Sikeston baseball dominates Cape Central for third place

Sikeston tops Tigers 7-1; Jackson pounds Dexter in fifth place game

sd_sports@yahoo.com

CAPE GIRARDEAU -- Wrapping up their SEMO Conference Tournament play Monday afternoon, the Sikeston Bulldogs defeated the Cape Central Tigers to take third-place with a 7-1 win.

Leading the entire way, Sikeston had a big game with their bats, collecting 12 hits to the Tigers three.

"I thought we swung the bats really well," Bulldog's coach Kevin Self. "I guess we saved (our hits) all up for this game, because we only had five coming in to this game for the entire tournament."

With their first four batters of the afternoon reaching safely, Sikeston had no trouble taking an early lead, scoring two runs in the first inning before a 4-6-3 double play followed by a strikeout put a stop to the drive.

Loading the bases again in the second, the Bulldogs came away with two more as Ross Bohannon scored when Jordan Williams grounded into a fielder's choice with Luke Keefer coming in on the same play after a throwing error.

With Cape Central only able to put up one run in the same time frame, off a Josh Meyer single, Sikeston was able to force the Tigers in to trying to play catchup.

"You're talking about a wooden bat tournament," Self said. "You're not going to see a lot of runs scored so if you can score early and get a lead, then you can play to that strength."

While holding the Tigers scoreless the rest of the way, Sikeston would score two more in the fifth and another in the seventh to give the Bulldogs a comfortable margin of victory.

"I thought we played real well," Sikeston's starting pitcher Tyler Anderson said. "I made sure I threw strikes and the team backed me up with hits.

"I just thank them for getting runs for me."

Of the Bulldogs nine starters, six finished the afternoon with two hits.

The team's only two extra-base hits came courtesy of Blake Newman and Nathan Rodgers who each contributed a double.

As good as of an afternoon as Sikeston's offense had, Anderson was no slouch on the mound.

Going all seven innings, he allowed only the one run on three hits, while striking out nine.

"I felt great today," Anderson said. "My change up was working awesome today. Things were clicking, it felt good."

Though never in any real trouble at any point in the game, Anderson seemed to hit his stride about mid-game.

Of his nine strikeouts six came in the final three innings as he retired the final nine batters in a row.

"I thought he threw better in the fifth, sixth and seventh than he did in the first three innings," Self said.

Along with third place in the tournament, the win also improves the Bulldogs season record to 13-7.

After getting a day off Sikeston gets back on the field Wednesday, taking on the visiting East Prairie Eagles at 4 p.m.

Sikeston 220 020 1 - 7 12 3

Cape 100 000 0 - 1 3 2

WP -- Tyler Anderson. LP -- Josh Compas. Multiple hitters -- (S) Tyler Anderson, 2-4, Blake Newman, 2-3, Nathan Rodgers, 2-4, Jason Isaacs, 2-4, Trent McMillan, 2-4, Ross Bohannon, 2-4. 2B -- (S) Newman, Rodgers.

Jackson 12, Dexter 1

CAPE GIRARDEAU -- Losing to Jackson 12-1 by the mercy rule in the fifth Monday afternoon, the Dexter Bearcats finish their run in the SEMO Conference Tournament with a sixth-place finish.

After both teams played the first two innings scoreless, the Indians broke out in the third, scoring sixth in the frame, followed by four in the fourth and two in the fifth.

Meanwhile, the Bearcats struggled to get their offense going, scoring their only run of the contest in the fifth.

"Landon (Hall) kind of shut them out at the start of the game, then we didn't execute on a ground ball and then things kind of started snowballing from there," Dexter coach Brian Becker said. "It was a tough day for us, but hopefully we'll bounce back from it."

Dexter 000 01 - 1 3 2

Jackson 006 42 - 12 9 2

WP -- Logan Bartels. LP -- Landon Hall. Multiple hitters -- (J) Bobby Clark 2-4. 2B -- (J) Bartels, Tyler Koch.

Notre Dame 7, Kennett 4

CAPE GIRARDEAU -- Notre Dame won the SEMO Conference Tournament 7-4 over Kennett.

Notre Dame (18-1) scored three in the third and another three in the fourth and held off Kennett in the seventh for the win.

Kennett 000 200 2 -- 4 5 0

N.D. 003 310 X -- 7 7 3

WP -- Tanner Hiett. LP -- Cameron Wallace. Multiple hitters -- (K) Wallace 2-3; (ND) Trenton St. Cin 2-4, Colton Young 2-3. 2B -- (K) Thomas Stillman, (ND) Jeremy Essner.