Jackson Senior Legion baseball rallies past Cape Girardeau to clinch top district seed

For nine innings, Jackson Senior Legion Post 158 played aggressive baseball. At times it hurt them, but in the end it paid off.

A week after easily handling Cape Girardeau Ford & Sons Post 63, things weren't so simple for Jackson this time around. But Post 158 rallied to score twice in the bottom of the seventh to take a 7-6 edge and then added an insurance run in the eighth for an 8-6 victory that clinched the top spot in next week's district tournament.

With two outs in the seventh and Cape leading 6-5, Nathan Hurst stole second, drawing a throw and giving Landon Pehle the opportunity to stroll home for the double steal and a tie ballgame. One batter later, Cameron Duke blooped a single to shallow right field just in front of a charging Brock Baugher, and Hurst -- aggressively running on the pitch with two outs -- scored from second base to take the lead.

"Having two outs at first and third is something we've gone over, something that we practice," Cape Girardeau coach Justin Lieser said. "It's just a breakdown defensively. It's nothing that surprised us, just something that for that moment we had a brain lapse. Fortunately for us we haven't had too many of those. That definitely hurt."

In the eighth, Post 158 (14-6) made it a two-run cushion when Paris Johnson went first to third on a hit-and-run and later scored on a Pehle single.

The game-tying run came just one play after a Jackson runner had been thrown out on the base paths when he overran second, and the hosts also had a potential game-tying run thrown out at the plate in the fifth inning.

Jackson Post 158's Colten Weber watches his three-run home run against Cape Girardeau Post 63 during the first inning.

But sticking with the envelope-pushing approach ultimately provided the break through.

"It always looks smart when it works out," Jackson coach Mark Lewis said. "I'll say this -- on all of those occasions, the kids were going hard. You want them to be aggressive. ... That's what you want in those situations, and when they work out you look so much better. It was just in the flow of the game, and on those plays they fell in there when we needed them."

The victors also got what they needed on the mound when they needed it most. Colten Weber threw all nine innings, scattering nine hits and giving up six runs -- five earned -- while striking out six and walking one. Most importantly, he allowed just one base runner in the final four innings, and that came on an error.

"Give credit to their pitcher," Lieser said. "His off-speed stuff wasn't working early, and there about the sixth, seventh, eighth innings he started throwing it for strikes, and you could really tell. That's where we stopped scoring runs because he was starting to throw that for strikes. If he can throw his slider for strikes and locate well, it makes him a lot tougher pitcher."

Post 63 (16-11) jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the top of the first thanks to a leadoff walk by Brock Baugher followed by back-to-back hits by Ross Essner and Garrett Siebert before Trevor Haas brought home the final run of the frame with a grounder.

Jackson responded by scoring four in the bottom of the first, with an RBI single from Cameron Duke and a three-run home run from Weber, who golfed the ball over the left-field fence for a 4-2 advantage.

Post 158, though, managed just one run through the next five innings, when Drew Brown reached on a double and scored on a two-bagger by Hurst, making it a one-run contest.

By that point Cape had swung back into the lead, thanks to a Garrett Dix sacrifice fly in the second, a Haas RBI double in the third, a double by Isaac Pender in the fourth that allowed him to later score on an error and a run-scoring single by Pender an inning later.

It wasn't enough to hold up, but it was a competitive effort for a side that had fallen into a deep hole early and lost 14-4 to Jackson just one week earlier.

"I think scoring early definitely helped," Lieser said. "We had a decent approach at the plate this time. Just, overall, a better game. That being said, I don't think we've played our best and that's something we let our guys know about -- hey, we're going to see them again, hopefully."

Pender, who has typically come out of the bullpen for Post 63, got the start on the mound, going 6 1/3 innings and giving up six runs on nine hits with three strikeouts, two walks and two hit batters. He made way for reliever Kyle Fitzgerald, who pitched the final 1 2/3 innings and took the loss, victimized for two runs on five hits.

"We've had problems throwing enough strikes, and that's one thing Isaac tends to do," Lieser said. "He's a gamer, he's a competitor. He really fights on the mound. Even today he didn't have his best stuff -- he had some issues and just looked kind of tired at times, even in the third and fourth inning. But he's the kind of guy who's going to battle through it. He gave us everything he had for 6 1/3, and if we make a couple of plays behind him, it's a different ballgame."

Hurst was 3-for-3 with two runs scored, a pair of doubles and an RBI for Post 158, which also got two-hit nights from Brown, Duke and Triston Thele.

Pender was 2-for-3 with a run scored and an RBI for Cape Girardeau. Siebert and Haas added 2-for-4 efforts. Haas also knocked in a pair of runs.

It wasn't the same dominating performance Jackson gave the previous week, but it was win No. 9 in a row for Post 158, and it clinched the top spot in the district with the postseason looming next week.

"I think the important thing is to be playing well at the end of the year," Lewis said. "I've been whatever seed, and you've got to go at the end of the year and win. The best thing is to be playing well.

"As a coach, you're never satisfied. They've played well the last few weeks, no doubt, but you've got to sustain that and keep your focus. Any little thing can get you off of that sometimes. A bad at-bat or a bad play, and you've got to be able to pull yourself in and go right back out there and put in a good effort. We had a kid thrown out at the plate [today], and there's nothing he did wrong, but as a player you're upset. You've got to come back from that and hopefully we can continue to do that."

Jackson is back on the field Thursday at the Jefferson County/Mineral Area College Tournament.

Cape continues to fight for district placement when it travels to Sikeston tonight.

Cape Girardeau 211 110 000 -- 6 9 0

Jackson 400 010 21x -- 8 14 2

WP -- Colten Weber. LP -- Kyle Fitzgerald. 2B -- Trevor Haas (CG), Isaac Pender (CG), JT Moore (CG), Nathan Hurst 2 (J). HR -- Weber (J). Multiple hits -- Cape: Garrett Siebert 2-4, Haas 2-4, Pender 2-3; Jackson: Drew Brown 2-4, Hurst 3-3, Cameron Duke 2-4, Triston Thele 2-4.