JACKSON AVENGES BEATING BY LADY TIGERS WITH WIN

The seeding for the Class 4A, District 1 tournament has already been determined, but that didn't mean Jackson High's softball team had nothing to play for Wednesday against Cape Girardeau Central.

In addition to the ever-present rivalry between the two schools, the Lady Indians sought to avenge an 11-run beating Central dealt them at home earlier this season. Also, a win would keep them alive in the SEMO Conference title race.

On Wednesday at Arena Park, Jackson did all that. The Lady Indians scored two runs in the top of the seventh and beat Central 2-0 despite gaining just four hits.

A win would have clinched at least a tie for the conference title for Central. If the Lady Indians beat Kelly today, Jackson, Central and Kelly will tie for the championship. If Kelly wins, it takes the title.

Jackson, the No. 5 seed in the district tournament which begins for it and Central on Saturday at Arena, improved to 14-8, dropping the Lady Tigers, the No. 3 seed, to 13-7.

Central beat Jackson 12-1 early last month.

"(Central) came over . . . and kicked us pretty good the first game," said Jackson coach Becky Riney. "I told the girls coming over here today that we could play with (Central) and we had to play good defense and hit the ball. I don't know that we hit the ball well, but they didn't either.

"Cape's a good-hitting team, but we were able to shut them down."

In the teams' first meeting, Central pounded 20 hits. On Wednesday, the Lady Tigers had six hits, and no more than one in an inning.

With no score, Jackson's Megan Kuntze led off the seventh with a single up the middle. Kuntze stole second, took third on Dana Eakins' sacrifice bunt and scored on a wild pitch by Kim Aslinger.

"I hadn't been hitting good today; I was waiting for it," said Kuntze, a sophomore right fielder. "We waited the whole (game) and we couldn't score, and then in the seventh inning we just pulled it off."

Jackson added a run when Jessica Sander walked, her pinch runner Lindsey Meyr stole second, and Emily Sander singled to right to score Meyr.

Staci Seabaugh earned the shutout and improved to 7-0. She struck out two and walked none. Aslinger went all seven and took the loss; she struck out five and walked one.

"If you go six innings with no score, you have to consider it a good ball game. Monday (against Seckman) we came out with 16 hits and we couldn't buy a hit today," said Central coach Don Lang.

On Saturday in the district tournament, Jackson will play No. 4 seed Northwest-House Springs at 11 a.m. and Central will play No. 6 Mehlville at 1.

The top seed is Fox. The Warriors are ranked No. 1 in the St. Louis area by the St. Louis Post-Dispatch and were 20-0 as of Tuesday. Arnold's other high school, Seckman, is the No. 2 seed. Central lost to Seckman in nine innings in the Jackson Invitational and beat the first-year school this week 9-8.