Sikeston drops extra-inning conference game to Poplar Bluff

POPLAR BLUFF, Mo. -- Sikeston overcame a two-run deficit in the top of the seventh and was a strike away from a SEMO Conference win Tuesday.

Instead, the Bulldogs suffered their second extra-inning loss as Poplar Bluff got a pair of two-out RBI hits to win 8-7 in eight innings.

"That's a game you hate to see anybody lose," Sikeston coach Alan Scheeter said. "That's fun though. That's why you play the game. Win or lose, that's what makes baseball fun right there."

Sikeston (5-3, 1-2 SEMO Conference) took an early 3-0 lead but entered the seventh inning down two runs.

Trey Smith and Wyatt Pratt opened the seventh with their third hits apiece before a throwing error on a fielder's choice allowed Smith to score from second. Blake Wolferding's RBI groundout tied it before McKenzie Worth's RBI liner to center put the Bulldogs ahead 7-6.

After a leadoff single, the Mules hit into consecutive force outs at second base and Sikeston ace Trent Sidwell got ahead in the count, looking to close out the win. Dalton Cooper, however, fouled off a pair of two-strike pitches before the next one hit the senior in the leg. Ross Rushin took the first pitch he saw through the left side of the infield to tie it.

"I can't be any prouder of our guys and how they come through and fight for each other," Poplar Bluff coach Steven Edwards said.

After the Bulldogs went in order in the eighth, Jared Moses fouled off a pair of two-strike pitches before a one-out bloop single to center field. Kameron Misner followed with an opposite-field single and both runners moved into scoring position on a ground out. Cleanup hitter Matt Lambert laced an opposite-field liner to score the game-winning run.

"He's tough. Comes up in that situation, gets a pitch that's up a little bit," Scheeter said.

The Mules (11-2, 2-0) scored five runs in the second inning to surge ahead after Sikeston took the first lead.

Smith opened the game with a 380-foot strike just wide of the left-field foul pole. He walked after fouling off three two-strike pitches and Wyatt Pratt singled to center. With two outs, Worth walked before Bryce Bays hit a two-run single up the middle.

Sikeston had three more two-out hits in the second inning to add another run on an RBI single by Sam Cox.

Sikeston's Trent Sidwell delivers a pitch to a Poplar Bluff batter Tuesday, April 5, 2016, at Bobby Strenfel Field in Poplar Bluff, Mo. (Brian Rosener/Daily American Republic)

Sikeston's Trent Sidwell delivers a pitch to a Poplar Bluff batter Tuesday, April 5, 2016, at Bobby Strenfel Field in Poplar Bluff, Mo. (Brian Rosener/Daily American Republic)

Poplar Bluff also had four two-out hits leading to five runs.

Rushin grounded out with the bases loaded to put the Mules on the board in the second and Joe Darlin followed with a two-run liner up the middle. Misner drove in two more with a two-out single after the Bulldogs committed a second throwing error in the frame.

The Mules added a run in the third to go up 6-3 on Rushin's two-out RBI hit.

Misner settled in on the mound, retiring 12 of 14 he faced after the Mules gave him the lead. The lefty who has signed to play at the University of Missouri, struck out seven, walked two and allowed nine hits and six earned runs in 6 1/3 innings.

Sikeston put a runner on third with one out in the third and fourth innings but Misner was able to wiggle out of it once with consecutive strike outs. Wyatt Pratt's RBI groundout after Smith's triple in the fourth cut Poplar Bluff's lead to 6-4.

Smith, Pratt and Cox were a combined 7 for 12 with a walk while the bottom three of Sikeston's order was 0 for 12 with six strike outs.

Five of Poplar Bluff's RBIs came from Rushin and Darlin batting seventh and eighth.

"We didn't give up, they didn't give up," Scheeter said. "It just so happens they had the last at-bat today."

Misner entered the seventh having retired eight straight but had thrown 105 pitches to that point. He lobbied Edwards to finish.

"What he said was, 'Coach a truck won't pull me off this mound,'" Edwards recalled of his visit in the seventh. "We let him go a little bit longer. I think we made the right call."

Sidwell did the same in the eighth but had thrown 11 or fewer pitches in four of his first six innings.

He finished with four strikeouts and three walks, one intentionally, three hit batters and six earned runs.

"Hindsight, you can kill yourself on that one so I'm not going to do that," Scheeter said. "I asked him and he said, 'Coach I'm going, it's me, don't you take me out.'

"He wouldn't let me take him out."

Scheeter went to the mound after the one-out single by Moses to get a smile from Sidwell and break up the rhythm and the tension.

"I didn't have any words of wisdom," Scheeter added. "He knew what he was doing."

Sikeston 210 100 30 -- 7 10 3

PB 051 000 11 -- 8 10 1

WP -- Joe Darlin. LP -- Trent Sidwell. Multiple hitters: (S) Trey Smith 3-4, Wyatt Pratt 3-4, Bryce Bays 2-4; (PB) Kameron Misner 2-4, Mason Libla 2-5, Ross Rushin 2-4. 3B: (S) Smith, Bays; (P) Rushin.