CHAFFEE SILENCES JACKSON FOR 5-2 SEMO CONFERENCE WIN

JACKSON -- Chaffee pitcher Matt Stroup told coach Brian Horrell he didn't have his best stuff.

It's doubtful that Jackson's hitters agree.

Stroup, a junior right-hander, struck out nine and gave up just six hits and two walks as the Red Devils (5-3, 2-2) notched a 5-2 SEMO Conference win over Jackson (4-3, 1-2) at Legion Field Tuesday.

Of Jackson's six hits, two were infield hits and another was a blooper.

"He came in after the fourth and fifth innings and I kept asking him how he felt and he said he didn't feel good with his control but his arm felt great, so he kept working," said Chaffee coach Brian Horrell. "He worked from behind in the count a lot. He usually gets ahead and carves people up a bit. But two walks, you can't complain about that."

Jackson pitcher Toby Freeman was nearly as effective as Stroup, but Freeman made a couple of mistakes that Chaffee turned into home runs.

In the fourth inning, G.P. Glueck led off with a single and was later chased home by a two-out single by Zac Horman. The next batter, Brent Thomason, sent a 1-2 pitch over the left field fence to give the Red Devils a 3-1 lead.

After Jackson cut the lead to 3-2 in the bottom of the fourth, Chaffee picked up two insurance runs when Stroup walked and Glueck, again with two outs, deposited another 1-2 pitch over the levy in left field.

"Both times we had two strikes on them," Jackson coach Sam Sides said. "They got the bat out there and hit it so you have to give credit to them. But we made two mistakes pitching-wise and got the ball up with two strikes and they smoked them."

"Both home runs today were just enormous," said Horrell. "If it wasn't for the long balls today, it would've gone down to the very end and we would've been playing from behind."

Conversely, Jackson couldn't come up with the timely hit with two outs.

Jackson scored its first run when Nathan Brown drove home Michael Birk on a single to left. In the fourth, Josh Hopkins doubled, reached third on a passed ball and scored on a groundout by Lance Limbaugh.

Brown's RBI single game with two outs, but Jackson ended up leaving eight runners on base.

"We had some situations where we could've scored had we put the ball in play instead of striking out," Sides said.

"Stroup really buckles down (with runners on base)," said Horrell. "Sometimes it appears that he's coasting along, but when he has to he bears down and gets an extra gear.

"We feel pretty good with our pitching staff and our defense. I might be kind of hard on them, but we rely on our pitching so much that we feel we almost have to play perfect defense so we harp on our defense."

Freeman suffered the loss for Jackson. He went 4 2/3 innings and gave up five earned runs on seven hits and a walk. He struck out two.

Tory Meyr had two hits for Jackson, with neither leaving the infield.

For Chaffee, Glueck singled, homered and scored twice with two RBIs. Zac Horman also had two hits with one RBI and one run scored.