Sikeston baseball shuts down Scott City

SCOTT CITY - For the second time in as many games, the Sikeston Bulldogs went on the road and hammered their opposition for 13 runs while shutting down the opposing offense.

Sikeston's squad hammered out 13 hits while only surrendering five in Tuesday afternoon's 13-0 route of the Scott City Rams.

Tuesday's score mirrored last Wednesday's performance when the Bulldogs went on the road to defeat the Kelly Hawks by the same score.

"The biggest part was scoring right off in the first inning," Sikeston's coach Kevin Self said. "Scoring two runs with two outs, that kind of set the tone for the whole game."

Those two first inning runs Self was referring to came off a double by Nathan Rodgers and a single by Ross Bohannon, each driving in a run.

Sikeston would add five more runs in the second, including two off a Blake Newman blast to left center after Evan Underwood walked to start the inning.

"When you get a home run from your eight-hole you know you're swinging it pretty well," Self said.

Following two scoreless frames, the Bulldogs wrapped up their scoring in the fifth with another six runs off five hits to give them the mercy rule victory after Scott City couldn't rally in the bottom half of the inning.

In all, eight of Sikeston's starting nine contributed at least a hit, with right fielder Cody Rice leading the Bulldogs, going 3-for-4 with a double.

As impressive as the offense was, the defense had no problem keeping the game in check.

Freshman Tyler Anderson went the full five innings on the mound, fanning six with no walks to earn the win.

Self spoke highly of his young pitcher after the game.

"He's playing above his years for sure," he said. "Biggest thing he did was he could throw both pitches for strikes, the curve ball and the fast ball, anytime and that was a big difference."

For Scott City, the loss is the second in a row they have allowed double digit runs after starting the season with a 15-0 win over New Madrid County Central.

One of the Rams problems had been timely hitting, as they had runners in scoring position in each of the first three innings, but failed to produce a run.

"It's been the name of the game for two years now," Scott City coach Lance Amick said. "We haven't been able to get a hit when we needed it.

"Somebody has to step up and ignite our offense, get that big hit when we really need it."

Skylar Cobb was the lone Scott City player with two hits, going 2-for-2 while stealing two bases.

Singles by Chris Limbaugh, Jamie Scholtz and Brett Dirnberger accounted for the rest of the Rams offense.

Landon Robert takes the loss in the first start of his varsity career. He allowed eight hits and three walks in three innings while striking out two.

"I think he would be the first to admit he really couldn't get his secondary pitch working today," Amick said. "His fast ball is not overpowering.

"He normally spots it pretty well, but he really couldn't get his breaking ball working today and that really hurt him.

Amick added he expects his young pitcher to bounce back quickly.

"The thing about it is he's resilient, he's going to come back and he's going to battle for us next time," he said. "We have a lot of confidence in him."

Scott City (1-2 )will look to rebound next Wednesday, when they travel to Oran to play the Eagles at 4 p.m.

Sikeston (2-1) takes on the visiting Cape Central Tigers today at 4 p.m.

Sikeston 250 06 -- 13

Scott City 000 00 -- 0

WP -- Tyler Anderson (1-0). LP -- Landon Robert (0-1). Multiple hits -- (Sikeston) Cody Rice 3-for-4, Tyler Anderson 2-for-4, Ross Bohannon 2-for-3, Jordan Williams 2-for-4, Blake Newman 2-for-3; (Scott City) Skyler Cobb 2-for-2. Extra-base hits -- 2B: (Sikeston) Rice, Nathan Rodgers; (Scott City) none. Home runs: (Sikeston) Newman; (Scott City) none.