CENTRAL FALLS TO STATE-RANKED FESTUS 4-3

Festus High baseball coach Don Buechting didn't really know what to expect from his young team this year.

But, much to Buechting's pleasant surprise, the Tigers are having quite a season and that continued in Cape Girardeau Wednesday afternoon with a 4-3 win over Central's Tigers.

The visiting Tigers, state-ranked in Class 3A, improved to 16-3 while the home-town Tigers fell to 17-7 as they are having quite an impressive season of their own.

"We're young, but we've been playing real well and I'm proud of what we've accomplished so far," said Buechting. "We always have good games with Cape. They've got a good program and we enjoy coming here to play. Whenever we win (against Central), it's always a feather in our cap."

Central coach Steve Williams, while disappointed with the outcome of Wednesday's game, couldn't complain too much about his team's performance. The game was well-played all the way around, although Festus did score one unearned run that was basically the difference.

"It was a very good game. Both teams played well," said Williams. "We missed a couple of chances that might have made a difference, and we had a couple of errors and they didn't. They made all the plays and they made some really nice ones."

Both pitchers were impressive, particularly after an early offensive barrage by both squads that featured six runs over the first two innings -- the teams were tied 3-3 entering the third -- but only one run the rest of the way.

Festus right-hander Adam Easter went all seven innings, allowing six hits while striking out three and walking four. Central had just one hit against Easter after the second.

"I thought Adam settled down and did a real good job," Buechting said.

Central righty Justin Welker also went the seven-inning distance, allowing eight hits while fanning 11 and walking three.

"Justin did a very good job," Williams said. "He threw strikes and kept us in the game."

Central had two home runs, solo shots by Zac Fidler and Josh McIntosh, who belted his sixth long ball of the season. Chad Jones drove in the Tigers' other run.

Festus had one homer, a two-run blast by Adam Whitehead.

An RBI single by Gabe Skaggs in the top of the first inning -- the run was unearned -- gave Festus an early lead. Fidler's homer to left in the bottom of the first tied the contest.

Festus grabbed a 3-1 lead in the second as Easter singled and scored on a two-out, two-run homer to left by Whitehead.

But Central came right back in the bottom of the second with two runs. McIntosh led off with his homer to left. T.J. Erlacker then singled, Rob Carr got a one-out single and Jones delivered a single that scored Erlacker to force a 3-3 tie.

That's the way things stood until the fifth, when Festus scored the tie-breaking and ultimate winning run. Whitehead drew a leadoff walk, stole second and came home on a one-out single by Sam Hahn.

The visitors, who played strong defense all game long, flashed some serious glove in the bottom of the seventh as shortstop Matt Buechting made a dazzling play on Fidler's one-out ground ball, diving to his right and quickly getting back to his feet to throw out Fidler.

"We're disappointed we didn't win, but overall we've been playing well and we played hard today," said Williams. "They just played a little bit better than we did, but they've got a very good team."

Central will close out the regular season today with a game at Scott City. The Tigers will host the Class 4A, District 1 Tournament next week.