Dunklin County's Thompson bests Jackson's Thomas in battle of American Legion baseball aces

~ Dunklin County's pitcher struck out 20 in the 5-0 victory

SIKESTON, Mo. -- Dunklin County pitcher Tyler Thompson said he looked forward to the opportunity to face Jackson's Brett Thomas in the opening round of the American Legion District 14 baseball tournament.

"Just because it's two of the top pitchers in Southeast Missouri," Thompson said. "Everyone boosted it up. It was a huge matchup, so it was kind of one of those things where I had to go out and show what I could do."

The South Pemiscot graduate and soon to be sophomore at Jefferson Community College after spurning an offer to transfer to Arkansas State showed plenty in his team's 5-0 win Friday night. He allowed just one hit and struck out 20 batters in a nine-inning shutout.

"It makes me feel good," Thompson said. "College definitely prepared me for this -- pitching a year at college, getting to go to the World Series in front of 7,000 fans. This was just a step down from that. You're not quite as nervous after pitching in front of that many people."

Jackson's Brett Thomas delivers during the first inning Friday.

Thompson's performance turned a pitchers' duel into a pitcher's domination.

"We just got beat," Thomas said. "He was good. He was really good. We faced the best, got the best, saw the best, and you tip your hats to him. He was unbeatable tonight, and I was beatable. They capitalized on every mistake, and I couldn't get a pitch to get an out when I needed it, which is tough."

Not surprisingly, Thomas and Thompson spoke about their need to make the big pitches good ones, to bare down, to battle when men were on base. Both have won enough games on the mound to know that those cliches are true.

Thompson needed to do that less during the course of the game, but he also did it much better.

Jackson put two runners on base with one out in both the fifth and seventh innings, but Thompson struck out consecutive batters to end the threat both times. He gave up his first hit of the game to Ian Householder leading off the bottom of the eighth inning.

Dunklin County's Tyler Thompson delivers during the second inning Friday.

"Yeah, I was aware," Thompson said about his no-hit bid. "I always keep that in mind. It's something that's always on the top of your mind. You don't forget that. You notice it, but when you give up a hit, you've got to keep going. You can't give up there and be like, 'Oh man, too bad I gave up a hit.' You've got to keep battling and keep making pitches."

Thompson retired the next three batters after Householder's hit and stomped off the mound with an exuberant, "Let's go. Let's go."

"It's just one of those things where you really bared down and it worked out for you, so you get a little pumped up about it, and it makes you just want to keep going," Thompson said.

While Thompson rarely needed his defense, Thomas had to pitch around three errors by his infield. Just one of the five Dunklin County runs was earned, and that runner reached on an infield single. Still, all but one run eventually came home on a hit or sacrifice fly given up by Thomas.

"There's nine people on a team and if one of the other eight make a mistake, me being the ninth, has to pick them up," Thomas said. "I didn't pick one person up today. As a pitcher, that's my duty and my job is to move around errors, and today I couldn't make a pitch to get us out of it. So you've got to take a little bit of the heat there. You've got to work out of jams."

Jackson's Logan Bartels takes a swing during the first inning Friday in Sikeston, Mo.

Thomas quickly got in his first jam when Garrett Stockton reached base on an error to start the game and Joe Campbell followed with a bunt single.

Thomas struck out No. 3 hitter Trey Bazzell before giving up an 0-2 RBI single to Clayton Gibbons. Thomas shook off his catcher a couple times and even stepped off before delivering the pitch.

"It was either going to be curveball in the dirt or fastball up and I got somewhere in between and went with fastball down the middle, and that doesn't work very often," Thomas said. "So that was just one of those times where I needed to pick up a teammate, and I didn't get it done."

There were more moments like that, but that one proved to be all Thompson needed. He finished the game with his 147th pitch in the ninth inning.

"He works quickly, he gets in a rhythm, he throws hard, has a nasty breaking ball," Thomas said. "He just has really good stuff and confidence out of the mound. He's a bulldog.

"See, he made the pitches. We'd get runners on base, he made pitches and I didn't. That was the big difference-maker in today's game."