TIGERS `SELF' DESTRUCT AGAINST SIKESTON

SIKESTON -- Thursday's severe storms forced the Class 4A, District 1 championship game between Cape Central and Sikeston to be completed on Friday.

Despite sunny skies Friday, the Tigers again left Sikeston's VFW Stadium under cloudy conditions. This time, it was a cloud of despair.

Behind a crippling pitching performance by Sikeston senior Brent Self, the top-seeded Bulldogs shutout second-seed Central 6-0.

Self, who returned to the hill after striking out five batters in two innings Thursday, fanned 10 more on Friday to attain a season-high strikeout total of 15.

"That's probably one of the most dominating pitching performances I've seen in a long time," said Sikeston coach, and Brent's uncle, Kevin Self. "He was as sharp as I've seen him."

Self walked only one batter and allowed just five Tiger hits as the state-ranked Bulldogs beat Central for the third time this season and improved to 17-3. Sikeston, ranked 10th in Class 4A, now plays De Soto on the road Thursday in sectional competition. The Tigers finished the season 20-7.

"What is so amazing to me was (that) he was on (his game) two consecutive days," Coach Self said. "He started (Thursday) and I could tell he was really on and I didn't know if he'd be as sharp today as he was (Thursday).

"To be that sharp, that on, is just amazing to me."

Self fanned five of the nine batters he faced Thursday, before thunderstorms forced the two teams to leave the field with Sikeston leading 3-0. When play resumed Friday with one out in the top of the third inning, Self picked up where he left off.

"I was surprised to pitch so well (Thursday) and then come out today and feel the same way," Brent said. "I guess I just had the feel for both my fastball and curveball."

Self, by his remarkable standards, actually got of to a slow start Friday. The third inning was the only frame he failed to strike out a Central batter and in the fourth inning, Central got leadoff singles from Chris Bradshaw and Paul Dobbins to threaten.

"We had a chance in the fourth inning ... then we had three strikeouts in a row," said Central coach Steve Williams. "That was a big inning right there.

"We didn't take advantage of that chance early and that was the last one we had."

Those three strikeouts started a string of five straight K's and the Tigers never seriously threatened after that. When he got in that jam, Self relied on his favorite pitch.

"It's kind of a slurve, but some people call it a slider," Brent said. "It kind of fooled them. It was coming in there looking like a fastball, then it breaks down and off the plate."

Sikeston scored three insurance runs in the sixth inning off reliever Craig Ringwald, who started on the mound Friday after Tatum Kitchen pitched two innings Thursday.

Both Central pitchers were victimized by costly errors. Sikeston's three runs off Kitchen on Thursday were unearned and scored without the benefit of a hit. Two of the Bulldogs' three runs in the sixth inning were also unearned. Central committed five errors in the game.

"That was the one thing we could never get over this season," Williams said of his team's fielding. "It's not like we didn't try everybody and its not like we didn't work on it everyday."