Jackson Legion debuts with 7-6 home victory

The Jackson American Legion baseball team opened the season by holding on for a 7-6 victory against House Springs on Tuesday night at Legion Field in Jackson.

Tyler Beussink was the winning pitcher for Jackson after allowing four runs over six innings. Austin Morrison pitched two innings in relief, Jason Meystedt picked up an eventful save in the ninth.

Meystedt allowed a leadoff hit and then picked off the runner for the first out. After a walk and stolen base, the second out was recorded on a fielder's choice, which was argued by the House Springs first base coach, who was ejected. Meystedt threw a wild pitch with a runner on third but Zach Brazer threw to Meystedt for the tag, which set up another protest from the House Springs coaches.

Jackson had scored four in the first, when Brandon Cooper had a two-run single; two in the fifth on Rex Meyr's two-run single; and one in the seventh on Tony Longman's RBI hit.

"I saw some things that were good," Jackson coach Mark Lewis said, "and I saw some first-game jitters. We made some mistakes but they weren't enough to hurt us. Tyler made the pitches to get around some of our errors."

OTHER BASEBALL

* The Cape Girardeau American Legion junior team swept Twin Rivers 10-6 and 5-4 in eight innings to improve to 4-1. Justin Myers was the winning pitcher in the opening game, while Luke Moll had three hits, including two triples, and three RBI. Kory Kitchen pitched all eight innings in nightcap for the win, allowing seven hits and striking out seven. Max Wieser had three hits, including the game-winning RBI.