SIKESTON - The Senior American Legion District 14 Tournament got underway on Monday at VFW Stadium in Sikeston.
In the first round, No. 4 seeded Jackson defeated No. 5 Chaffee 8-7 in 10 innings and in the nightcap, No. 3 Cape Ford & Sons exploded late to defeat No. 6 Stoddard County 17-0 in seven innings.
Ford & Sons will move on to play No. 2 Sikeston today at 8 p.m. Prior to that, Jackson will meet top-seeded Dunklin County at 5 p.m.
Against Jackson, Chaffee Post 389 (12-18) appeared to have the game in the bag when they had runners on second and third with no outs and the game tied at 7-7 in the bottom of the ninth.
But Jackson was able to get out of the jam. After Tyler Cookson popped out, Major Burger was walked to load the bases. But they got Zac Horman to pop out and Kendall Deason to flyout to end the threat.
"We had the right kids at bat," said Chaffee head coach Mitch Wood. "We had the three, four and five hitters up with men in scoring position and nobody out but we didn't get the job done tonight. We had plenty of opportunities to score more runs than what we did. We were in a situation to win the ballgame but we came up short."
Chaffee was actually trailing entering the ninth, but Trey Graviett led off with a double. He scored when Ryne Wood came through with a double to tie the game at 7-7.
But Post 389 couldn't get the winning run across.
Jackson (19-16) scored the go-ahead run in the top of the 10th when Vandeven's RBI-single plated Josh Parham to lead 8-7.
Chaffee left the tying run stranded on second in the bottom of the 10th.
Post 389 only managed seven hits in the 10-inning affair.
"They threw a kid that wasn't overpowering but he had a little breaking ball," said Wood. "He didn't throw very hard and that probably gives us more trouble than anything. We hit the faster pitching better than the easy pitching. We didn't come today ready to hit the ball."
Jackson used five pitchers in the game with Stearnes picking up the win in the 10th.
Wood used only two pitchers. Eric O'Hare got the start, throwing 6 1/3 innings and allowing five runs off eight hits with six strikeouts.
Tyler Nelson was the hard-luck loser in relief, allowing three runs (one earned) off three hits in 3 2/3 innings. He struck out four.
But Wood thinks his team will have enough pitching in the loser's bracket.
"I've got a lot of pitching," said Wood. "We've got Graviett and Ryne left and I've got a lot of kids I can throw. You've got to win these kind of ballgames if you want to stay alive and play in the winner's bracket. We've made these same mistakes all year long."
Chaffee led 2-1 after the first inning when Joey Bickings doubled in a run and then scored on a two-base throwing error.
Jackson came back to lead 5-2 by the fifth inning but Burger's two-run double trimmed the lead to 5-4. Bickings scored on a passed ball to tie the game at 5-5.
Burger added a sacrifice fly in the seventh to give Chaffee a 6-5 lead. But it was short-lived as Jackson plated two more runs in the eighth to take a 7-6 lead.
Hitters for Chaffee were Graviett (2-4, 4 runs), Wood (1-2, 3 HBP, 2B, RBI, run), Bickings (2-4, RBI, 2 runs), Burger (1-3, 3 RBIs) and Jordan Comer (1-5).
Ford & Sons pitcher Mark Wittenborn pitched a no-hitter, striking out 14 and walking one. He faced 23 batters, just two over the minimum.
Cape Post 63 (21-14) led just 1-0 after four innings of play. But a seven-run explosion in the fifth made it 8-0. They topped that with nine more runs in the sixth to enforce the 10-run mercy rule, winning 17-0.
Cape was led in hitting by Seth Hudson (2-3, 2 3B), Shane Kistner (3-3) and Chris Conrad (2-3, 3B, 2 RBIs).
Stoddard County falls to 2-13 on the season.