Menu
Rhodes Ks nine in win over Jackson
SIKESTON - The Class 3, No. 1 ranked Sikeston Bulldogs baseball team improved to 12-1 on the season with an 11-1 win against SEMO Conference rival Jackson on Thursday at VFW Stadium.
The Bulldogs scored two runs in the bottom of the sixth to enforce the 10-run mercy rule.
After the Indians intentionally walked Blake DeWitt, Jacob Priday ended the game with a single to left field to plate Lance Rhodes.
The Bulldogs are now 6-0 in the SEMO Conference.
Jackson falls to 5-7 overall and 2-3 in league play.
Sikeston got a stellar pitching effort from Rhodes, who threw all six innings and allowed just one unearned run off four hits. He struck out a season-high nine batters and walked none.
"Rhodes had good control," said Jackson head coach Sam Sides. "We didn't put the bat on the ball. He's not overpowering, but he mixes his pitches and keeps you off-balance. He's a smart pitcher."
Sikeston jumped out to a 1-0 lead in the bottom of the first when a sacrifice fly by DeWitt was dropped by the centerfielder, allowing Drew Lawrence to score.
The bottom of the second was disastrous for the Indians.
Sophomore Richard Landers gave the Bulldogs a 2-0 lead on a single up the middle.
Then, with the bases loaded with one out, Rhodes chopped a ground ball to third baseman Brandon Gendron. After bobbling the ball a little, Gendron unleashed a wild throw over the first baseman's head. It allowed all three runners to score to make it 5-0.
DeWitt followed up with a run-scoring double. He then scored on a Nathan Eaves single to make it 7-0.
"I felt like that error broke their back," said Sikeston head coach Kevin Self. "It was 2-0, we got the bases loaded, and they made that error. We got three off of that, then Blake doubled over the leftfielder's head. And the race is on from that point."
Sikeston added another run in the bottom of the fourth on a DeWitt solo home run to right centerfield.
The Bulldogs got another run in the bottom of the fifth after Eaves doubled and scored on another Indian error by the third baseman.
"We just haven't made plays," said Sides. "Against a good team you can't give them four or five outs an inning and that's what we did. If you do that, then they're going to burn you. We've done that this whole week. Hopefully by playing this good competition we'll get better. Either that or we'll get killed."
The Indians also lost to Notre Dame and No. 2 ranked North County 14-0 earlier this week.
"We've run into a buzzsaw this week," said Sides. "North County and Sikeston are probably two of the better teams in the state. And we went into it probably with a defeatist attitude. You can't do that. You're waiting for bad things to happen. If you're expecting bad things to happen they probably will. We're having some mental problems right now."
Austin McDowell led the Indians with two of the team's four hits.
Sikeston was led by DeWitt's two hits and three RBIs. Eaves also had two hits with an RBI.
"We hit the ball pretty hard," said Self. "Not as hard as what we did against Kennett but we hit it hard. The bottom part of our lineup kind of got us going when we got the big inning. We got production all the way up our lineup. For us to be good and win, we've got to have it that way."
Jason Meystedt took the loss for the Indians, throwing five-plus innings and allowing 11 runs (eight earned) off nine hits. He struck out four and walked four.
Jackson will have another SEMO Conference matchup next Wednesday against Dexter.
Sikeston will travel to East Carter County on Monday at 4 p.m.