Jackson baseball team endures rough inning in 9-1 loss to Sikeston

The big inning nearly never happened.

But when things turned sour, they went that way in a hurry Thursday.

Sikeston struck for eight runs in the fifth inning to rout the Jackson baseball team 9-1 at Whitey Herzog Stadium.

"We try to pick each other up," Jackson senior Alex Bolen said. "When it keeps happening, it's hard to recover from, especially if you're the one making the mistakes. It's hard to get mentally stable again. But we got to pick each other up."

The inning started with Luke Keefer getting hit by a pitch, then Patrick Smith laid down a bunt to move Keefer to second. Jackson third baseman Clayton Baker decided to let the bunt roll foul, but it never did to give the Bulldogs runners at first and second. Tyler Anderson then grounded into a fielder's choice for the first out of the frame. That's when the wheels fell off the Jackson bus.

The next eight batters reached safely, including two on errors and three on walks. By the time Anderson batted again in the inning, the Bulldogs (7-5) had pushed across seven runs. One more scored on a wild pitch during his at-bat for a 9-0 lead.

"The other team walks people or makes errors, you've got to take advantage of them," Sikeston coach Alan Scheeter said. "The key to it is just keep putting the bat on the ball and just keep being aggressive. We've done it before. We've been in that same situation where we make an error, the pitcher gets a walk and the next thing you know it just snowballs."

Sikeston scored the eight runs on four hits, two errors, four walks and a hit batter.

"We've just struggled defensively in spots, and those spots showed up," Jackson coach Tatum Kitchen said. "A few seeing-eye singles there, and before you knew it, it started getting away."

The eight-run burst proved plenty for Sikeston starter Trey Tigart, who appreciated the overwhelming support.

"It's so much of a relief when the first few innings are 0-0, then you come up the next inning with a nine-run lead," he said. "It feels like a weight's been lifted off. You go out and start throwing your own game."

Jackson (4-4) made decent contact against Tigart early. The Indians collected a pair of two-out singles in the first inning and two singles in the second inning but couldn't get break through against Sikeston's junior right-hander.

"He was throwing a lot of offspeed," said Bolen, who had two hits. "He was really mixing his speeds well. A lot of curveballs, a lot of changeups. He kept us off balance."

Tigart settled in after the rocky start. He finished with nine strikeouts and didn't walk a batter.

"I felt like my confidence went up after a few innings," he said. "Trust my defense and then seeing their hitters one time through, you read their weak points then you throw at them."

Scheeter said Tigart can throw four pitches for a strike -- fastball, slider-type curve, forkball and changeup. That arsenal impressed Kitchen and the Indians.

"I really thought he had command well of all his pitches," Kitchen said. "He did a good job of changing speeds. From my point of view, nothing changes. Some kids in high school, we can tell their delivery slightly changes. They look a little different. In my opinion, he didn't look different on anything. I think he's a solid looking high school pitcher."

Jackson broke up the shutout in the seventh inning when pinch hitter Cody Harris doubled to the left-center field gap and scored on pinch hitter Trent Wills' infield single.

"You almost get too comfortable because you start taking the batters for granted," Tigart said about giving up the run in the seventh inning.

Sikeston 000 180 0 -- 9 7 0

Jackson 000 000 1 -- 1 8 4

WP -- Trey Tigart. LP -- Freddie Hattenhauer. 2B -- Cody Harris (J), Cord Sheehy (S). Multiple hits -- Sikeston: Josh Hampton 2-4, Sheehy 2-4; Jackson: Alex Bolen 2-3. Records -- Sikeston 7-5, Jackson 4-4.