Jackson protects early lead against Mineral Area

The Jackson Babe Ruth baseball team endured an half-hour weather delay and pulled out a 5-3 win against Mineral Area on Thursday in the opening round of the Missouri Babe Ruth Championship tournament.

The players were pulled from the field during the fifth inning because of lightning in the area.

"I don't think the delay affected either one of the teams," Jackson coach Paul Sander.

The delay came a little too late for Mineral Area as Jackson jumped out to a 4-0 in the third.

"Those first four runs were huge," Jackson pitcher Chris Roth said. "Anytime you can get on a team early, it gets their momentum down and gets you going."

Mineral Area scored two runs in the bottom half of the third to make it 4-2, but it wasn't able to get any closer.

Both teams added a run in the seventh inning to make it 5-3.

"It was a tight-played game," Sander said. "We knew Mineral Area had a very good team. They have good tradition, and we knew we would have to play very well to beat them."

Jackson shortstop Garrett Fritsche had arguably his best game of the summer.

He was a home run shy of hitting for the cycle.

"I thought about that whenever I got to third," Fritsche said. "I was like, man I wish I could bat again."

A two-run lead was all Roth needed.

He pitched a complete game, giving up five hits, three runs and striking out three.

"I did pretty well," Roth said. "Me and Brett (Steffens) were really working well together, and I was hitting my spots."

Jackson (28-3) will take on New Madrid at 7:30 tonight at Jackson City Park.