Post 114 loses first district game

Dunklin County pounds out 17 hits in 20-4 win

SIKESTON - The Sikeston Senior American Legion Post 114 dropped its first district game of the year, falling 20-4 in seven innings to Dunklin County on Wednesday at VFW Stadium.

Dunklin County Post 303 (20-3, 7-0) pounded out 17 hits in the contest, blowing the game open with a seven-run second inning.

"I'm surprised by that kind of score," said Dunklin County head coach Jamie Johnson. "Anytime you come to Sikeston you expect for it to be a tight game. Tonight it wasn't. There's not a lot I can say about it -- we just hit the baseball and we got some breaks early and the runs kind of piled up."

Dunklin County scored a run in the first inning when Billy Palmer tripled and scored off a Nathan Baker bloop single to left field.

Post 303 scored seven in the second inning highlighted by Matt Thomas' bases clearing triple to make it 8-0.

"They swung the bats well tonight," said Sikeston head coach Charlie Dye. "We weren't completely ready to play and why I don't know. I go back to the fact that we're young, and sometimes when you've got a young ballclub the snowball gets to rolling down the hill and there's nothing you can do about it. Maybe the kids can learn something. I hope they don't like taking a beating like this."

Dunklin County scored another run in the third and added five more in the fourth off two run homers by Thomas and Hunter Butler to make it 15-0.

Post 303 plated five more runs in the fifth to lead 20-0 before Sikeston was able to keep them off the scoreboard for the final two innings.

"We made several mistakes tonight, not that it would make up 17 runs," said Dye. "But it's hard when a team gets down that far -- we just weren't concentrating once we got down. It just wasn't our night. But we'll strap it back on and go play ball."

Sikeston finally got on the scoreboard in the sixth inning off a fielder's choice RBI by Nathan Eaves that plated Jake Kimball. Three batters later, Adam Garrett lined a two-run single to right field to score Eaves and Andrew Lambert.

Sikeston got another run in the seventh when Scotty Keenan drew a bases loaded walk to score Mark Adam Wade.

Dunklin County's Tyler Boatwright pitched 5 1/3 innings to pick up the win. He allowed two runs off three hits. He struck out two and walked five.

Post 303 was led by Jared Duffel, Palmer and Baker who each had three hits. Baker had three RBIs and two runs scored. Thomas had six RBIs and three runs scored.

Brian Lacey added two hits and four runs.

"If we continue to hit like that then we can do some things," said Johnson. "That was a pretty good night at the plate for us. Here of late we've been hitting the baseball really well. You know, 20-3, that's a great start for us and I didn't expect that kind of start. But we've got a little talent and we're playing well."

Sikeston (10-4, 4-1) had seven hits in the game. They were led by Kimball's two hits, including a double.

Others with one hit each were Garrett, Jacob Priday, Eaves, Lambert and Keenan.

Lance Rhodes took the loss in four innings of work for Post 114.

"Sikeston's got a good ballclub -- they're young and they're going to be something to be reckoned with at the end," said Johnson. "I guarantee they're in the top two or three in this conference without a doubt. They're going to be around because Charlie's going to make them be around."

Sikeston plays at Jackson today in a district game. Dunklin County plays a traveling team out of Poplar Bluff today in doubleheader on the road.