SIKESTON RALLIES TO DEFEAT JACKSON

JACKSON -- When the Senior American Legion District Tournament brackets came out, Sikeston Legion Post 114 head coach Charlie Dye knew he had a tough draw.

Third-seeded Sikeston was slated against sixth-seeded Jackson -- a team that eliminated Sikeston from last year's Legion tournament, and a team full of the same players that upset the top seeded Sikeston Bulldogs this past high school season.

Dye's squad survived their first round game this time, coming from behind to win 11-7 Monday at Jackson's American Legion Park.

Sikeston (17-14) will play top seeded Dunklin County tonight at 8 p.m., while Jackson (8-19) will wait to play the loser of fourth-seeded Cape Ford & Sons and fifth-seeded Poplar Bluff, who meet at 5 p.m. today.

Monday's game didn't come without a scare as Jackson led 6-0 before Sikeston finally get on the board in the fifth inning.

"I thought the kids hung in there well," said Dye. "They didn't lose their composure. We had a lot of chances early that we didn't take advantage of and the few chances Jackson had they made the most of it."

Sikeston tied the score at 6-6 in the sixth inning when Matt Drake scored on a Mark Silverthorn fielder's choice. Jackson moved ahead 7-6 in the top of the seventh, but Sikeston countered with three in the bottom of the inning for a 9-7 lead. The big blow was a two-run triple by Cory Goetz.

Sikeston scored two more runs in the top of the eighth for added insurance.

"You've got to give Jackson credit because they were making the plays early," said Dye. "They were playing on a lot of emotion and adrenaline and it seemed like we took that away once we got the lead from them. I've got to give credit to the kids, they could've hung their heads when they got down 6-0 and they could've tucked it in. But the whole team stuck together and we got good contributions up and down the lineup. All in all, I was pleased with the way things turned out."

Sikeston's Chris Hood got the win in relief, going three innings and allowing one run on three hits. He struck out four and walked one. Lance Sipes pitched a scoreless ninth to end the game. Silverthorn pitched the first five innings, allowing six runs off seven hits.

Jackson's Danny Lincoln was saddled with the loss in relief, going 1 2-3 innings and allowing five runs on five hits. Jackson starter Jason Brown got a no-decision in five innings of work. Dustin Hicks pitched the final 1 1-3 innings, allowing two runs and two hits.

"I felt real good about the start of the game," said Jackson head coach Barry Stafford. "We fell apart a little bit in the sixth inning and playing a full nine inning game is different. It's tougher to keep that consistency and focus going the whole nine innings. I was real pleased with our pitching. Sikeston's a very good hitting team, they have just crushed the ball all year long against us and I felt like we slowed them as much as we could, but we just didn't make the plays there at the end."

Toby Freeman had a bases clearing doubles in helping Jackson to its 6-0 lead.

Jackson's Ryan Beltz, Jason Vandeven and Ryan Banderman had two hits each. Sikeston was led by Goetz's three hits and Billy Puckett's three hits and three RBIs. Jordaan Sieben had two hits and Drake scored three runs.