The Southeast Missouri Storm finished off a summer of Special Olympics softball by winning another gold medal Saturday, this time in the unified division at the Missouri State Outdoor Championships.

The unified division is the highest level of play in Special Olympics softball. Special Olympic athletes play alongside non-Special Olympic athletes.

The Storm, which claimed gold at the national games earlier this summer in Nebraska, defeated Crossroads 16-9 on Saturday at the Shawnee Park Sports Complex in Cape Girardeau.

After a rare loss Friday night, Storm coach Bill Mack said it was nice to get a victory.

"Especially playing Crossroads, because we have a big rivalry against them," Mack said. "They beat us last year at state. We beat them in districts twice, and then we beat them today."

With the win, the Storm finished in a three-way tie for first place with Crossroads and Kansas City, the team that defeated it on Friday.

"It was just a tough game," Mack said. "This is actually the first good game we've played since we've been back [from the national games]. We haven't played good since we've been back because we peaked at the right time and we were playing at such a good level and then we just came down. Their heads got big or whatever."

Storm player James Trousdale had a plan for helping his team get back on track Saturday.

"Just focus on the game and do the best that I can," Trousdale said.

Trousdale, who lives in Jackson, said he enjoyed playing in front of more fans because the tournament was close to home.

"It was good," he said. "I love it."

The Southeast Missouri Cyclones also won a medal Saturday, claiming second place in the coach-pitch division.

The Cyclones defeated the St. Joe Salamanders handily in their first game of the day, winning 19-5 in four innings before falling 14-13 to the West County Wild Dogs in what proved to be the gold-medal game of the round-robin tournament.

Coming from behind

The Cyclones fell behind 5-0 after a half-inning of play but responded with seven runs of their own in the bottom of the first, sending the maximum of 10 batters to the plate in the inning.

The Salamanders, though, scored four more runs in the top half of the second and never relinquished the lead again in the entertaining and high-scoring game.

With the one-hour time limit on the game set to expire, the Cyclones knew the fourth inning would be their last at-bat when they got to the dugout trailing 14-10.

After Landon Hume doubled to start the inning, Dalton Meyers hit a hard line drive to left centerfield that rocketed past the fielder, allowing him to circle the bases for a home run.

"I was worn out," Meyers said, talking about running around the bases in Saturday's heat.

, but he insisted he could hit the ball even farther.

"I can hit it to the fence," he said.

Meyers, who is from Oak Ridge, reached base in all three of his at-bats against the Wild Dogs and had five RBIs.

"Well, we almost won," he said.

The Cyclones plated another run in the fourth but were unable to put the tying run on base.

Cyclone left fielder Wyatt Leonard made one of the most impressive defensive plays in the game. Playing with a new, bigger glove given to him as a gift by his occupational therapist, Leonard was able to snare a high pop-up in the second inning.

"I just try my best and just hope I can catch it," said Leonard, who also had two doubles and a single in the game.

Hume, who played third base, also made a great catch against the Wild Dogs.

Though he said "it went up too high," Hume recorded a double play in the fourth inning after catching a pop fly and throwing to first for a force out.

While play ended for the athletes on both the Storm and the Cyclones on Saturday afternoon, Mack said there was still plenty left on the Special Olympics schedule.

"The fun part's getting ready to start. They get to go to the water park. Then they have a dance tonight, dinner and all that stuff."