CENTRAL HITS THE WALL AS KNIGHTS INCH PAST TIGERS

It has often been said that baseball is a game of inches. Never was that more true than at Cape Girardeau Central High School Wednesday afternoon.

Central center fielder Zac Fielder came within literally an inch or so of a spectacular game-ending catch against Farmington.

But the scorched line drive off the bat of Michael Hall, which Fidler had tracked down right at the fence in dead center field, bounced off the leaping Fidler's glove and over the fence as he slammed into the protective padding.

The result was a three-run home run with two outs in the top of the seventh inning that wiped out an 8-7 Central lead and lifted the Knight to a 10-8 victory.

"Zac made a great effort," said Central coach Steve Williams. "It looked like the ball and glove hit the fence at about the same time."

Said Farmington coach Stan Walden, "The young man made a tremendous effort on the play. Maybe another inch and he catches it. He (Hall) hit it hard but we were fortunate."

In a fairly sloppy game between the top two seeds in next week's Class 4A, District 1 Tournament that will be hosted by Farmington, the Knights improved to 15-7 while the Tigers fell to 12-13.

"It was a game of errors on our part," said Williams, whose squad had four errors, including three during a crucial Farmington fifth inning in which all four runs were unearned. "We had way too many errors to beat a good team."

Asked if the Tigers would like to meet Farmington again next week in the district tourney, Williams said, "We're just looking forward to Scott City (today's final regular-season opponent, at home). We're hoping we can give them a game.

"Right now, we're finding ways to lose. We need to find ways to win."

Walden probably wisely elected not to use his top two pitchers Wednesday.

"We didn't want to show (Central) anybody," he said.

Farmington started a freshman left-hander, Derek Wiles, who Walden said had pitched in one previous varsity game. Wiles did not record an out as he was relieved in the bottom of the first after allowing two hits and two walks.

Josh Long, a junior right-hander who according to Walden has pitched strictly on the JV level this year, came on and finished the game. Central wound up scoring five runs in the first with four being charged to Wiles. Long allowed eight hits and four runs (three earned), with five walks and no strikeouts, to pick up the win.

"We started out the way we wanted to," Williams said. "We go up 5-0, but then we don't do anything for a while. We let a good team stay in the game."

Central starter Justin Welker gave up seven hits and five runs (three earned) in four innings, with six strikeouts and three walks.

Rob Carr suffered the loss, allowing five hits and five runs (three earned) in 2 2/3 innings, with three strikeouts and two walks.

Dusty Barrows had three of Central's 10 hits while Jason Chavez and John Snider added two each.

Josh Baker delivered three of Farmington's 11 hits. Hall, Greg Collins and Dustin Wiles all had two.

Seth Hudson's two-run single was the big blow in the first as Central grabbed an early 5-0 lead.

Farmington chipped away with one in the third and two in the fourth before going ahead 7-5 with those four unearned runs in the fifth.

Central surged back ahead 8-7 with a three-run bottom of the fifth despite having just one hit. That set the stage for the thrilling finish.

"I thought our kids really battled after being down 5-0," said Walden, who then looked ahead to next week. "I think it's anybody's district. Central is as good as us on a given day. I have a lot of respect for their program."