Sikeston, Notre Dame reach title game

Notre Dame Regional High School used some late heroics to pull out a wild 8-7 victory over Jackson in the SEMO Conference baseball tournament semifinals Monday night at Capaha Park.

Lee Essner hit a one-out, two-run hit over the left fielder's head off Jackson reliever Kyle Brown in the bottom of the seventh to win the game. Essner, who also had a win in the quarterfinal, picked up the win by fanning the Indians in order in the top of the seventh.

"It's definitely been a very interesting and exciting day," Notre Dame Jeff Graviett said of his team's semifinal and quarterfinal victories.

Notre Dame (14-4) will play top-seeded Sikeston (16-1) at 8 p.m. at Sikeston today in the conference championship game. Notre Dame is the only team to defeat Sikeston, ranked No. 1 in Class 3, this season.

Sikeston defeated Dexter 6-2 in Monday night's other semifinal.

Jackson led throughout, leading 6-0 entering the bottom of the fourth. Notre Dame opened its scoring with two in the fourth, and then capped its rally with three in the sixth and three more in the seventh.

Graviett said he just told his team not to get down and try to just keep pecking away.

"We talked about it, we're not going to get six in one inning, let's just chip away at it," he said.

For the fourth straight year, the Sikeston Bulldogs will play in the championship game.

"The thing that makes you feel so good is there is a lot of quality teams in the conference," Sikeston coach Kevin Self said. "We've had the privilege to play in the championship game every year."

Sikeston outhit Dexter 8-4 to overcome four errors. Dexter led 1-0 after the first inning, but Sikeston tied it up in the second and used some good baserunning to get three more runs in the third inning. Sikeston added a pair of runs in the sixth to put the game out of reach.

"That made a big difference in them getting back into it," Self said of his team's late runs.

Sikeston's run to the championship was nearly derailed in the quarterfinal round, with the Bulldogs nipping No. 8 New Madrid County Central 1-0 earlier Monday at Notre Dame. Blake DeWitt made a dazzling play in the field to keep the Eagles scoreless, and added the game's only run with a home run. It was one of three 1-0 games in the quarterfinal round.

Jackson and Notre Dame each had its share of troubles in the quarterfinals. Jackson used a sixth-inning rally to get by No. 6 Central 4-2 at Notre Dame.

Notre Dame managed only four hits against No. 7 Kelly in its quarterfinal game Monday at Central. The Bulldogs won the game 1-0 in nine innings on a two-out balk. Blake Urhahn pitched seven innings and Essner pitched the last two for the shutout.

Trey Simmons pitched eight strong innings for Kelly, and gave way to Kendal Deason with two on and no out in the ninth. Deason got Urhahn to hit into a double play, but he forced in Jacob Essner from third on a balk.

Jake Welch had a strong game going through five innings for the Tigers, but Jackson put its first four runners on in the bottom of the sixth. Jackson's sixth-inning rally was capped of by a three-run home run by Jason Meystedt.

Tyler Beussink improved to 4-1 with seven innings of five-hit ball for Jackson.

Quarterfinals

Jackson 4, Central 2

Central 110 000 0 -- 2 5 0

Jackson 000 004 X -- 4 8 1

WP -- Tyler Beussink, 4-1. LP -- Jake Welch. HR -- Jason Meystedt (J). 2B -- Patrick Slattery (C), Welch (C), Tony Leuckel (C), Trevor Thompson (J), Beussink (J). Multiple hits -- Jackson, Meystedt 2-3. Records -- Jackson 12-4, Central 5-11-1.

Notre Dame 1, Kelly 0, 9 innings

Kelly 000 000 000 -- 0 4 0

Notre Dame 000 000 001 -- 1 5 0

WP -- Lee Essner, 7-0. LP -- Trey Simmons. 2B -- Kent Deason (K). Multiple hits -- Notre Dame, Matt Wulfers 2-3. Records -- Notre Dame 13-4, Kelly 5-7.