TIGERS DISPOSE OF HILLSBORO IN 4A SECTIONAL

HILLSBORO -- Cape Girardeau Central High's baseball team made the most of its first Class 4A sectional appearance since 1996.

The Tigers used home runs from Zac Fidler and Mark Fisher, some timely hitting from the bottom of their order and determined pitching by Justin Cook to slip past Hillsboro 6-4 Thursday afternoon at Jefferson College.

Central, which improved to 21-7, will play in the state quarterfinals Saturday for the first time since 1994, hosting Lafayette in a 1 p.m. contest at Tiger Field. Lafayette, 21-2, is the state's top-ranked Class 4A team.

"I can't tell you how happy I am and how proud I am of these guys," said Central coach Steve Williams. "I can't say enough how proud I am of everybody. They've battled all year."

Said Fisher, "We're one step closer (to the final four). It's anybody's game right now. It doesn't matter if you're 30-0."

Williams expected a tight game Thursday from a Hillsboro (17-12) squad that, on paper, sounded a lot like Central.

"They were a solid team. They sounded just like us," Williams said. "They had four or five good hitters and two pretty good pitchers. We figured it would be a battle and it was."

Overall, the contest was relatively even. Central had seven hits to Hillsboro's six while the Tigers' made two errors to the Hawks' one.

But the Tigers were able to come up with the game's biggest blow, in the top of the fifth inning. Hillsboro had just rallied for a 4-3 lead by scoring three runs in the bottom of the fourth, on four hits and an error, and the Hawks appeared to have seized all-important momentum.

But the Tigers regained the momentum in one swing of the bat. Jay Pierce led off the Central fifth by reaching on an error, then Fidler drilled a pitch over the left-center field fence near the 365-foot mark to dramatically put his team back on top 5-4.

"That kind of gave us a head start on it," said Fidler, who connected for his fourth home run of the season.

Said Williams of Fidler's blast, "That changed the whole momentum of the game. We're down 4-3 and to go up 5-4 in one swing, that was huge."

Fisher gave the Tigers some breathing room when he deposited a one-out, solo homer over the left-field fence in the seventh to make it 6-4. It was Fisher's fifth home run of the year.

"That was big," Williams said. "At 5-4, it's a totally different game."

Said Fisher, "We started off kind of slow, but we got going as the game went on. It's just nice to be moving on."

Cook worked his usual steady if not spectacular game. Sporting an effective breaking ball, the right-hander kept the Hawks off-balance most of the day as he gave up just two earned runs while striking out three and walking none in going the seven-inning distance.

After running into some problems during the middle innings, Cook finished strong, allowing just one hit over the final three innings, and he retired the final nine batters of the game to improve his record to 9-2.

"I felt good today," he said. "They had one big inning, but I felt like I was getting better as the game wore one."

Williams marveled at Cook's performance, saying, "He's done that all year. He got the ball up some in the middle innings, but after that he made a little adjustment and he finished the game really strong."

Hillsboro starter Joe Fehlker took the loss, allowing five hits and five runs (four earned) in four-plus innings. He fanned one and walked two.

Mark Parker hurled the final three innings, giving up two hits and one run. He fanned five and walked one.

The Hawks got an unearned run in the second to go up 1-0, but the Tigers scored three times in the fourth. T.J. Erlacker had an RBI groundout for the first tally, then Rob Carr and John Snider each delivered two-out, RBI singles. That trio represents the sixth through eighth batters in the lineup.

"Our bottom of the order has done that the last three games," said Williams. "They haven't necessarily mashed the ball, but they move people around and come up with big hits."

Hillsboro came right back with its three-run bottom of the fourth, Mark Mosley, Jim Swofford and Bob Hankins all delivering RBI hits.

But the Tigers averted what could have been more damage in that inning when they turned an unusual triple play.

With runners on first and second and nobody out and Hillsboro already up 4-3 Central third baseman Snider fielded a groundball, stepped on third for one out and fired to first baseman Justin Walker for the second out. Welker then threw quickly back to Snider, who tagged a runner trying to advance to third to end the inning.

Fidler followed with his go-ahead, two-run homer in the fifth, Fisher added his solo shot in the seventh and Cook did the rest to send the Tigers into the quarterfinals.

Fisher was Central's only player with two hits while Hankins had two hits for Hillsboro.