Sikeston finishes tourney in fifth

Oran falls to Sikeston, downs Saxony Lutheran

CAPE GIRARDEAU -- The Sikeson Lady Bulldogs softball team came away with a fifth place finish from the 2008 Notre Dame Softballfest over the weekend by winning their final three games after dropping the first one on Friday. They defeated Ste. Genevieve 15-6, Oran 7-6 and Chaffee 3-0.

"It's amazing how much improvement they have made from last year to this year," Sikeston head coach Tiffany King said. "I credit a lot of it to summer ball and them just getting ready to play. There were amazing teams in this tournament and for us to get fifth thats a big accomplishment for us. The future can only get brighter especially for this season."

Sikeston came out against Ste. Genevieve a little sluggish after falling to the Kelly Hawks in their tournament opener. But, it didn't take long for the Lady Bulldogs to shake off that loss and pound out 15 runs to put away Ste. Genevieve.

"I think we kind of started out slow," King said. "I think they were a little upset about the Kelly loss. We allowed five runs in the second inning and had five errors. That was a bad inning for us. We were down and not ready to play and then after a couple innings of hitting the ball we finally started rolling in the fifth inning."

After getting one run back in the fourth inning, Sikeston piled on 11 runs in the fifth to put this one away for good.

Sarah Hopson led the Lady Bulldogs with three hits, including a double and two RBIs. Krystal Henson added two hits, which were both doubles, and three RBIs. Kristin King added a double and two RBIs and Jamie Reed also added two doubles and an RBI. Sydney Davied and Elizabeth Raines each added one RBI a piece as well.

Davied picked up the win for Sikeston as she came in for relief of Hopson. Davied went two innings allowing no hits and one earned run. She also struck out two batters.

Sikeston 7, Oran 6

After handling the Ste. Genevieve team rather easily, the Lady Bulldogs found themselves in a battle against the Oran Lady Eagles in their next game.

It was tied at six after the sixth inning and with the game time limit close to an end, they applied the international tie breaker rule, which meant that each team started the seventh inning with a runner at second base.

Sikeston was able to stop Oran's runner at second from scoring, but the Lady Eagles couldn't do the same against the Lady Bulldogs in the bottom of the seventh, when Kelsie Cooper drove in the winning run.

"We scored one in the seventh off the international tie breaker rule," King said. "They started out with a runner on second and we were fortunate enough to hold them. Kelsie really stepped up with the bat on Saturday morning and did a good job of driving the winning run in."

Cooper finished the game with two hits and two RBIs while Davied drove in one RBI and connected for three hits and Raines had two hits with three RBIs.

Taylor Irwin and Kirstie Mangels each had two RBIs and one hit for Oran. Courtney Scheeter added two hits and one RBI while Taylor Tenkhoff chipped in with a hit and one RBI.

Davied also picked up this win as well for the Lady Bulldogs pitching four innings and allowing four hits, two runs (both earned) and three walks. She also struck out two.

Sikeston 3, Chaffee 0

In the fifth place game, Sikeston used stellar defense by committing no errors to put away the Chaffee Lady Red Devils.

They put two runs on the board in the first inning and another in the third.

Raines led Sikeston with two hits and two RBIs. Henson also had two hits and drove one run in.

Hopson received the win going all seven innings and giving up only three hits and one walk while striking out five.

Oran 9, Saxony Lutheran 5

The Oran Lady Eagles (4-2) wrapped up their stint at the Notre Dame Softballfest with a four run win over Saxony Lutheran, 9-5.

Oran grabbed an early lead in the top of the first inning with one run, but was trumped with three runs from Saxony to fall to a two-run deficit.

After getting one run back in the third inning, the Lady Eagles scored four more in the top of the fourth inning to take a 6-3 lead.

Saxony scored their last two runs in the bottom of the fourth, while Oran tacked on two more in the fifth and one more in the seventh to put the game away.

Taylor Irwin led Oran with four hits which included two triples, five runs and an RBI. Amanda Williams had three hits with four RBIs while Abbey Anderson had one hit and three RBIs. Claire Seyer added two hits with one being a triple.

Seyer also grabbed the win for Oran. She threw all seven innings giving up five runs (one earned) on six hits and three walks. She struck out eight batters as well.