Jackson Legion tags 10-4 loss on Cape Post 63 to reach district championship game

The Cape Girardeau Ford & Sons Post 63 baseball team, coming off a rout of Sikeston Post 114 earlier in the afternoon, went toe to toe with top-seeded Jackson Senior Legion Post 158 for the first half of the second game of the senior legion district tournament on Thursday at Saxony Lutheran High School.

After four scoreless frames to start, Post 63 took a 1-0 lead, but it was short-lived, as Jackson cruised to a 10-4 victory -- its third over Cape Girardeau this season.

"It almost felt like a tale of two games," Lieser said. "The first half of the game was tight, very well played all around -- pretty intense."

Post 63 hit back-to-back singles to start the fifth before pitcher Colten Weber recorded a couple of strikeouts. He got Ross Essner to swing at a third strike, but catcher Paris Johnson failed to snag the ball, loading the bases. A wild pitch then plated the go-ahead run.

Jackson answered in the home half with four runs off starter JT Moore to go ahead for good. Tyler Amos drew a walk, Drew Brown bunted for a hit and then an RBI single by Zac Elfrink and RBI double by Nathan Hurst put Post 158 up for good. Cameron Duke drove in a couple more runs with a single up the middle to make it 4-1.

Cape Girardeau Post 63's Trevor Haas disputes a call after being called out at third base by Jackson Post 158's Drew Brown during the fourth inning of their district tournament game Thursday at Saxony Lutheran High School. Haas was trying advance to third on a ground ball.Glenn Landberg

"I thought both guys were throwing well for both teams and it was just which was going to give," Jackson coach Mark Lewis said. "I don't know that he let up or anything, but a couple balls got in and you get some traffic on the bases and when you're moving up on outs it still puts pressure on the defense, so I think that was it."

Trevor Haas singled and scored on an Isaac Pender double to cut it to 4-2 in the sixth. Pender worked his way to third base, but was ultimately stranded there.

"Unfortunately I thought that was a big one," Lieser said of stranding the runner on third. "We couldn't get him in and kind of make it tight and then they come back and answer with four again so that created a little space, took a little air out of the balloon then just a struggle after that all around. We just didn't pitch as well, our defense wasn't as crisp as it was in Game 1, and credit to their pitcher, he's one of the best around this area."

Jackson tacked on four more runs on three hits and an error in the bottom of the sixth to extend the lead to 8-2.

Weber got the win on the mound, pitching 8 2/3 innings. He exited only after three consecutive two-out errors in the top of the ninth allowed a couple runs to score and put a runner on second.

Jackson Post 158's Zach Elfrink makes a throw to first base to retire a Cape Post 63 batter during their district tournament game.

He struck out 10, walked one and allowed seven hits.

"Today he was throwing a lot of strikes, getting ahead of guys," Lieser said. "It's tough to beat a really good pitcher when you're behind in the count. ... His off-speed was working really good today, probably better than the last time we saw him, and we just got beat."

Lewis felt like Weber got stronger as the game went on, but took him out because of a rising pitch count after taxing innings early in the game.

Post 63 had runners on the corners with no one out in the second, but a strikeout and a close call on a 4-6-3 double play kept Cape off the board. They got a runner in scoring position with one out in the third, but Weber and Jackson escaped.

Haas reached on an error to start the fourth. With one out, Clayton Reynolds grounded out to third and Jackson completed the inning-ending double play when first baseman Duke threw to shortstop Brown to tag Haas out sliding into third.

"Just felt like he'd worked his butt off for five -- those first five innings were probably more stressful," Lewis said of Weber.

Post 158 had some chances early, too. Triston Thele drew a one-out walk but was left standing on third when the inning ended.

Back-to-back singles and a wild pitch to start the fourth put runners in scoring position with no outs, but Moore struck out the next three batters looking.

Moore allowed nine hits and struck out six in five innings of work.

"The thing is you're playing a nine-inning ballgame and you've got to stay focused for nine," Lewis said. "...I thought maybe some guys were pressing a little bit and their pitcher was throwing well. He did a good job, mixed it up, had some breaking balls on the outside. It was just a good ballgame."

Cape will face Sikeston in an elimination game at 1 p.m. Friday at Saxony.

"That's the thing, too, coming off the game before that you don't know how much gas is in the tank on a day like today. I thought we came out ready to play and competed well. Even when we went down 4-1 we still had that fight in us. You get a dominant pitcher on the mound and give him a six-run lead it's tough to come back from."

Jackson, which has won four district titles in a row, will face the winner of that contest in the championship game at 4:30 p.m. If Jackson loses it will face a winner-take-all contest Saturday.

Cape 000 011 000 -- 2 7 4

Jackson 000 044 2x -- 10 15 5

WP -- Colten Weber. LP -- JT Moore. 2B -- Isaac Pender 2 (CG), JT Moore (CG), Nathan Hurst (J), Triston Thele (J). Multiple hits -- Cape: Garrett Siebert 2-5, Pender 2-4; Jackson: Drew Brown 2-5, Hurst 3-4, Cameron Duke 3-4, Garrett Thele 2-3.