Sikeston drills Scott County

~ Scott County managed a split by winning the second game.

SIKESTON, Mo. -- The Sikeston Senior American Legion Post 114 baseball team broke out of its slump in a big way Tuesday, defeating Scott County 11-1 in District 14 action at VFW Stadium.

Sikeston enforced the 10-run rule in the bottom of the sixth inning to secure the victory.

After starting the season 6-0, Post 114 was sitting on a five-game losing streak heading into Tuesday's game. Sikeston (7-6, 2-1 district) lost the second game of the doubleheader to Scott County 10-4, but the game does not count toward district standings.

In the first game, Scott County took a 1-0 lead in the top of the first inning but that was all the scoring it would do. Sikeston scored two in the bottom of the first, and then three runs in each of the third, fourth and sixth innings.

Scott County (7-3, 1-1) coach Denver Stuckey sensed early on that his team was not ready to play.

"Our whole team's morale from the minute we got here was kind of lethargic," Stuckey said. "We were just going through the motions. You can't do that. It doesn't matter what kind of team you're playing, if it's a Legion team, a high school team or a T-ball team, if you come out and don't play hard you're liable to get beat. We got beat."

Sikeston got a strong pitching performance from Josh Stevens, who threw all six innings, allowing just two hits with four walks and five strikeouts. The only run he allowed was unearned.

"He did a real good job of keeping us off balance with his offspeed," Stuckey said. "Our guys didn't make the adjustments, it's as simple as that. He just kept spinning it up there and he kept making outs. He did a great job."

Sikeston, meanwhile, was zeroed in offensively. Post 114 had 11 hits while taking advantage of four walks, a hit batter and two errors by Scott County.

"It was nice to stop the skid, plus it's a big district win," Sikeston coach Todd Baker said. "That's the most important thing right there. The bats came alive a little bit. It's been something we've needed. For the most part we threw strikes. Josh threw it well and shut them down."

Scott County took the early lead on Chase Seyer's RBI single. Sikeston responded with two runs in the bottom of the first. Nick Lambert's RBI double brought in the go-ahead run, but Dustin Barker was thrown out at the plate to end the threat.

However, Post 114 continued to pound Scott County's pitching. Alex Chasteen walked in a run in the third and Cody Anderson had a two-run single to make it 5-1. After three straight players reached base to start the fourth, Chris Asmus came on in relief. He promptly balked in a run and allowed back-to-back RBI singles by Garrett Limbaugh and Lambert to make it 8-1.

Post 114 ended the game in the bottom of the sixth with three more runs. Anderson's RBI single finished it off.

A single from Caleb Daughetee and Seyer were Scott County's lone hits.

Chasteen threw three-plus innings in taking the loss.

Cody Dirnberger had three hits and Rynn Eskew had two in Scott County's 10-4 win. Trenton Moses threw three scoreless innings for the win.