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Sikeston baseball defeats Charleston 6-4
SIKESTON -- Sikeston senior Jordan Williams isn't sold on the idea that the Sikeston-Charleston rivalry doesn't involve the baseball field.
Especially after losing to the Bluejays for the first time in school history just last season.
Williams was apart of that 8-5 loss last season which officially made it a rivalry.
"We don't want to lose to them because they are Charleston," Williams said. "(The rivalry) is there. It's always been there.
"Last year was big. I didn't want it to happen again."
Williams made sure the Bluejays didn't repeat the feat on Tuesday afternoon as he led the Bulldogs on the mound and at the plate in Sikeston's 6-4 win.
Williams got the win giving up four runs, three earned, on five hits in 5 2/3 innings. Sikeston catcher Trent McMillan, who works with Williams at calling their own pitches throughout the game, noticed that almost anything his starting pitcher threw to him was where it needed to be. In particular the fastball.
"Whatever he's feeling we'll throw it, "said McMillan. "He threw his fastball pretty much anywhere and it hit it's spot.
"He had all of his stuff working today. He hit his spots."
It didn't start out that way for Williams however, walking Charleston's Marshall Stallings on four straight pitches. Stallings eventually came around to score the game's first run after Williams' counterpart, James Naile, hit a single into right field that skipped behind right fielder Grant Hinton allowing Stallings to touch home.
The Bulldogs bounced right back in their half of the first with three runs on three hits. Naile, who was given the loss, left a few of his pitches up in the zone early in the contest which the heavy-hitting Bulldogs took advantage of.
Williams loaded up on one of those hangers which he ripped into deep center field. As he made his way to third for the triple, the relay throw was knocked away from shortstop Ethan Browning sending Williams to the plate for the 3-1 score.
Sikeston scored one in the second and two more in the third going up 6-2. They had eight of their 11 hits in the first three innings coinciding with Naile who began to settle down on the mound.
"He got the ball up a little bit and they hit some balls hard," Charleston head coach Michael Minner said. "We didn't make some plays defensively and when you don't make the plays against a good hitting team and you give them four, five or six outs, your not going to beat them."
Naile was tagged for six runs, five earned, on 11 hits in his six innings of work. Charleston's ace threw a total of 74 pitches, 57 for strikes and just 17 for balls.
"We've been hitting a lot during practice and working on squaring the ball up," said McMillan. "That showed a big difference during the game."
Charleston cut the deficit in half in the fifth inning after Naile sent a triple into deep right-center field that scored Jason Showmaker all the way from first base. The Bluejays tagged on one more in the sixth after a Shane Scott double scored Justin Hardin from second.
Scott's double put an end to Williams' day giving way to freshman Trey Tigart, who earned the save in 1 1/3 innings.
"I felt like bringing him in, he was going to throw strikes," Sikeston head coach Kevin Self said about Tigart. "It was good to give him some experience and to put something on the line and for him to do well."
Tigart sat down the four batters he saw in order. The final out was a high fly ball off the bat of Naile which fell into the awaiting glove of Williams in center field.
"It was a big chunk on our shoulder that we just needed to get off," McMillan said about avenging last year's loss. "We knew it wasn't going to happen again this year.
"It happened one year and that's all that it needs to happen from here on out."
Williams, who was moved to the No. 5 spot in the lineup, went 3-for-3 at the plate with one RBI. Rice and Blake Newman each had two hits while McMillan roped a double down the left field line.
"I moved (Williams) up in the lineup because he's been swinging it well lately," Self said. "Trent swung it well and so did Cody (Rice). We had two or three guys with multiple hits and it took that. It took that to win."
Charleston was led by Naile who had two hits in four chances. Zach Rowland, Scott and Showmaker made up the rest of Charleston's five hits.
"All in all, to come over to Sikeston and lose 6-4, it's not what we wanted, but we'll take it," said Minner.
Charleston (8-4) is scheduled to play the Scott County Central Braves today at 4 p.m., while Sikeston (8-5) is off until Thursday when they travel to Fredericktown.
Charleston 101 011 0 -- 4
Sikeston 312 000 x -- 6
WP -- Jason Williams. LP -- James Naile. S -- Trey Tigart. Multiple hitters -- James Naile (C) 2-4, Cody Rice (S) 2-4, Blake Newman (S) 2-4, Jordan Williams (S) 3-3. 2B -- Shane Scott (C), Trent McMillan (S). 3B -- Naile, Williams.