Loose Rock ahead

Some members of the Rock Memorial American Legion baseball team take dugout chatter to a new level.

Instead of the usual, among the things you're likely to hear yelled from the Rock dugout while its team is at-bat:

"Moulin Rouge."

"Little Rascals."

"The 70s Show."

"Rain Man."

"Andy Griffith."

Just about any pop culture title or name you can imagine.

Yelled at the top of someone's lungs.

For no apparent reason.

"It's completely random," said pitcher Tim VonderHaar, who along with John Coleman and pitcher Kyle Ketcherside are among the loudest in Rock's dugout.

While there may be no method to the madness, the players know if certain phrases result in a positive batting outcome, such as a home run.

And some phrases -- "A Walk to Remember" -- are triggered by what takes place at the plate.

They seem to have an idea who said what.

"Moulin Rouge"?

"That was yours," Ketcherside said to VonderHaar.

And there are rules.

"You can't use the same thing twice in the same game," Ketcherside said.

"We just try to relax people," he said. "When you're relaxed, you play better baseball, so we just try to keep things loose in the dugout."

"We also like to get in the other team's head, so they're not as much in the game," added Coleman.

That probably didn't factor into Friday afternoon's 19-2 victory against Dunklin County.

"Some teams kind of laugh about it," Ketcherside said. "They know we're just trying to be loud. Today, they laughed and giggled. We are even louder in tight games.

"Last night, the other team told us to shut up, so we yelled, 'Yes, Dear.' And then Bilbrey hit the grand slam."

Brad Bilbrey's slam, after the sarcastic reference to the CBS television series, was the breathing room in Rock's 11-7 victory against Jackson on Thursday night in the first round.

VonderHaar was the starting pitcher in that game, and he admitted he is quiet and focused when he's on the mound. Ketcherside "picked up the crappy win," as he called it after he gave up three runs that tied the game before Rock went ahead for good.

Bilbrey, who got the save, is the inspiration for one of Ketcherside's favorite yells: "Good Bill Hunting."

The Rock bench also handed out kudos Friday after Dunklin shortstop Jeremy Patton speared a ground ball up the middle that ricocheted off the pitchers rubber and turned it into a forceout at second base.

And it also teased cleanup hitter Andrew Keating with yells of "warning-track power" after he hit a ball off the fence for the second time in the game. Each of his hits came in the same inning as one of his teammates hit a home run.

Rock had four home runs: one by Ketcherside in the first inning, one each by Mike Luczak and Ben Faulkenberry in the second inning, and a three-run shot by Luke Schlechte in the fifth.

Red hot and blue

A four-man umpiring crew of George Bays, Joe Baldwin, Joe Bill Davis and Cape Central baseball coach Steve Williams are rotating the duties for the zone games. A three-man crew is working each game.

However, even the rotation couldn't prevent heat-related problems.

Bays, working behind the plate in the Rock-Dunklin game, called timeout in the sixth inning of the game -- Rock was leading 16-0 -- and sought medical attention. He walked to the Dunklin County dugout and the players took a 20-minute break while an ambulance was dispatched to the scene.

"These kinds of days are just so tough, there's not really anything you can do to prepare," Davis said. "You just have to keep fluids in you. You do the best you can and try to keep cool thoughts.

"There aren't many days like this during the summer to get you ready for it."

Davis, an umpiring veteran of more than 30 years, worked the remainder of the game in the field while Baldwin, with 35 years of experience, relieved Bays behind the plate.

Williams had worked two games Thursday night in the field and was behind the plate for the morning game Friday.

Experience counts

Rock starting pitcher Trevor Zugmaier played this past season at St. Charles Community College, while Luczak, a catcher, and infielder Josh Burlison played at Fontbonne. Rock's high school players primarily are from Windsor in Imperial, Mo., including Jefferson College-bound Schlechte, who in 2006 as a junior was recognized as the Athlete of the Year by a publication in Jefferson County.

Plum tuckered out

Jackson manager Mark Lewis said fatigue and heat played a role in pulling Ethan Devenport after six innings Thursday night against Rock Memorial.

Devenport, a first-year Legion player from Clearwater High School, said Friday he was ready for a break from baseball before beginning the fall semester at Three Rivers Community College in Poplar Bluff.

"You get kind of tired and your body gets kind of wore out from playing so long without a break," he said.

Clearwater contribution

Devenport, one of 15 players chosen to Semoball.com's all-region team, had some reason to be tired as one of five Clearwater players who participated in Jackson's 52-game schedule.

Devenport, Jake Hime, Isaac Kinnard, Daniel Smith and Nick D'Amico all routinely made the trek of about 1 hour, 15 minutes from Clearwater to Jackson to play this summer.

"It's the first year that we've had any of them come," Lewis said. "Poplar Bluff didn't have a team so we picked them up. We were the closest team and they came over and played. I enjoyed it.

"That's a long trip for them and playing 50 ballgames and traveling that long to come to every game, and they never missed one. I was excited to have them."

Power outage

Dunklin County had scored 20 runs in its last outing, a 20-3 victory against Scott County Legion in the District 14 final, but couldn't get anything going against Rock until it was too late.

Jeremy Patton drove in both runs for Dunklin, smashing a double in the sixth inning to drive home Taylor Laden and adding an RBI single in the seventh that also drove in Laden.