All-Star squad will head to the Midwest Plains Babe Ruth Regional Championship starting this Friday looking to repeat as champions

there as well.

"We're real excited to go to defend our title," Sikeston manager Dan O'Brien said. "We won it last year (as 13-year-olds) so we're excited to get back there."

Also on last year's team, Patrick Smith said he likes his team's chances at a repeat.

"It's going to be really fun and to go there twice in a row is a real pleasure," he said. "I feel like we've gotten a whole lot better. If we bring our "A" game we'll be unbeatable."

The All-Stars are coming off a dominating run in the state tournament, where they went 4-0, beating Boonville in the championship game 16-1.

In regionals they will face off against eight other teams from six states and Canada with their first round match-up against Minnesota starting Saturday at 5 p.m.

It was Minnesota last year that almost ruined the All-Stars title hopes when they came out of the loser's bracket to beat Sikeston in the first championship game.

Fortunately for Sikeston, the All-Stars came back strong in a the final game to take the title with a 12-2 run-rule victory.

Though all but one game in the state tournament was decided by six runs or more, Sikeston's coach Phil Black knows his squad will have to be ready for much tighter contests in regionals.

"We just need to have some timely hits, because most of those games against the better teams are fairly close games," he said. "We had at least one extra-inning game last year and it was against a really tough team from Southeast Denver, Col.

"None of these teams really care what we did at the state tournament because they probably had tougher roads than we did, so they're battle tested."

If this year's team can advance past regionals they will look to fare better than they did last year in the World Series when they were knocked out after opening up with two straight losses.

With last season's experience under their belt, Nick Noble thinks his team has a much better shot this time around if they make it back.

"I think we're a lot better this year," he said. "Our strengths are pitching and hitting. Our defense is really good this year too. Way better than last year's team."