Jackson needs eight innings to down Central in SEMO Conference baseball tournament third-place game

~ The Indians claimed third place in the SEMO Conference tourney

The Jackson High School baseball team had to work overtime for a split Tuesday.

More importantly for the Indians, their win came over archrival Central and netted them some hardware.

Jackson knocked off visiting Central 5-4 in eight innings under the lights at Legion Field in the third-place game of the SEMO Conference tournament that had been rained out twice.

"It's awesome to beat Central in anything," Jackson senior Bobby Clark said.

Jackson baserunner Zach McDowell safely returns to first base before Central's Andrew Williams can apply the tag during Tuesday's SEMO Conference third-place game. (Laura Simon)

The Indians (12-6) lost to visiting Farmington earlier in the day. Central (12-9) also split a pair of games, both on the road, after beating Festus earlier Tuesday.

"Both teams had long days," Jackson coach Tatum Kitchen said. "Give Central credit. They've been playing well and they had to go all the way to Festus and came back here for this game."

Jackson beat the Tigers for the second time in as many meetings this year, including 13-6 on March 29 at Central.

The latest matchup took extra innings and didn't end until nearly 11:30 p.m.

Jackson trailed 4-0 through 3 1/2 innings and 4-1 through 4 1/2 innings before tying the contest with a three-run fifth.

That's the way things stood until the bottom of the eighth.

Laban Petzoldt led off with a double just inside the left-field line. Trevor Jaco was bunting for a sacrifice but ended up beating it out for a single that left Petzoldt on third base.

Clay Baker followed with an infield single that loaded the bases and brought up cleanup batter Clark, who already had two doubles in the game.

Clark drew a five-pitch walk to bring home Petzoldt with the winning run.

"I knew with the bases loaded, he [Luke Hinkebein] would have to throw some strikes or we'd win," Clark said.

Alex Bolen was the pitching star for the Indians. He allowed just an unearned run over the final five innings to pick up the victory. He gave up three hits, struck out four and walked one.

It was pretty impressive considering Bolen had not pitched all season until throwing a couple of innings earlier in the day against Farmington.

"He did a tremendous job," Kitchen said.

Bolen, a junior, said he "just tried to throw strikes. My curveball was working."

All of Central's runs were unearned.

Central 003 100 00 -- 4 4 3

Jackson 000 130 01 -- 5 10 3

WP -- Alex Bolen. LP -- Luke Hinkebein. 2B -- Bobby Clark (J) 2, Laban Petzoldt (J), Logan Bartels (J). Multiple hits -- Clark 2-4, Dylan Koehler 2-4, Trevor Jaco 2-5. Records -- Central 12-9, Jackson 12-6.