TIGERS WIGGLE OFF HOOK

His Cape Central teammates call him "Fish."

And he was one of the main reasons Jackson let a big one get away Tuesday.

Central junior catcher Mark Fisher had three hits, including a game-tying single as the Tigers downed their visiting Highway 61 rival Indians 9-7.

The win improved the Tigers to 2-2 overall and 2-0 in the SEMO Conference. Jackson fell to 2-2 and 0-2.

With runners on first and third and his team trailing 7-6 in the bottom of the sixth inning, Fisher singled home Matt Ogles to tie the game.

Matt Welker, who was the runner at first, advanced to third on Fisher's hit and scored on the play as Jackson first baseman Josh Hopkins threw wildly to third. Fisher scampered to third and his courtesy runner later scored on an error by shortstop Tory Meyr, who couldn't handle a tough hop.

"He drove in some runs when we really needed them," Central coach Steve Williams said. "And he ended up on third base which led to an insurance run. That's the thing about Mark. He's a gamer, he plays hard and comes to play every day."

"The pitcher was off-speed and I like faster pitching," said Fisher, who also had a run batted in on a single in the third. "But I adjusted and stayed back. That hit that scored the run in the end, I just stayed back and went to the right side."

Overall, the game was one of ups and downs for both teams.

Jackson scored four in the first, only to watch Central battle back and score one in the third and five in the fourth to take a 6-4 lead.

Jackson responded in the top of the fifth with three runs, giving them a temporary 7-6 lead.

"The most pleasing thing was the fact that we fell behind 4-0 and we never gave up," Williams said. "We didn't play as well as we're capable of, but at the same time I'm pleased that we kept fighting and scratching and clawing."

In Jackson's four-run first, the Indians scattered four hits and also used a walk and an error. The biggest blow was a two-run single by third baseman Toby Freeman.

Cape Central starting pitcher Travis Klipfel settled down after that, and avoided trouble until the fifth. Klipfel went 5 1-3 innings and gave up seven runs (three earned) on eight hits and two walks. He fanned two. Central pitcher Justin Cook got the win in relief. He allowed no runs in 2 2-3 innings on two hits.

For Jackson, Chris Schlick took the loss. He went the distance, allowing seven earned runs on 13 hits and one walk.

Jackson committed four errors, while Central had three.

"We're coming along, but we're still making too many errors," said Jackson coach Sam Sides. "We're not very far from being a pretty good baseball team. We've just got to try to nail down a few odds and ends.

"We've beat them one time since I've been coaching here. But we had an opportunity today. We jumped on them. We had opportunities to score but didn't. But you have to give them credit; they put the ball in play and battled back."

"Our defense wasn't very good," said Williams. "We had ground balls that we haven't made mistakes on before that we didn't field today."

Central scored five runs in the fourth on four consecutive singles, started by the No. 7 batter Josh McIntosh. Two runs scored in that inning in an error by Freeman.

In the top of the fifth, Jackson scored three runs on an RBI single by Hopkins, a 1-run double by Schlick and an RBI single by catcher Ryan Beltz. Schlick was the only player with two hits for Jackson.

Matt Welker, designated hitter Justin Welker and shortstop T.J. Erlacker each had two hits for Central.

"We got some timely hits," Williams said. "We still got some guys who are struggling."