JACKSON PULLS OFF DISTRICT STUNNER; TIGERS ELIMINATED

SIKESTON -- Going into the Class 4A District 1 baseball tournament at Sikeston, most coaches felt the five-team field was wide open.

The point was proved Wednesday at V.F.W. Stadium where top-seeded Sikeston was knocked off by the fifth-seeded Jackson Indians 9-4.

Second-seeded Farmington held true to its seed, knocking off third-seeded Cape Central 10-3.Jackson (11-14) and Farmington (17-5) will square off for the championship today at 4 p.m.

Sikeston (16-7) couldn't have found a worse day to play their worst game of the year. The team committed a season-high 10 errors in the game and had numerous other mental mistakes contributing to the loss.

"As a coach, I don't know if I've ever seen that happen to a bunch of kids," said Sikeston head coach Kevin Self. "It's not that they weren't ready to play, but once we made one or two, I thought we really tightened up. We were trying so hard not to make a mistake that it caused the next mistake. You feel helpless, but once it started to happen it just snowballed."

Sikeston won the first two meetings this year with Jackson, including last week's 3-0 win over Indian hurler Chris Schlick. Schlick was on the mound again Wednesday, but this time, after a rugged first inning, he had the Bulldogs' number, allowing one run in the final six innings.

"We got a few breaks today and they hurt themselves with some errors," said Jackson head coach Sam Sides. "After the first inning we settled down and played pretty good baseball. We put the ball in play and Chris pitched a heck of a good game today. Sikeston just didn't make the plays today. That's baseball. We got the breaks. Fortunately it went our way today."

Sikeston started the game well. Playing as the away team from a coin toss, the Bulldogs put three runs on the board in the top of the first on RBI singles from Mark Silverthorn and Bobby Landers. Jon Nelson added an RBI groundout

Jackson closed the gap to 3-2 in the bottom of the second with the help of two Bulldog errors. The Indians took the lead in the bottom of the third when the first three batters reached base via errors. Chris Kohm and Nathan Brown scored to give Jackson a 4-3 lead.

Sikeston had a huge opportunity to score in the top of the fifth when they had the bases loaded, but Billy Puckett hit a line drive right at the third baseman who doubled the runner off first to retire the side.

"That really took the air out of our sails," said Self. "That really hurts, because we were getting ready to score and just like that the inning is over."

Jackson added to its lead in the fifth when Lucas McCulley drove in two on a single. He scored on an Andy Callis double to increase the Indians' lead to 7-3.Sikeston closed the gap to 7-4 in the top of the sixth on a Mike Mitchell RBI-single, but the the Bulldogs got no closer. Jackson added two more runs in the bottom of the sixth for the final score of 9-4.

"Once the Schlick kid got a lead he got better and I thought defensively they got better," said Self. "I also thought their hitters got better because they hit some good pitches. Once they got us down they stepped on us."

Schlick picked up the win, going seven innings and allowing four runs on seven hits and two walks while striking out five. Pobst took the loss.

Kohn went 3-for-4 with two runs to lead Jackson. Sikeston's Silverthorn led the team with a 2-for-4 day with an RBI and a run.

Farmington 10, Cape Central 3

The Farmington Knights' Chad Walden shook off a rough third inning against Cape Central to lead his team to a come-from-behind win. Central led 3-1, but the Knights put together a six-run third inning to take the lead at 7-3.

Walden threw all seven innings and allowed seven hits, walked four and struck out 10. He was also 4-for-4 at the plate with two runs and two RBIs.

"We really hit the ball hard in the bottom of the third inning and that was the difference in the ball game," said Farmington head coach Stan Walden. "After that, Chad settled in and threw the ball really well for us."

After the third inning, Walden allowed no runs and just three hits to keep the Tigers at bay.

"We just didn't make enough plays to have a chance to beat them and that's been the story of our year," said Central head coach Steve Williams. "We got on them and we had the lead, we had the bases loaded with a chance to bust the game open and we chased two balls over our head and from then on it was downhill. We just didn't put the ball in play when we needed to. We're not disciplined enough to stay in the strike zone and make him come to us."

Central lefty Matt Welker took the loss, going three innings and allowing six earned runs off nine hits, two hit batsmen and one walk. Justin Cook relieved him and allowed five hits and one earned run.

Sophomore Justin Welker led the Tigers offensively, going 3-for-3 with an RBI. Sophomore T.J. Erlacker went 2-for-2 with a run.

Doug Wiles went 3-for-4 with two runs. Travis Myers also had two hits for the Knights.