By Andrew Cato, ShowMe Times Sports Editor

A seven-run effort in the bottom of the second inning would be all the offensive production the Lady Bearcats would need to seal a victory over the Caruthersville Lady Tigers on Monday afternoon; the eight other runs were just icing on the cake in the 15-1 run-rule contest.

"Our girls came out hitting. After we had a tough game with Bernie on Friday in the [Bernie Tournament], we had to come back a couple times, and the girls kept fighting," head coach Leonard Morse said after the game. "Even though today, we were only down by one run, our girls are not letting that get to their heads. They continue to fight and get over those obstacles and deficits; they don't let it get in their head and getting down like we did early in the season."

"We're really focused and playing well," Morse said of his team's progress. "We played great defense today. Our girls knew what we needed to do to win today, and they came out and did it."

Riley Rickman took the start for the Lady 'Cats; the sophomore right-hander gave up two hits and struck out six, but walked four in the win. Morse was quick to note how much Rickman has improved over the season, especially with confidence on the mound.

"Riley is getting more and more comfortable on the mound, and thats why I'm using her as much as I have been lately," he said. "Some games may not be as tight as others, but the bottom line is that she's getting experience and every time she's pitching she's getting better. She's become a lot better pitcher as the season has gone on."

Rickman has also shown great strides with her stamina throughout the year, and has been able to go much deeper into games as the season has progressed.

"Her stamina is improving; she's thrown a lot of innings and a lot of pitches," Morse said. "She's developed into a good pitcher, which is good because we'll rely heavily on her next year."

Kendra Stevenson mustered the only hit for the Lady 'Cats in the bottom of the first inning. Tiffany Watson was driven in by an RBI single from Taylor Owens to kick off the big second inning rally for the Lady 'Cats. Mattie Christian and Emily Triplett both had RBI extra-base hits in the inning.

Rickman worked out of a big jam in the third inning; with two outs, Rickman issued three walks before forcing a groundout to get out of the inning.

A leadoff walk was issued to Owens in the bottom of the third; Diana Gilliam and Ashley Brown both reached base on singles when Whitney Layton stepped up to the plate. Layton drove a ball to right-center to score a three RBI double, and then advanced home after two infield errors on the play to increase Dexter's lead to 11-1.

An RBI double from Brown in the bottom of the fourth drove in Gilliam to plate the winning run and seal the final score at 15-1.

Gilliam led the way at the plate for the Lady 'Cats, going 3-3 with 3 RBI's. Owens went 2-2 with 2 RBI and a walk, while Layton was 2-4 with 4 RBI.

The Lady Bearcats will be back in action again on Wednesday afternoon, when they hit the road to take on the Bloomfield Wildcats in a 4:00 p.m. contest. Dexter already holds a 16-6 victory over Bloomfield during last week's SCAA Tournament.

Photos Above:
Top: Whitney Layton drives in three runs with a double in the bottom of the third; after a pair of errors on the throw, Layton crossed home plate.
Bottom: Riley Rickman struck out six batters and gave up just two hits in the 15-1 win.

By Andrew Cato, ShowMe Times Sports Editor

CAPE GIRARDEAU - The Helias Crusaders hit the Bearcats early and often during Saturday's contest in the Notre Dame Classic. The Crusaders collected 13 hits in the 13-6 defeat of the Bearcats.

Logan 'Perry' Northern (2-1, 3.13 ERA) gave up his first earned runs of the year in the loss; the Bearcat starter lasted just one-and-a-third innings, and gave up seven hits, seven runs (all earned) and walked four batters. Brad Potts entered the game in relief during the second inning; the junior right-hander lasted one-and-two-third innings, where he gave up two hits and two runs (0 earned).

Josh Overall came to the mound four the final four innings of the game, and gave up four hits, four runs (two earned), three walks and three K's.

The Crusaders struck for nine runs in the first three innings; Potts connected for an RBI single in the bottom of the third inning to record the Bearcats' first run and hit of the game.

The 'Cats were able to hold the Crusaders to just one run in the fourth inning; Owen Flowers grounded into a fielder's choice to drive in D.J. Dowdy and cut Helias' lead to 10-2. The Crusaders were again held to one run in the fifth inning, while the 'Cats were able to put together a four-run rally, kicked off by a leadoff single from Potts. Chase Young followed up with a double, and Potts was brought home after a hard-hit ball from Jordan Miller forced an error. Four straight walks allowed the 'Cats to plate two more runs in the inning and cut the Crusaders' lead to 11-6.

Helias tacked on two more runs in the sixth inning and was held scoreless in the seventh, but the Bearcats couldn't put together a late-inning rally to end the game with a 13-6 final score.

Potts led the way at the plate for the 'Cats, going 2-4 with one run scored and one RBI. Young collected the only extra base hit of the game, and went 1-1 with three walks.

The Bearcats will be back in action on Monday (April 23) afternoon, when they close out their SEMO Conference schedule at Cape Central. Head coach Brian Becker noted the incredible difficulty of the conference this season after Friday's win over MICDS, with 2012 SEMO Conference Tournament seedings being announced on Monday.

"This last week has been brutal; we had Jackson, Bluff, [MICDS] today, Helias tomorrow, Cape Central on Monday - we'll have to clean up our defense if we want to have a chance to get more wins," Becker said. "We start seeding Monday; it'll be interesting to see how the seeds go since Jackson beat Poplar Bluff 3-1 [on Thursday]. We'll be right there in the three, four, or five spot, so we'll have to see. Notre Dame is the top seed by virtue of their win over Kennett, who will be the number two; after that, it's basically a coin-flip. We'll face a tough opponent in the first round no matter who it is. It's going to be a quality team, all that'll change is the name on the front of the jersey."

The 'Cats contest with Cape Central is scheduled for a 4:00 p.m. start; Becker indicated that Jordan Miller (0-1, 3.26 ERA) would be on the mound for the Bearcats.

Photo Above: Josh Overall hurled four innings in relief during Saturday's 13-6 loss to Helias (SMT File Photo by Andrew Cato).

The Bearcat tennis players were able to squeeze in a tournament at Poplar Bluff before Saturday evening's prom festivities. Tyler Miller (left) and Sam Ward (right) were able to bring home first place in the doubles division of the tournament. The 'Cats will be back in action again on Monday (April 23), when they host the Cape Central Tigers.(Submitted photo by Tracy Miller; thanks Tracy!)

By Andrew Cato, ShowMe Times Sports Editor

CAPE GIRARDEAU - For the second time in their last three games, the Dexter Bearcats won the game on a walk-off single.

After the Mary Incarnate Country Day School (MICDS) Rams tied the game in the top of the seventh, the 'Cats chipped away at the lead until Daniel Fitts stepped to the plate for the Bearcats with one out and the bases loaded in the bottom of the seventh. The senior, who was 0-3 at the plate until his last at-bat, delivered a hard ground ball between second and third base to plate Josh Overall for the go-ahead run and seal a come-from-behind 8-7 victory.

Head coach Brian Becker was quick to point out the importance of this win for his team; MICDS, a private school in the St. Louis area, is ranked in the top 10 in the state, and is a perennial power in all sports.

"That was a good win for us," Becker said after the exciting finish. "Country Day is ranked sixth in the state right now in our classification, and any time you can beat a state ranked team that's a good thing. It was a good win for our program."

"Country Day, they have a lot of history there, but not just in baseball; they're great in football and other sports. They're one of the larger private schools up there, and they draw kids from all over St. Louis. Any time you can get a win against them, that's a feather in your cap."

Owen Flowers (3-1, 2.66 ERA) took the start and the win for the 'Cats. Flowers, in his third complete game of the season, struck out eight batters and walked two in the 112 pitch outing.

"Flowers threw an excellent game. He gave up five in the second inning, but I don't know that they had a hard-hit ball the whole inning. They got a couple dinkers out there, and we booted a couple balls," Becker noted. "He threw an outstanding game, but something we'll have to do moving forward is clean up our defense. We had four errors today, and that led to a lot of their runs. We'll have to clean it up; we still have some good teams to play."

An hour-long rain delay, coupled with the cool temperature at game-time, caused Flowers to take a little longer than normal to get into his usual rhythm on the mound.

"It took me a bit to get warmed up at first, but once I got warmed up, I felt like I got into a pretty good groove and got on a roll," Flowers commented. "I've never thrown really hard, so that may help me a little bit. I feel like going 100 pitches is within my range; today I went a little bit over that, and it worked out."

The Rams struck hard in the second inning, plating five runs to take a 5-1 lead. The 'Cats would cut the lead to two in the bottom of the second, and continue to chip away until an RBI single from Chase Young in the bottom of the fourth brought home Brad Potts to give the 'Cats a 7-6 lead.

MICDS pinch-hitter Will Southworth found a gap in the Bearcats' infield to drive in the tying run in the top of the seventh, but the Rams were unable to convert thanks to great pitching from Flowers.

Overall drove a single down the third base line with one down in the bottom of the seventh; Flowers laid down an outstanding bunt down the third base line and beat the throw to first base. MICDS coach Pete Jans elected to intentionally walk Jacob Miller to set up a force play at home, but Fitts' single got through the left side of the infield to score the winning run.

Flowers noted the pre-game intimidation with facing a state-ranked, much larger school, but said it wasn't really an issue for the 'Cats once they got on the field.

"There was a little bit," he said, "but we knew that we could overcome it. Once we got out there on the field, we knew we could play with them. They're human too. I think we can play with any team in this area, and even some from out of the area, too."

The Bearcats will face another tough opponent in Saturday's (April 21) round of the Notre Dame Classic - Helias Catholic High School, out of Jefferson City.

Logan 'Perry' Northern will put his undefeated record and flawless 0.00 ERA on the line when he takes the mound against the Crusaders at 12:30 p.m.

Photos Above:
Top: Daniel Fitts' single in the bottom of the seventh inning plated the Bearcats' winning run in the 8-7 contest.  Fitts was 1-4 with an RBI, one run scored, and a walk in the game.  

By Andrew Cato, ShowMe Times Sports Editor

BLOOMFIELD - The Lady Bearcats were back in the SCAA Title game for the first time in three years on Thursday night. The 'Cats, riding a five game win streak, had their hopes dashed at the hands of the top-seed Advance Hornets in a 15-1 run-rule contest.

Advance starter Hannah Clark didn't give up a hit until the fourth inning, and gave up one run on a bases-loaded balk, also in the fourth. The freshman right hander fanned five batters in the win.

Kendra Stevenson took the start for the 'Cats, but was lit up early; the sophomore right-hander walked four batters and gave up eight runs (three earned). Riley Rickman took the mound in relief with one down in the bottom of the first inning, giving up seven runs (one earned) while striking out six batters in three and 2/3 innings of work.

"There's a reason why Advance has only lost one game; they're just solid. They've got pitching; Hannah Clark is a heck of a pitcher," head coach Leonard Morse said. "She can put it exactly where she wants it, and she's got the defense behind her. They're a great defensive team, and they hit well; if you make a mistake against this lineup, they'll capitalize. They're a good, all-around team. The worst part for us is that [Clark] is a freshman."

Ace pitcher Becky Anderson was out of commission for the Lady Bearcats due to illness. Morse was proud of his two pitchers' efforts, despite their poor showing on the scoreboard.

"Becky [Anderson] had been in the hospital since Tuesday night, so she wasn't able to pitch today. We only had one practice to get everyone re-geared," he noted. "I thought throwing Kendra [Stevenson] out there would be a good enough idea, since I've had her catching for so long, but it just didn't work out. She and Riley [Rickman] both had trouble out there, but they're both sophomores."

"I'm proud of their effort; I'm proud of this whole team. We broke the string of fourth place finishes," Morse continued. "We may have only scored one run, but the girls were excited there at the end. They're playing like a team right now."

Despite the disappointing finale, Morse saw signs of improvement up and down the lineup in each game of the tournament.

"Monday, we stood toe-to-toe with Bernie. We came right back the next day and played a tough Woodland team; they have some very good players," he said. "We hit the ball in that game like I've never seen them hit before. We didn't have a lot of official hits, but we caused a lot of errors because we were hitting. Tonight...when you get steamrolled by a good team, you just get steamrolled by a good team."

"The girls are still in it; they're getting better about overcoming mistakes and staying in games," Morse added. "That's the biggest thing we're working on. Even there at the end, we were still hitting, still in to it. They are coming together as a team, and this is something that I hope the girls can build on."

Stevenson and Maddy Christian were both 1-1 at the plate for the Lady 'Cats; Stevenson also plated the Bearcats' only run of the game.

Kelsi Sturgeon led the Hornets' offensive attack, going 3-4 with four RBI's and four runs scored.

Dexter will be back in action Friday (April 20) when they take the field in the opening round of the Bernie Invitational Tournament.

Photos Above:
Top: Head coach Leonard Morse addresses the team before Thursday's SCAA Tournament championship game.
Bottom: Kendra Stevenson winds up for a pitch during the first inning.