April 2, 2015
Sikeston handcuffed by dominant Greenville pitching
Greenville pitchers Trey McDaniel and Blakney Kearbey combined for 14 strikeouts during the state-ranked Bears' 5-2 win over Sikeston.
By Chris Pobst - Standard Democrat
sports@standard-democrat.com
SIKESTON -- After finding out that Class 5 Sikeston was on its schedule, the state-ranked Greenville Bears didn't want to waste the opportunity.
A quick start and a dominant pitching performance from Trey McDaniel lifted the Class 2 Bears to a 5-2 victory at VFW Memorial Stadium in Sikeston on Wednesday handing the Bulldogs its first loss of the season.
"This is one we had circled on the schedule," Greenville head coach Jeff Null said. "We get to go see where we're at and compete against the big boys. We were fired up."
Greenville (5-0), ranked preseason No. 4 according to the Missouri High School Baseball Coaches Association state poll, totaled six hits and five of which were in the first two innings. McDaniel and Blakney Kearbey combined for 14 strikeouts on the mound.
"They came in and said, 'bring your hitters on, we're better than you today,' and for the most part they were," Sikeston head coach Alan Scheeter said about Greenville's hurlers. "I hope we don't see anyone as good as (McDaniel) is the rest of the season. That guy threw four pitches for a strike any time in the count."
McDaniel, a sophomore, racked up 11 strikeouts and walked two in six innings of work. He gave up both of Sikeston's runs on four hits but kept most Sikeston hitters off-balance. Especially with his go-to pitch.
"His change-up was great. They have a lot of lefties and that had them out in front," Null said. "We got a lot of pop-ups early on. He gutted through six and with it being early in the year we wanted to limit his pitches. He did a great job."
After hitting six doubles against North County the day before, Greenville kept its hitting prowess going. They opened the first two innings with five hits which included three doubles for an early 4-0 lead.
"Came out today in the first two innings and it was the same thing," said Null. "I think that helped us relax a little bit and let us know that we can compete with (Sikeston). It allowed Trey to go out and attack the zone a little more too. Those were huge runs."
McDaniel was also part of Greenville's early start. The sophomore led off the game with a single and was quickly pushed across home plate after a double by Devon Duncan. Duncan scored during the next at-bat after Trent Tompkins' sacrifice fly.
Back to back, two-out doubles from McDaniel and Duncan in the second inning led to Greenville's four-run advantage over Sikeston and its starter Chase Gaines.
"They came out and were more aggressive early that we were," Scheeter said about his team's 4-0 deficit. "That's a good ball club. I'm not down on my kids at all. We played as good against a good ball club as you could have asked."
Gaines put up zeros the next two innings before he was lifted for reliever Trent Sidwell, who finished the remaining three innings.
Sikeston (2-1) scored its first run in the bottom of the third inning. A leadoff single by Wyatt Pratt led to a run after a hit by Cody Rodgers was fumbled in left field. Pratt galloped from first on the error while Rodgers took second.
Rodgers would be left stranded on the bag which would be a struggle for the Bulldogs throughout the contest. They left six runners in scoring position.
"We just didn't put the ball in play enough. That's the bottom line of today. We had runners in scoring position and an opportunity to bring them in and score. We just didn't get it done. We have to find a way to get that done," Scheeter said.
Compounding Sikeston's absence of clutch hitting was strikeouts. All but two innings ended with strikeouts.
"We don't want to see 14 strikeouts. We don't want to see any," said Scheeter. "That might be because we haven't seen a kid like that. He was hitting spots and we just kept watching. We thought it was out of the zone and the movement on it late was catching the edge of the strike zone just enough to get it called on us. As a ball club we have to make adjustments."
Blake Wolferding cut into Greenville's lead in the sixth inning with his second home run of the year. The junior catcher led off the inning with a solo shot to left field but McDaniel responded with three straight strikeouts to end his day.
"Trey has a little better off-speed. I thought that would hold Sikeston down a little bit," said Null. "For a sophomore he's got a lot of poise and he mixes his stuff up well and you have to do that against good hitting teams."
The Bears notched an insurance run during its half of the seventh inning when courtesy runner Wyatt Barks scored on a Sikeston error to make up the final score.
Kearbey, who got the win over North County on Tuesday, picked up the save after putting himself in a small jam to start the seventh.
Kearbey, a 6-4 right-hander, allowed consecutive walks with one out that brought the potential tying run to the plate. He caught the last two Sikeston batters looking to complete the save.
"He's got a good fastball and he's tall and by the time he lets go of it it gets on you pretty good," Null said. "He's probably a little sore from yesterday with his first outing of the spring but we got to that one inning situation and I figured we'd go with our big gun and see if he could finish it off."
Greenville entered this season with a preseason ranking after winning seven games two seasons ago. They finished last year with a 21-9 record and was bounced out of the Class 2, District 3 tournament by Bernie
"Coming in ranked preseason No. 4 just puts a target on our back, but we've got to learn to play with that," Null said. "This win just gives us a ton of confidence."
Sikeston will be off until Monday when they travel to Cooter to play the defending Class 1 state champions with a 4:30 p.m. start time.
The Sikeston junior varsity team let a late two-run lead slip away as it lost its game against Jackson Wednesday 7-4.
Sikeston had two hits on the game and led 3-1 entering the sixth inning.
Greenville 220 000 1 -- 5 6 0
Sikeston 001 001 0 -- 2 4 2
WP -- Trey McDaniel (G). LP -- Chase Gaines (S). Multiple hitters: (G) McDaniel 2-4, Devon Duncan 2-3. 2B: (G) McDaniel, Duncan 2. HR: (S) Blake Wolferding.
Advertisement
Advertisement