Dunklin County applies heat, routs Cape 20-4

~ The top seed pushed across nine runs in the first inning.

CHAFFEE, Mo. -- Before the first inning had ended Wednesday night in the District 14 tournament at Harmon Field, Cape Girardeau American Legion Post 63 coach Dave Meyr was already trying to figure out how to conserve pitching.

Dunklin County scored nine first-inning runs en route to a 20-4, seven-inning rout in a winner's bracket game.

Dunklin County, the top seed, will play No. 2 Scott County at 6:30 p.m. tonight for a spot in the championship game of the five-team event.

Cape Ford & Sons, the fourth seed, will be back in action at 5 p.m. Friday in a loser's bracket semifinal against No. 3 Jackson, which defeated No. 5 Sikeston 7-5 in an elimination game Wednesday night.

"We talked about that during the first inning, who do you have to save in a double elimination tournament," Meyr said.

Following a complete-game three-hitter by Lance Young against Jackson on Tuesday night, Cape's pitching rotation seemed to set up well for the tournament. Dunklin County treated Wednesday's starter Kirk Boeller rudely, though, bashing six hits and using three hit batsmen to plate its nine runs in the opening frame.

Boeller, a Notre Dame graduate, could not put anything by Dunklin County. Nearly all of Dunklin County's hitters made good contact, with two of their three outs long sacrifice flies.

"They just hit the ball hard on us," Meyr said. "It had been a while since Kirk had pitched. He just threw too many strikes, too good of strikes."

Ford & Sons coaches Dave Meyr, left, and Ryan Essex watched as their team trailed 16-1 during the fifth inning Wednesday.

The inning may have been salvaged had Boeller not hurt his own cause with an errant throw to second on a sacrifice bunt. Dustin Hunter tried to bunt leadoff hitter Jeremy Patton to second, but Boeller's throw sailed into center field. From there, Boeller would retire just one of the next nine batters.

"When he threw that ball away to second on the bunt attempt, that put us behind the 8-ball," Meyr said.

By the time Post 63 got on the board, Dunklin County had built a 13-0 lead. Tyler Propst slowed Dunklin County down in his first two innings of work, but Propst allowed six runs over his final two innings of work and exited after allowing seven runs in four innings.

Meanwhile, Dunklin County starter Jimmy Cornell baffled Cape hitters over his first four innings. The left-handed Twin Rivers graduate sat down the first nine hitters in order, striking out four.

Ford & Sons managed just two hits off Cornell before he ran out of gas in the fifth. Cornell walked three batters in the fifth, four total, and left with one out in the inning and two runs across the plate.

"I think they wanted a little revenge from last year when we beat them down there," Meyr said. "You have to give it to them. Their pitcher threw well for about six innings, and they hit the ball well. They were ready to play."

Chip Smith allowed a hit and struck out a batter to close out the final 2 2/3 innings for Dunklin County.

Patton was 3-for-4 with four RBIs and a pair of doubles to lead Dunklin County. Anthony Patton added three RBIs, Jared Hughes went 3-for-5 with two doubles and two RBIs, and Smith added two hits and two RBIs.

Cape finished with four hits. Adam McMahan had two hits and an RBI. Josh Barrett pitched the final two innings for Cape, allowing four runs.

Meyr said he was happy his team continued to battle and didn't get too down, as the team will now need to win four more games in order to capture the district title.

"You just don't want to let them get down so far, and they didn't," Meyr said. "They came back and battled. It will be tough now. ... At least this one game doesn't shoot you out completely."

* Times for Saturday's championship games have been moved back from a 1 p.m. championship game and 4 p.m. if necessary, to a 4 p.m. championship game and a 7 p.m. if necessary.

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Results/schedule

Tuesday

No. 2 Scott County 10, No. 5 Sikeston 10-4, 10 innings

No. 4 Cape Girardeau 5, No. 3 Jackson 3

Wednesday

No. 1 Dunklin County 20, No. 4 Cape Girardeau 4, 7 innings

No. 3 Jackson 7, No. 5 Sikeston 5

Today

Winner's bracket final: Dunklin County vs. Scott County, 6:30 p.m.

Friday

Loser's bracket semifinal: Cape Girardeau vs. Jackson, 5 p.m.

Loser's bracket final: Scott County/Dunklin County loser vs. Cape Girardeau/Jackson winner, 8:30 p.m.

Saturday

Championship, 4 p.m.

Championship (if necessary), 7 p.m.