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Sikeston Legion routs Dunklin County
SIKESTON - The Sikeston Senior American Legion Post 114 baseball team picked up a huge district win on Monday by defeating Dunklin County 11-1 in eight innings at VFW Stadium.
Sikeston (10-6, 2-1 district) broke open a close game and scored eight runs in the eighth to enforce the 10-run mercy rule.
"Anytime you can get a win against Dunklin County -- they're a quality club and well-coached -- we'll take it," said Sikeston head coach Charlie Dye. "If we can continue to play like we did tonight, we'll be alright."
Sikeston was leading 3-1 when they came to bat in the eighth. Post 114 was able to get the rally started on back to back errors by Dunklin County. They had five errors in the game.
That started a string where six of the next seven batters recorded hits. In between was a walk.
The first nine batters in the eighth inning reached base safely.
"Finally here at the end we kind of broke through and started to do the things we needed to do," said Dye. "Early in the game I think we were over-swinging but in the last few innings the kids just made up their minds to stay back and make a good stroke on the ball. We're not a home run hitting ballclub and the kids have to buy into that. We have to have two or three hits in a row to score runs against good teams."
Meanwhile, Sikeston hurler Lance Rhodes was cruising on the mound.
He threw all nine innings and allowed just five hits. He struck out six and walked two.
"He pitched alright, we just didn't swing it real well," said Dunklin County coach Justin Dobbins. "He's a decent pitcher, but we've got to swing it better than that. You've got to score more than one to win."
Rhodes also had some help behind his defense, which committed one error in the game and made many nice plays.
"Lance threw a tremendous ballgame," said Dye. "He was in control the whole time. He kept them behind us and allowed us to get some runs in front of him. Our defense should be solid. We've got kids in the middle and kids in the outfield that can make the plays. We've just got to stay consistent."
Sikeston jumped out to the lead in the fifth inning with three runs. Post 114 scored two runs off throwing errors.
Drew Lawrence provided a run-scoring single in the inning.
Dunklin County got one run back in the top of the sixth when Landon Small brought home Jeremy Patton with a single to make it 3-1.
Neither team could plate any more runs until Sikeston's explosion in the eighth.
Jordan Penn, Brandon Crook, Rhodes and Tyler Stahl all had run-scoring singles in the inning. Matt Smith had a two-run double.
Jordan Kimball's sacrifice fly to right field ended the game as Smith tagged from third and slid in for Sikeston's 11th run of the game.
"They got a few hits through some wholes and they got some bunts down," said Dobbins. "The game was a lot closer than what it ended up. They got a hit here and there and that pretty much sums it up."
Sikeston had 14 hits in the game, 12 of which were singles.
Dunklin County (14-12, 1-2 district) pitcher Anthony Patton took the loss in seven-plus innings of work. He allowed 10 hits and nine runs, but only five were earned.
Jeremy Patton led Dunklin County with two hits.
Crook, Lawrence, Rhodes, Stahl, Penn and Richard Landers each had two hits for Sikeston.
Dunklin County defeated Sikeston 7-0 in the first meeting earlier this month, but Dye said the team wasn't thinking about payback.
"These kids come to play one game at a time," said Dye. "We always look forward to playing Dunklin County, but they weren't thinking about that. It's usually a tight, well-played ballgame. We're fortunate to get on a roll tonight and were able to string some hits together."
Sikeston will play at Cape Girardeau Ford & Sons tomorrow at 7 p.m. in a district game.