JACKSON SR. BABE RUTH READY FOR STATE TOURNEY

The Jackson Senior Babe Ruth baseball team had a dominant regular season, going 25-3 overall and winning the Dexter Senior Babe Ruth League with a 21-2 record.

Now Jackson will set its sights quite a bit higher as the squad prepares for the eight-team Senior Babe Ruth State Tournament that will be held today through Monday in Marshall. The winner earns a berth in the regional tourney in Farmington.

Jackson's first game in the double-elimination event will be at 6:30 p.m. Friday against Marshall West, which is one of two squads the host program has in the tournament.

"We're pretty excited," said Jackson coach Rich Gross, whose team earned a state berth by virtue of winning the Dexter league. "We came close (to making it to state) last year and I think we'll do okay. We've got pitching that can hold us up and we've got an overall pretty good group of boys."

Gross said he expected his team, made up primarily of players ages 17 and 18, to be strong this summer.

"I thought we'd be pretty good," he said. "We've got some good kids off Jackson's high school team and we added some good ones from other schools in the area."

Home-town players for Jackson are Josh Hopkins, Toby Freeman, Lucas McCulley, Matt Roethemeyer, Garrett Williams and Doug Gross.

Three players are from Chaffee: G.P. Glueck, Jeremy Lynn and Rusty Duncan; Ryan Bandermann and Jeremy McCain are from Woodland; Andrew Estes hails from Scott City; Philip Seyer is from Oran; and Jason Van de Ven is from Leopold.

Glueck has been Jackson's pitching ace, with a 6-0 record, one save, an earned-run average right around 2.00 and 62 strikeouts in 38 innings.

"He's got a hard slider that people can't touch," Rich Gross said.

Hopkins is 5-0, Freeman is 3-1 and Seyer is 3-2 with one save while other capable hurlers have been Van de Ven, Duncan, Williams and Gross.

Offensively, a host of full-time starters are batting better than .300, led by Glueck, who plays left field when not on the mound. Glueck is hitting .418 with team highs of five home runs, five triples and 35 runs batted in. He's also scored 30 runs.

Estes (right field) is batting .407 with a team-high nine doubles and 24 RBIs; Freeman (catcher) is hitting .375 with 33 RBIs; Seyer, who plays some catcher, first base and third base, is at .357 with four homers and 30 RBIs; and Hopkins (first base) is at .356 with six doubles and 24 RBIs.

Leading the way at the top of the order are Lynn (center field), who is hitting .327 with team highs of 32 stolen bases and 32 runs scored; and McCulley (second base), who's playing time has been limited by injuries but is batting .366 with 18 stolen bases.

Bandermann (shortstop) is batting .259 with 15 stolen bases.

Gross (outfield) is actually the team's leading hitter at .455, although in limited action. Williams (third base/outfield) is another part-time performer batting well with a .407 mark.

Others who have contributed around the field are Van de Ven (second base) at .296, McCain (catcher) at .283 and Roethemeyer at .240.

In addition to the aforementioned players, Jackson has bolstered its roster for the state tourney by adding four players from other teams in the Dexter League: Ricky Renfroe (Cape Yankees), Ryan Livingston (Cape Yankees), Chase Kennedy (Dexter) and Whit Thornbrough (New Madrid).

Thornbrough could be an especially key pickup. According to Jackson's coach, he was New Madrid's top pitcher and will play baseball at Three Rivers Community College.