JACKSON LEGION REACHES TOURNEY FINAL; SIKESTON ELIMINATED BY 11-10 LOSS

Jackson's never-say die American Legion baseball team simply refused to buckle late Friday night during the loser's bracket final of the District 14 Tournament being played at Capaha Field.

The last seed among the seven tourney squads, Jackson entered the double-elimination event having lost all 12 regular-season district games.

But the Indians upset second-seeded Cape Girardeau Ford & Sons and third-seeded Chaffee to reach the winners bracket final, where it lost to top-seeded Dunklin County Thursday night.

Then Friday night, Jackson fell behind fourth-seeded Sikeston 10-7 after seven innings, but rallied with a four-run eighth to prevail 11-10.

So Jackson has reached todays championship round, where it will face Dunklin County at 4 p.m. Jackson would need to beat the Redbirds twice in order to win the championship while Dunklin County only needs one victory.

Regardless of what happens, it's been a glorious tournament for the Indians, who are now 19-21 overall."These guys just won't quit," said Robert White, one of Jackson's coaches.

Earlier in the evening, Sikeston had rallied to eliminate Chaffee 11-7.

Jesse Boyer had three of Jackson's 12 hits while Justin Gladish and Paul Long both had two. Chris Schlick homered.

Josh West homered and had three of Sikeston's nine hits. Mark Silverthorn tripled twice while Chris Hood added two hits.

After Schlick allowed three runs in the first inning, the 16-year-old Long came on to pitch impressively until he was replaced by Mike McCall with two on and two outs in the eighth.

McCall, who had already pitched 16 innings in the tournament and had blanked Cape in the opener, got a strikeout to end the threat, then closed things out in the ninth. Long earned the win and McCall a well-deserved save."Paul pitched great and so did Mike," White said.

Jackson's four-run eighth against Sikeston featured an RBI single by Jason Banderman to make it 10-9, then Zane McClard scored the tying run on an error after Banderman's hit. Boyer's single plated Banderman with the run that put Jackson ahead.

Earlier, Schlick's two-run home run in the second inning had given Jackson a 4-3 lead. The Indians led 7-5 before Sikeston scored five in the seventh, four of them being unearned. A three-run triple by Cory Goetz was the big blow.

Sikeston ends its season with a 22-11 record.

During Wednesday's first game, Sikeston scored six runs in the eighth inning to end Chaffee's season at 30-17.

Sikeston used four hits and two costly Chaffee errors to wipe out a 7-5 deficit. Daric Montgomery's two-run triple was the big blow.

Earlier, Chaffee had rallied from deficits of 4-0 and 5-1. Chaffee scored four in the fifth to tie the contest, then went ahead with two in the seventh.

Ryan LeGrand had three of Chaffee's 13 hits while John Livingston, Denver Stuckey and Brandon Amick both had two. LeGrand and Amick each drove in two runs.

Brent Self had three of Sikeston's 10 hits.

Jason Glastetter took the loss as he relieved Stuckey, the starter, in the eighth. LeGrand was charged with four runs, only one of them earned. Stuckey went the first 7 1/3 innings.

Justin Pobst got the win in relief, hurling 1 2/3 scoreless innings. Self notched his second save of the tournament to go with a win as he retired the final two batters."It was a tough loss, but we had a good year," said Chaffee coach Mike Umfleet. "It never ends like you want it to, but the kids played hard. We battled back but we had the bad eighth inning."