Post 63 rally falls short

The Cape Girardeau Ford & Sons Post 63 Senior American Legion baseball team hadn't even finished clearing its equipment out of the dugout after its game against Dunklin County Post 303 at the District 14 tournament before talk turned to getting another shot at the Dodgers.

Post 63 lost to Dunklin County on Saturday at Notre Dame Regional High School, but after a big comeback in the late innings, the 10-9 defeat didn't leave the team disheartened.

"I'm disappointed, I guess, but I mean we played really good toward the end," Post 63 first baseman Ryan Grigaitis said. "I thought we were going to win, but I guess it didn't happen."

Post 63 trailed from the outset. Starter Logan Morris gave up three runs in the first inning and 10 over his five innings of work as Cape fell into a 10-1 hole.

"I thought he could keep us in the game," Post 63 coach Todd Pennington said of Morris. "There were a couple innings where it could have went either way, and it didn't go our way that time. I wanted Logan to stay in there and maybe learn something from it."

Post 63's Jacob Pewitt connects for a base hit against Dunklin County during their game Saturday at Notre Dame Regional High School.

Cape scored two runs, one unearned, off Dunklin County starter Tyler Thompson.

"Tyler did a good job keeping the ball down, moving the ball around and throwing offspeed for strikes," Pennington said. "He's a great pitcher anyway. We knew we were going to have a tough time anyway. The best thing we could do was try to get him out of there."

Post 63 forced Thompson out of the game during a seven-run seventh inning.

"He just started losing a little bit of control of his fastball and just couldn't get ahead of batters," Cape left fielder Trenton St. Cin said.

The Post 63 offense took advantage of the opportunity, getting five hits to go along with three walks in the inning.

Post 63's Logan Morris prepares to deliver a pitch against Dunklin County during their tournament game Saturday.

"I think we just hit a couple balls hard and it gave us a little confidence," Pennington said. "We went right back to our normal hitting. We were just waiting for something to happen to get us going, so it finally happened."

The big inning pulled Post 63 within a run at 10-9, but no Cape runner reached base after the seventh until Andrew Williams walked with two outs in the ninth.

"It's more of a good thing for me to see all these guys not give up," Pennington said. "That's what we look for. I wasn't disappointed at all in our performance because we stayed in the game [and] we kept there mentally. We missed out by one run, you know? But if we have a chance to win, I'm happy with these guys."

The loss means that Cape will have to win three games in a row to win the district title.

The team will play either Jackson or Sikeston at 2 p.m. today.

Post 63's Skylar Cobb snares a fly ball during Saturday's district tournament game against Dunklin County. (Laura Simon)

The winner of that game will face Dunklin County at 5 p.m.

A Dunklin County victory would give it the tournament title, but a loss for the Dodgers would force a final game to be played at 7 p.m. Monday at Notre Dame, with the winner advancing to next week's zone tournament.

Post 63 already has secured a spot in the zone tournament by serving as the host team, but the team would relish a chance to beat Dunklin County.

"There's no doubt I don't want to lose this tournament," Grigaitis said. "I just want to prove to Dunklin County that we're a better team than they are."