March 30, 2015
Sikeston rolls past NMCC in five innings
sports@standard-democrat.com NEW MADRID -- Having multiple days to rest has given Sikeston a chance to throw its best arm during its first two games. Combine the efforts of Jacob Clark and an offense that has scored 23 runs and Sikeston has been hard to stop so far...
By Chris Pobst - Standard Democrat
sports@standard-democrat.com
NEW MADRID -- Having multiple days to rest has given Sikeston a chance to throw its best arm during its first two games.
Combine the efforts of Jacob Clark and an offense that has scored 23 runs and Sikeston has been hard to stop so far.
Sikeston took down New Madrid County Central 13-1 in five innings behind a complete game from Clark. The Bulldogs had seven hits which included two home runs from Blake Wolferding and Sam Cox in their second mercy-rule win in as many games.
Clark allowed three hits and one run while striking out 10 in a near repeat performance of last year's meeting when the senior no-hit NMCC in Sikeston. The lefty, who has already signed a letter of intent to play baseball at Blue Mountain College, was the benefactor of six runs in the second inning.
"When I've got my guys doing their thing at the plate and the defensive behind me I knew I'd be fine," Clark said, who has both of Sikeston's pitching wins to start the season. "Every year I've faced (NMCC) since my freshman year and I just know their hitters and I know what I can get by with. I just mix my stuff knowing if I do something wrong with one hitter I can come back and get the next one."
Scheeter is confident in any situation that gives Clark an early lead. Especially a burst of offense like the Bulldogs had in the second that included a solo home run by Wolferding to lead off.
"You give (Clark) one or two runs and that's all he needs, especially when he's feeling confident," Scheeter said. "Once he gets going and gets settled in, he's as tough as anyone around here to hit. He mixed all four pitches for strikes. He gets it done."
Sikeston batted around the order, had four hits and took advantage of four walks from NMCC starter Palmer Campbell.
"We had a lot of big hits," Scheeter said. "Blake started us off there in the second inning and we just kept on after that. We hit the ball hard 1-9 in the lineup. You just can't say enough about getting pitches to hit and not missing them. We did a lot of that today.
Campbell, a sophomore, pitched three innings and gave up eight runs on five hits. He also struck out four.
"They've got a great lineup and I'm not taking anything away from them at all but Palmer really wasn't himself today," NMCC head coach Joseph McClarty said. "I think he let his defense and a couple other things frustrate him. He's a young kid and he's going to learn from that. Once that happened he pitched in the middle of the plate too much. But, he'll be fine and we'll be fine. We just have to correct a few things."
Errors and misplays haunted the Eagles (2-1) from start to finish. NMCC, who is the fourth-ranked team in the latest Class 3 state poll, committed five errors and allowed big innings to continue because of them.
"I saw a lot of hesitation, which I haven't seen the first two games," McClarty said. "There was a lot of indecisiveness. We just weren't ourselves today and that happens with young kids. We made some silly mistakes and you can't do that against a team like Sikeston. They've got a strong lineup and they made us pay dearly for every mistake we made today."
New Madrid had a snowball moment following Wolferding's homer. A walk to Trey Smith began a string of nine straight batters to reach base. Five runs came around to score giving Sikeston a 6-0 advantage.
"We've only made two errors before this game and we made too many there in that inning," McClarty said. "But, it's still early and that's going to happen. We still haven't been outside a whole lot and I just want us to get a better mentality when we get down. We need to fight a little more and finish games on a positive note."
After holding Sikeston scoreless in the third, NMCC got one back after a one-out double by Campbell. Drew Pikey pushed Campbell across following a low-lining fly ball over first base.
The Eagles didn't threaten again after Pikey's singles as Clark got into a groove getting six of the next seven outs by strikeout.
"He seems to pitch well against us," McClarty said about Clark. "He threw well against us last year with the no-hitter and today. He's a very good strike thrower and he had all his pitches working and he was locating that fastball. When you do that you're going to be hard to hit. He's a great kid, great pitcher and you can tell he works hard at his craft."
Sikeston piled on three runs in the fourth and four more in the fifth. Sam Cox belted his two-run home run that knocked Palmer out of the game. Colton Hampton ended up scoring on an errant throw back to reliever Gage Silman.
A two-run double by Luke Williams gave the Bulldogs its 10-run margin in the fifth inning.
"We've been hitting the ball really well," Scheeter said. "With the weather the way that it's been that's about all we've been able to do. We're just seeing it real well."
The Sikeston junior varsity also defeated NMCC 15-0 in six innings.
Brandon Hurt picked up the win on the mound after throwing all six innings and striking out 11.
Hurt also led at the plate with two singles. Bryce Bays added a double while Max Ault, Ben Ray and Blaine Goodman each had singles as well.
Sikeston 060 34 -- 13 7 0
NMCC 001 00 -- 1 3 5
WP -- Jacob Clark (S). LP -- Palmer Campbell (N). Multiple hitters: (S) Blake Wolferding 2-4. 2B: (S) Wolferding, Wyatt Pratt, Luke Williams; (N) Campbell. HR: (S) Wolferding, Sam Cox.
Advertisement
Advertisement