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Sikeston baseball team holds off Notre Dame in deciding SEMO Conference matchup
SIKESTON -- Tuesday's game between Sikeston and Notre Dame was filled with implications.
A Notre Dame win meant they would clinch the SEMO Conference regular season championship.
A Sikeston win meant they would guarantee a first round home game and possibly move into a top three seeding during the upcoming SEMO Conference Tournament this weekend.
Also, and possibly more important, a victory for either team would give them a leg up on a top seed for the Class 4, District 1 tournament less than three weeks from now.
Sikeston scored five runs in one inning all thanks to a Notre Dame meltdown on the mound and eventually held off their rivals from the north for a 5-4 victory to remain undefeated in district play.
But the Sikeston baseball team didn't really have that in mind and wasn't really focused on what lies ahead due to Tuesday's district and conference outcome. They fixated on their play and are simply glad they got the win.
"It's nice to have home-field advantage, but we've been talking about it all year and we don't necessarily care what seed we get in the conference tournament," Sikeston coach Brett Kolons said. "We just want to be there, play and see what happens...Yeah, it's Notre Dame, a rivalry game that the kids get up for a little bit and that's a good ball club over there, but we just want to be ourselves and if we can do that, we'll take care of what we need to take care of."
It's still not official, but it's a given that Sikeston (9-2, 5-2 SEMO Conference) will host their first round game of the SEMO Conference Tournament on Friday. They end regular season conference play tied for second with Jackson and Notre Dame.
Thanks to Sikeston's win and a Poplar Bluff win over New Madrid County Central, the Mules claimed the conference championship out-right with a 6-1 record. Notre Dame went into Tuesday as the top team in the conference holding the tie-breaker over Poplar Bluff.
"We had a chance to be at least the co-champs in the SEMO Conference today and that's kind of what we were playing for and what we wanted to do," Notre Dame coach Jeff Graviett said.
A pitcher's duel turned ugly for Notre Dame in the bottom of the fourth.
Both starters, Sikeston's Wyatt Pratt and Notre Dame's Noah Brown, were rolling. Pratt pitched a no-hitter until the sixth inning and Brown allowed three, non-threatening singles through three before things took a turn for the Notre Dame hurler.
Brown walked four-straight batters to allow Sikeston's first run.
"I think he knew how good of a hitting team they are and, I don't want to say he tried to make perfect pitches, but he knew he needed to have his best stuff," Graviett said about Brown. "A lot of those counts we were ahead and when we got 3-2 we just couldn't throw that strike when we needed to. It was one of those things. He lost it and lost it quickly."
Brown's sudden loss of command continued with reliever Reid James. After getting a soft line out against the first batter he faced, James walked the next two to make it 3-0 Sikeston.
An infield error piled on to Notre Dame's fourth-inning skid which allowed two more runs to cross home plate.
In all, Notre Dame (10-6, 5-2 SEMO Conference) walked six and committed a costly error that allowed all of Sikeston's five runs on no hits in the fourth.
"I was disappointed in our pitchers, not with the walks, but the competing effort," Graviett said. "We needed to find a way. If we have to throw it belt-high and they hit it, we have to find a way not to do that...It just kind of all blew up on us at one time."
It was just the type of inning that Sikeston needed on a day their offense ended with four singles that didn't do much damage.
"What it came down to was us getting that big inning," Pratt said. "Both starters were really good and it's just one of those games where runs were few and you had to take advantage."
With five runs in his pocket, Pratt tried to finish what he started but was cut short by the new pitch-count rule.
Pratt finished the game with 103 pitches -- two less than what an upperclassman is allowed on four days rest -- and earned the win after 5 1/3 innings. He allowed two unearned runs on one hit and four walks while striking out seven.
"I think I challenged hitters with my fastball," Pratt said. "That was my best pitch for sure. I just tried to keep them as off-balance as I could."
"It wasn't in the plan and we wanted to get him out earlier, but he's just so hard to take out," Kolons said about Pratt. "He's really kind of turning into an ace for our staff."
The pitch-count turned out to be Notre Dame's friend. It got Pratt off the mound and that's when they got cooking.
Notre Dame's comeback bid starter after they scored two runs behind a two-run double by Layne Robinson off reliever Payton Howard, a freshman making his first career varsity appearance for Sikeston. Notre Dame added two more runs in the top of the seventh and put the go-ahead run on second with just one out.
"Once they changed we were taking better at bats," Graviett said. "We saw how crazy this game's going to get come postseason with the pitch-count."
Notre Dame chased Howard from the game after an inning and nearly got the best of Will Gilmer, who pitched the final two outs for Sikeston.
Gilmer was met by a two-run double by Ben Womack, then a single from Garrett Siebert that put the tying run 90-feet away. Siebert later took second representing the go-ahead run.
But Gilmer coaxed two flyouts to centerfield to end Notre Dame's threat.
Gilmer picked up the save after throwing five pitches against the four batters he faced. Howard pitched a full inning giving up two earned runs on two hits on 24 pitches.
"I've got all the confidence in the world that Payton is going to go out there and do it to the best of his ability and same thing with Will," Kolons said. "Will got the job done."
Notre Dame out-hit Sikeston 5-4 and of those five hits, four of them were doubles. They just couldn't find the big hit when they needed it in the early going.
"We had some chances to put some runs on the board early with the right guys we want up there and we just couldn't get them across," Graviett said... I didn't think we competed very much the first five innings and then we competed our butts off the last two. That's really a tale of two games."
Both teams will have one game before the SEMO Conference Tournament begins on Friday.
Sikeston will travel to Cooter today at 4:30 p.m. Notre Dame hosts Valle Catholic today at 4:30 p.m.
Notre Dame 000 002 2 -- 4 5 1
Sikeston 000 500 x -- 5 4 1
WP -- Wyatt Pratt. LP -- Noah Brown. S -- Will Gilmer. 2B -- Trevor Haas (ND), Ben Womack (ND) 2, Layne Robinson (ND). Multiple hitters: Notre Dame -- Ben Womack 2-2.