Missouri Rage claim wood bat tourney title with win against Sikeston Silver Sox

Missouri Rage Senior Babe Ruth pitcher Cole Nichols considered the defense behind him to be the biggest key against the Sikeston Post 114 Silver Sox Senior Legion team.

For center fielder Landon Tenkhoff, it was Nichols -- "pitching, definitely."

The Rage defense made the plays it needed to make behind Nichols to slow down the Silver Sox, and they put together some solid at-bats at the plate to win 5-1 and claim the Cape Girardeau Ford & Sons Post 63 19U Wood Bat Invitational on Sunday evening at Capaha Field.

"We had a real good tournament. Everybody came out and played real well," Rage coach Jim Talley said. "We threw the ball well. We caught the ball well. We hit the ball well -- just real pleased with our effort the whole tournament."

Both teams each had six hits and an error in the contest.

The Rage (18-13-1), which defeated the Blytheville, Arkansas, Legion team 6-4 in its semifinal earlier in the day, never trailed in the contest.

Nichols reached on a one-out error, and Tenkhoff drove him in with a triple to the right-center gap in the bottom of the first.

Tenkhoff, who went 2-for-3, was "gearing up for a fastball" after he was late on the first pitch.

"You just have to focus on squaring the ball up and can't really do too much," Tenkhoff said. "Just have to square it up and hopefully hit more line drives because the ball's not going to carry as far with wooden bats."

Jordan Kluesner drew a leadoff walk, stole second, was bunted to third and scored on a single by Kade Sullivan in the second.

Nichols hit a two-out single to left to score Sullivan and extend the lead to 3-0.

"You've got to be a good hitter to get a base hit," Nichols said about playing with wood bats. "You've got to hit it solid. There's no hitting it off the end of the bat or hitting it off the inside part of the bat and getting a base hit out of it. You've got to hit it solid to get a base hit. It really shows who's a good hitter up there."

The Silver Sox got on the board in the top of the fifth. Back-to-back singles and a bunt put runners in scoring position with one out. Wyn Roberds hit a slow roller toward third that a charging Dawson Mayo fielded. He looked to throw home and hesitated before throwing to first, allowing the run to score to cut it to 3-1 and Roberds to reach.

Roberds was caught stealing on a questionable call before Nichols hit a batter and walked a batter to load the bases, sparking a visit to the mound.

Nichols got cleanup hitter Gavin Pobst to swing at the first pitch and foul out to the catcher to strand the bases loaded.

The Silver Sox, who defeated JC Slam 9-5 in their semifinal, only mustered one hit the rest of the game.

"Just fastballs, being able to locate everything," Nichols said about what was working for him. "Not trying to throw the offspeed stuff too much unless they were starting to hit the ball. Just being able to locate the fastball was a big thing."

Nichols, who went 2-for-3 at the plate, struck out seven and walked only one batter.

"That's what he does every time he goes out," Talley said. "He's just as solid as can be on the mound. He doesn't get rattled and throws a bunch of strikes and gets a lot of outs."

The Rage added their final two runs in the home half of the fifth. Nichols led off with a single and stole second before scoring on a single by Tenkhoff. Austin Copeland followed with an RBI double to center.

"It emphasizes more on your pitching and your defense because you're not going to just stand up there and string five or six gappers in a row," Talley said about the wood bats, "so yeah, you've got to really rely on your pitching and defense."

Sikeston 000 010 0 -- 1 6 1

Rage 120 020 X -- 5 6 1

WP -- Cole Nichols. LP -- Nathan Hampton. 2B -- Austin Copeland (R). 3B -- Landon Tenkhoff (R). Multiple hits -- Sikeston: Nathan Hampton 2-3; Rage: Nichols 2-3, Tenkhoff 2-3.