Dunklin County dumps Cape Girardeau Legion baseball team

SENATH, Mo. -- The Dunklin County Post 303 American Legion baseball team clinched the No. 1 seed in the upcoming district tournament and finished the regular season undefeated in the district after defeating Cape Girardeau Ford and Sons Post 63 4-0 on Saturday.

Dunklin County's Tyler Thompson collected his second straight shutout. He struck out 12.

"Tyler is a leader for us," Dunklin County coach Jamie Johnson said. "He's our No. 1 and he's really throwing the ball well here lately for us with great command. He's working all of his pitches for strikes. On any given day he's tough to handle, and we knew we were going to have to have a good effort by him today because of who Cape was going to throw.

"I thought both pitchers pitched great today."

Cody Livesay took the loss. He surrendered four runs on six hits over six innings. He struck out six.

"I thought he threw well and threw a lot of strikes," Cape coach Todd Pennington said about Livesay. "He did his job on the mound. We had a couple of calls that could have went the other way and stuff happens."

Dunklin County tallied its first run of the contest on a infield single by Clayton Gibbons in the bottom of the fourth.

Dunklin County added three insurance runs in the bottom of the fifth. Dunklin County's Justin Smith recorded an RBI single in the fifth, and Trey Bazzell connected for a two-out two-run single.

Dunklin County won the second game of the doubleheader, a non-district contest, 2-1 on a walk-off bases-loaded single by Justin Norman. There were no outs in the inning.

Cody Boyers tossed a complete game to earn the win. Cape's Andrew Williams took the loss.

"Cody Boyers came out and threw strikes," Johnson said. "Cape hit the baseball, but defensively we played pretty solid and Cody did a good job. Anytime you hold Cape to one run, it is a good outing."

Cape (23-11) tallied its only run of the day on an RBI single by Trey Gardner in the top of the sixth inning.

Both teams will begin play in the four-team district tournament at Sikeston on Friday. Dunklin County is the No. 1 seed and Cape the No. 2 seed. Jackson and Sikeston will battle for the No. 3 seed Monday.

"All of the teams are pretty solid," Pennington said. "Jackson has been playing really well and Dunklin County is always playing well. We've been playing well lately, and Sikeston has been getting in there and playing pretty well. I'm looking forward to the tournament and hope to see our guys get in there and compete."

Cape earned a pair of wins Friday against Tri-County from Draffenville, Ky.

Ronnie Scott tossed a five-inning no-hitter in Cape's 14-0 victory in the opener. He struck out two.

Jimmy Obermark, Logan Morris and Trey Gardner all homered in the win.

Aaron Wendell picked up the win in Game 2, a 6-0 victory.