RED DEVILS DEFEAT SHAWNEE IN CHAMPIONSHIP GAME 3-1

CHAFFEE -- When a tournament championship is on the line, Chaffee coach Brian Horrell would rather have Tommy Stidham on the mound than anybody else.

For the second straight day, Stidham struck out the side in the bottom of the seventh as the Red Devils (12-9) won their own tournament, 3-1 over Shawnee (Ill.) in a well-played game.

In the seventh inning, after giving up two singles, Shawnee's best hitter Derek Winans was at the plate and represented the winning run.

But Stidham, who struck out seven in three innings of work, fanned Winans swinging on three straight pitches to give Chaffee the win.

"Stidham had been up and down and had already thrown a lot for us this tournament," said Horrell. "But he said he was feeling good and it's hard to argue with a kid like that. He's got a heart as big as I don't know what. It's hard not to put him in when you've got a guy like that."

G.P. Glueck picked up the win, pitching four brilliant innings. He allowed one run on four hits and a walk while striking out four.

"G.P. came in and gave us four strong, strong innings," said Horrell.

Chaffee scored all three of its runs in the first inning.

Stidham reached on a walk, Perry Rice bunted for a single, Glueck singled home Stidham then Zac Horman provided a two-run single which played Rice and Glueck.

Chaffee was stymied by Shawnee's pitchers after the first inning. The Devils didn't get another hit off starter Clint Clover until the sixth. Still, Chaffee left eight runners on base.

Shawnee actually outhit Chaffee 10-6. The Redskins left nine on base.

In other tournament games, Perryville defeated Scott City 11-8 in eight innings to take fifth place and Senath beat Oran (7-3) 4-2 to take third.

Earlier in the day, Chaffee defeated Oran 9-7 and Scott City knocked off Dexter 13-6.

In the Oran-Chaffee game, Chaffee was up 9-1 and had the bases loaded with the Nos. 3, 4 and 5 coming up in the fifth inning, but Adam Friga was able to work out of the jam and the Eagles stormed back with six unearned runs in a semifinal game.

Chaffee's Matt Stroup went five innings and allowed one run on six hits and a walk. He struck out six.

Stidham, Rice, Glueck, Brent Thomasson and Shawn Powderly each had two hits.

For Oran, Philip Seyer homered and singled, while Garrett Cook and Joey Bickings had two hits each.

In the fifth-place game, Scott City's Bill Posey provided an RBI single to left to send the game into extra innings, but Perryville answered with three runs in the top of the eighth.

For Scott City, Jordan Comer had a great tournament, filling in for catcher Wade Powers. Comer had five hits in two games for the Rams and threw out several runners in the tournament.