Bearcats stand up to Central Tigers in pivotal SEMO Conference victory

Jarrett Laird (above, right) steals second base as the throw eludes Cape Central second baseman Hideaki Tanaka during Tuesday's 8-7 win by the Bearcats in Cape Girardeau.

Both teams went toe-to-toe like two prize fighters and never gave an inch. But in the end, it was the Bearcats who were still standing atop the SEMO Conference standing after an 8-7 victory over the Tigers.

The game was originally scheduled to be played at Cape Central High School, but wet weather forced the game to be moved to Notre Dame Regional High School.

Coaches are always telling their players to "make plays" and there were plenty of them during the contest played in nearly ideal conditions. Home runs, clutch hitting and stellar defensive plays became routine for the two combatants.

"It was a sloppy game really when you think about it," Dexter coach Brian Becker said. "Their pitcher wasn't very sharp in the first inning and hit a couple of kids and we took advantage of it and got up four runs on them in the first, but Cape is a good hitting team and they came right back in the second.

"They're a good team," Becker continued. "They battle and they battled the whole game. We'd get up a little bit then they'd come battling back. But that's the sign of a well coached team and that's exactly what they have."

Dexter sent 10 batters to the plate in the first innings, but only pushed across four runs while leaving the bases load.

Cape answered in the second when Garrett Stevens crushed an 2-0 pitch off Caleb Miller deep over the 350 marker in left-center after a one-out walk for a two run homer that cut the Dexter lead to 4-2. A double, an infield hit and a walk loaded the bases, but Jared Green lined out hard to Tyler Scott at second, who underhanded the ball to Noe to catch the Tiger runner off base for an inning-ending double play.

The Tigers tied the game at 4-all in the bottom of the second and Becker elected to hand the ball over to Noe on the mound, who got out of the inning, thanks in part to picking off Cape Central's Brooks Osburn trying to steal third.

Sophomore Sawyer Smith quickly answered for Dexter with a lead-off home run, his first, off Cape starter Blake Smith, who hit Scott next and was replaced by Zach Wilson.

Wilson got a quick strikeout, but Ben Mills singled and Noe was hit by a pitch to load the bases for Miller, who delivered a 2-run single to push Dexter's advantage to 7-4.

Wilson coaxed a double play ball by Matt Banken to get out of the inning.

Cape mounted another threat in the third, but another line-out double play helped the 'Cats retain their lead.

Cape tied the game at 7-all with a two-out 3-run rally in the fourth. After two routine ground outs, Osburn doubled to left-center, Hideaki Tanaka walked and Stevens delivered an RBI-single (7-5). Alex Shell's single scored one more and a balk call on Noe accounted for the tying run.

Dexter scored an un-earned run the fifth that proved to be the game winner. Jarrett Laird worked Wilson for a lead-off walk and stole second. Mills' bunt was misplayed by the Tigers and allowed Laird to score the go-ahead run.

Becker turned the ball over to Eric Windham win the bottom of the fifth, and the senior held the Tigers scoreless over the last three innings to nail down the victory.

Cape battled until the final out, putting the tying run on at third and the go ahead runner at second with just one out, but Windham got Nick Allen to ground weakly back to the mound and he was able to hold the runners, then enticed Joe Uhls to pop up to him in front of home plate for the final out.

"You know Bob (Caleb Miller) didn't have it on the mound today (Tuesday), but Mason Noe came in, and he got drilled by a couple of pitches, and the second one got him in the shoulder and it started to tighten up a little bit," Becker said. "I put Eric (Windham) in there and he's struggled at times this year but today, he came in and did the job for us and I couldn't be more proud of him."

Cape slipped to a 6-12 season record, 4-4 in conference play.

The win improved Dexter's record to 10-3, and 7-1 in conference action. A win over New Madrid, a game that was postponed earlier in the year because of weather, would lock up the regular season title

"I'm just proud of our team for the way we've been battling all year long," Becker commented. "We're in a good position right now. I hope we can take this win and carry some momentum into the conference tournament this weekend.

Dexter is the No. 1 seed for the SEMO Conference tournament which starts this week. The Bearcats received a first-round bye, and will see their first tournament action Friday at home against the Kelly-New Madrid winner.

Kelly-New Madrid winner Friday at Dexter. Then the tournament moves to Cape.

Monday night game at Capaha.

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