TIGERS FALL ON HOMER IN SEVENTH

After agonizing through the course of a 6-5 loss to Sikeston in which his Tigers took two steps back for every step forward, Cape Girardeau Central High baseball coach Steve Williams expressed some direful concerns on Monday.

Central (4-8, 2-2 SEMO Conference) wiped out a deficit and held a 4-3 lead after six innings. But Sikeston's Billy Puckett walloped a two-run home run in the top of the seventh before the Tigers handed the Bulldogs (4-3, 1-1) an additional run via a fielding error.

Central mustered a run in its half of the final inning but succumbed with the bases loaded.

"We didn't play near well enough to win," Williams said. "We made four errors, we didn't hit with men on base and we're just not playing very well right now. We've got to find a way to get over that, or it's going to be a long year.

"We're trying everything. We're going to keep searching for somebody that can do it. We've had a number of guys who have had opportunities, and we're going to find some guys who haven't and see if they can do it."

Sikeston led 3-0 in the fifth inning after scoring two runs in the third -- on a fielding error and a wild pitch -- and another in the fifth as Corey Goetz reached on an error and scored on pinch hitter Ricky Fodge's single.

Central at last made a nick in the scoreboard with Mike Sullivan's solo homer in the fifth, which made the score 3-1. The Tigers then got three runs in the sixth and seized a 4-3 edge.

In the inning, pinch hitter Josh McIntosh doubled home Mitch Ogles and courtesy runner Todd Fidler, tying the score at 3-3. Then with McIntosh on third and Justin Welker on first, Welker intentionally got caught in a rundown, and the unobservant Sikeston defense allowed McIntosh to score the go-ahead run before tagging out Welker.

But Central starter Matt Welker couldn't hold Sikeston in the seventh. After pinch hitter Craig Jobe reached on an infield single, Puckett launched his one-out, two-run blast over the fence in left-center field. Another run later scored on an error.

The Tigers threatened in the bottom of the seventh. Sullivan walked, and Chris Barrows and Ogles were each hit by pitches from Puckett, the Sikeston starter, to fill the bases with one out.

Matt Welker drove in Sullivan with a sacrifice fly. Then Zach Fidler reached base on a single, again loading the bases, now with two out. Fidler's hit came on a sharp grounder up the middle that struck the umpire and likely would have tied the game if it had reached center field. Mark Fisher then tapped a grounder and Ogles was forced out to end the game.

Central's JV improved to 4-3 with a wild 11-10 victory over Sikeston. Jay Pierce was the winning pitcher and Ricky Ogles delivered an RBI single in the seventh to snap a 10-10 tie.

The Tigers will return to action Wednesday when they host Poplar Bluff.