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SHS knocks out Reidland
REIDLAND, Ky. -- The Sikeston Bulldogs baseball team split a doubleheader in the McCracken County Wood Bat Tournament in Reidland (Ky.) on Friday afternoon.
The Bulldogs won the opening game against host school Reidland, 7-1, but they lost in the second game to Marion (Ill.) 5-2.
The loss to Marion is the Bulldogs' first of the year as they fall to 6-1 on the season.
Sikeston played two more games in the round robin tournament on Saturday. Results from that game will be in Monday's edition.
In the first game, Sikeston committed a season-high five errors, including three in the first inning to allow the Greyhounds' only run of the game.
Sikeston didn't stay down long though as they tied things up in the top of the second inning on a sacrifice fly by Richard Landers to bring in Tyler Baker, who had doubled and reached third on a wild pitch.
Sikeston took the lead for good in the top of the fifth inning on a double-
steal. With two outs and runners on first and third, Bulldog head coach Kevin Self rolled the dice and it paid off.
Reidland (3-3) actually executed a solid defensive play and appeared to have Jerod Scott nailed at the plate, but the Greyhound catcher dropped the ball.
"We practice that continuously because that's something we have in our arsenal," said Reidland coach Brian Bowland. "We ran it almost to perfection --
we dropped the ball at the plate. That's the first time we've had to defend it in a long time. We did what we wanted to do and got the play that we wanted to get, but didn't get the outcome. I don't think that killed us because they had second and third with no outs and that was the only run they got that inning, so we felt good about that."
But Sikeston was able to break the game open in the sixth and seventh innings with five more runs.
In the sixth, Baker had a run-scoring double to bring home Cullen DeHart to push the lead to 3-1. Later in the inning, Josh Jackson had a fielder's choice-
RBI to bring in Landers to make it 5-1.
"I thought Tyler Baker hit several balls hard -- he got the big hit to give us a 3-1 lead," said Self.
In the seventh, Sikeston strung together five straight hits. Matt Limbaugh had a run-scoring single, Ross Merideth had a run-scoring double and Baker had another RBI-single.
Merideth had a solid day on the mound for the Bulldogs as he threw all seven innings for the win.
He allowed just two hits and one unearned run. He walked two and struck out seven, including six of the final nine batters he faced.
"I thought Ross threw outstanding," said Self. "He did a great job. We kicked a few behind him and we gave up one unearned run, but I'm telling you he threw outstanding. That's the best job by far all year. His breaking ball was sharp, he threw it for strikes, and he was ahead of every hitter."
Bowland also acknowledged the Merideth threw a nice game, but he also credited Bulldog catcher Eric Chappell for his work behind the plate.
Chappell, normally an outfielder, was catching for Merideth, who is the Bulldogs' usual catcher when not pitching.
"We felt like this year our downfall would be offensive production, but that kid threw a good ballgame," said Bowland. "I think something that probably went a little unnoticed is the ballgame their catcher called. He did a good job of keeping us off balance. I didn't see their pitcher shake off the catcher very often. They were on the same page and they knew what they wanted to throw. He got better as the game went on because we couldn't hit him."
Sikeston had 10 hits in the game.
Baker was 3-4 with two RBIs and a run scored. J.R. Bizzell was 2-4 with a run scored. DeHart was 2-4 with two runs scored. Others were Limbaugh (1-4, run, RBI), Merideth (1-4, RBI), Landers (0-2, RBI, run), Jackson (1-4, RBI) and Scott (run, stolen base).
In the second game, Sikeston jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the first two innings but the Bulldog defense had another defensive letdown in the bottom of the second, allowing four Marion runs to score on three errors.
Sikeston never could get the runs back as the Marion pitchers overpowered the Bulldog bats.
"We battled with them but didn't swing it as well the second game," said Self. "They were as good as anybody we've played. We just made a couple errors and gave them a couple runs that cost us a the ballgame."
Sikeston scored in the top of the first when Bizzell walked, stole second, and scored on a DeHart single.
The Bulldogs took a 2-0 lead in the top of the second when Scott reached on a two-base error. He eventually scored on a Bizzell single.
The Bulldogs only managed five hits in the second game. Landers led the way with two hits. Merideth also had a hit.
Bryce Wibbenmeyer was the losing pitcher, throwing six innings and allowing five runs (one earned) off eight hits and one walk with four strikeouts.