Sikeston baseball team no-hits Central

~ The Tigers encountered their 13th straight loss with a 10-0 setback to Sikeston

The sun was bright and the weather fair, but the Central baseball team was grounded by a perfect storm Saturday afternoon.

Sikeston's Trey Tigart pitched a no-hitter, and the Tigers also were victimized by poor fielding and spotty pitching, all adding up to a 10-0 loss to the Bulldogs in a game shortened by the mercy rule.

Tigart [3-2] struck out six and didn't walk a batter, coming within one error of pitching a perfect game.

"Everything he threw was really working," Sikeston head coach Alan Scheeter said. "Trey's a smart kid, and he's good at changing up his pitches. At any time and any count he can throw any of his pitches for strikes, and that makes it tough on a hitter."

Central center fielder Matt Chism hauls in a Sikeston fly ball during the fifth inning Saturday at Central High School. Sikeston won 10-0. (Fred Lynch)

It was Tigart's first no-hitter, made easier by the fact Sikeston put up three runs in each of the first and second innings to give the senior righthander an early cushion.

"I just tried to stay relaxed, make sure my pitches were down, get some ground ball outs and make my defense work for me," he said.

He stayed true to form, as only four Tiger batters were able to get the ball out of the infield.

"He was good," Central coach Steve Williams said. "He always is. He threw strikes. You need to have good at-bats against him, and we didn't put together enough good at-bats today."

Senior shortstop Calvin Lovig was Central's lone baserunner, reaching on a first-inning error.

"He's one of the best," Lovig said about Tigart. "He throws a lot of different pitches. If you have two or three pitches working for you, it's a good day. But when you're throwing three or four pitches for strikes, it's really tough."

Compounding Central's problems was the fact the Tigers committed three errors, not including a pair of misplayed fly balls that Central's outfielders lost in the sun. Add in an uncharacteristic performance from Tiger starter Chase Hagerty, and it simply was not Central's day.

"He was up," Williams said about his sophomore starter's pitches. "He had good velocity, but he was high, and you can't be up against good hitters. You're not going to get good hitters out when you're pitching up there."

Sikeston (11-2) struck early, scoring three times in the top of the first on just two hits. Hagerty hit three batters in the inning, and the Bulldogs got another baserunner when Central catcher Sean Magee could not hold onto a swinging strike three, allowing Josh Hampton to reach first base.

The Bulldogs plated three more in the second, again getting just two hits but taking advantage of a walk and two dropped popups.

"Chase struggled, but we did not make any defensive plays behind him to give him any support," Williams said.

Sikeston scored four times in the fourth. With one out, Drew Harper walked and took second on a poor pickoff attempt. After Gavin O'Brien grounded out, Colton Black plated Harper with a single. Two walks loaded the bases, and a third walk to Patrick Smith forced in Black. Kyle Thompson relieved Hagerty and promptly gave up a two-run single to Hampton to make it 10-0.

"[Hagerty] didn't have his best stuff," Scheeter acknowleged. "Anytime that happens, you've got to take advantage of it, and our kids did a good job of that. Anytime [Central] made an error, we seemed to follow that with a hit."

The loss was the Tigers' 13th straight as they fell to 4-17.

"We just need to start coming together," Lovig said. "We've got to start playing more together instead of just standing around hoping something happens."

Sikeston 330 40 -- 10 7 1

Central 000 00 -- 0 0 3

WP: Trey Tigart. LP: Chase Hagerty. Multiple hits: Sikeston -- Colton Black 2-3. Records: Sikeston 11-2, Central 4-17.