Cape Central routs Farmington in 6 innings

The Cape Central Tigers put together an all-around game to down the Farmington Knights 12-2 on Wednesday at Cape Central High School.

Cape Central played the game as the visitors because the game was moved from Farmington to Cape Girardeau in an effort to play the game due to the rain.

The Tigers wasted no time as they jumped out to a 4-0 lead in the top of the 1st capped off by a 2-run home run from Morgan Diamond.

“It was huge,” Tigers coach Justin Lieser said. “Our starting pitcher, (Jathan Spain), helped himself with a two-run single and it kind of eased the nerves. If he makes an out there it could have been a totally different ballgame. The home run to follow was huge.”

Spain would get himself into some trouble in the bottom half of the 1st, allowing two runs, but Spain was able to settle down to give the Tigers a 3-inning outing.

“He’s strong enough between the ears to understand his own ability and his own faults,” Lieser said. “When he does that and he learns from it, it makes him that much better of a pitcher.”

Backing up Spain in relief was Valdis Zalite who threw the last 3 innings of the win for the Tigers.

“He’s always going to be around the zone,” Lieser said. “We like him in the bullpen because we shouldn’t have a ton of walks.”

Cade Emmenderfer was key in the Tigers' offensive attack as he drove in 3 runs including a 2-run home run in the top of the 2nd.

Cape Central only had one inning where they didn’t score a run and they were able to take tough at-bats to make things difficult on the Knights’ pitching staff.

“I thought we were well-focused,” Lieser said. “We had a good scouting report from one of our assistant coaches. Our guys have really just been working their tails off. We try to put them in a position to be successful and then the rest is up to the kids. They’re the ones that had 12 hits and didn’t make an error in the field.”

Cape Central (2-0) will be back in action at 11 a.m. on Saturday, March 25 when the Tigers host the Poplar Bluff Mules (1-1) at Cape Central High School.

“There’s plenty of things we need to clean up,” Lieser said. “Some base running things and we struck out seven times today.”