Charleston, Missouri – The field is ready for the Dinger Bat Fighting Squirrel Classic in Charleston.

The 12-team tournament begins on Friday and runs through Saturday at Hillhouse Park in Charleston and Notre Dame Regional High School in Cape Girardeau.  Each team in this exciting wood bat tournament will play two games on Friday and two games on Saturday.

Teams competing are the Charleston Fighting Squirrels, Quincy Notre Dame, Southwest Central Baseball, Mayfield, Kentucky, Pemiscot County Legion, Riverbend Ducks, SEMO Pirates, St. Louis Sting-Miller, Sikeston Legion, St. Louis Sting-Larkin, St. Louis Stars, and the Missouri Rage.

The Dinger Bat Fighting Squirrel Classic is divided into four three-team pools.  The team finishing first in each pool on Friday will compete in a four-team championship bracket on Saturday.

The team finishing second in each pool competes in a four-team Silver Bracket and the team finishing third in each pool competes in a four-team Bronze Bracket.

Admission to the tournament is $5.00.

Friday’s Schedule at Hillhouse Park in Charleston 

Pool A: Charleston Fighting Squirrels, Quincy Notre Dame, Southwest Central

Pool B: Pemiscot County Legion, Riverbend Ducks, Mayfield

Pemiscot County Legion vs. Riverbend Ducks, 9 a.m.

Riverbend Ducks vs. Mayfield, Kentucky, 11 a.m.

Mayfield Kentucky vs. Pemiscot County Legion, 1 p.m.

Charleston Fighting Squirrels vs. Southwest Central, 3 p.m.

Southwest Central vs. Quincy, 5 p.m.

Charleston Fighting Squirrels vs. Quincy, 7 p.m.

Friday’s Schedule at Notre Dame in Cape Girardeau

Pool C: SEMO Pirates of Leopold, St. Louis Sting-Miller, Sikeston Legion

Pool D: St. Louis Sting-Larkin, St. Louis Stars, Missouri Rage

SEMO Pirates vs. St. Louis Sting-Miller, 9 a.m.

Sikeston Legion vs. SEMO Pirates, 11 a.m.

St. Louis Sting-Miller vs. Sikeston Legion, 1 p.m.

St. Louis Sting-Larkin vs. Missouri Rage, 3 p.m.

Missouri Rage vs. St. Louis Stars, 5 p.m.

St. Louis Stars vs. St. Louis Sting, 7 p.m.

Saturday’s Schedule

Championship Bracket

SEMIFINAL: No. 1 Pool A vs. No. 1 Pool B, 1 p.m. at Hillhouse Park

SEMIFINAL: No. 1 Pool C vs. No. 1 Pool D, 1 p.m. at Notre Dame

THIRD-PLACE: Semifinal Losers, 5 p.m. at Hillhouse Park

CHAMPIONSHIP: Semifinal Winners, 7 p.m. at Hillhouse Park

Silver Bracket

SEMIFINAL: No. 2 Pool A vs. No. 2 Pool B, 11 a.m. at Hillhouse Park

SEMIFINAL: No. 2 Pool C vs. No. 2 Pool D, 11 a.m. at Notre Dame

THIRD-PLACE: Semifinal Losers, 5 p.m. at Notre Dame

CHAMPIONSHIP: Semifinal Winners, 7 p.m. at Notre Dame

Bronze Bracket

SEMIFINAL: No. 3 Pool A vs. No. 3 Pool B, 9 a.m. at Hillhouse Park

SEMIFINAL: No. 3 Pool C vs. No. 3 Pool D, 9 a.m. at Notre Dame

THIRD-PLACE: Semifinal Losers, 3 p.m. at Notre Dame

CHAMPIONSHIP: Semifinal Winners, 3 p.m. at Hillhouse Park

Dexter, Missouri - The Rib City Girls Basketball Shootout featuring 50 teams is slated for Thursday, June 11^th and Friday, June 12^th.  They will utilize three courts at the Bearcat Event Center, the middle school gym, high school gym, and Southwest Elementary gym.

The Lady Cats will play all of their games on court #2 of the Bearcat Event Center.  Beginning at 10:30 they take the court against Dresden, TN and at 12:45 p.m. they compete against Peabody, TN.  They play Benton, Illinois at 3:00 p.m. and Alton, Illinois at 5:15 p.m. 

The JV Lady Cats will begin their morning on Court #2 of the Bearcat Event Center at 9:45 a.m., they play Dresden JV at 11:15 a.m., and they play a game against Greene County Tech of Paragould, Arkansas at 4:30 p.m. in the High School gym. They also play on Court #1 at 6:00 p.m. against Neelyville.

The Dexter middle school girls basketball team will play Kennett 7^th grade on Thursday at 3:45 p.m. at the Southwest Elementary.  They will then move over to the T.S. Hill Middle School for a game at 6:00 p.m. against East Poinsett County, Arkansas.

Thursday Schedule

Bearcat Event Center – Court 1

Bay V vs Clearwater V at 10:30 a.m.

Conway V vs Clearwater at Noon

Plato V vs Clearwater V at 1:30 p.m.

Poplar Bluff V vs Bay V at 3:00 p.m.

Puxico V vs East Carter County V at 4:30 p.m.

Dexter JV vs Neelyville JV at 6:00 p.m.

Neelyville JV vs Alton JV at 7:30 p.m.

East Poinsett County V vs Conway V at 8:15 p.m.

Bearcat Event Center - Court #2

Dexter JV vs Chaffee JV 9:45 a.m.

Neelyville V vs Dresden V at Noon

Dexter V vs Peabody V at 12:45 p.m.

Benton V vs Sikeston V at 1:30 p.m.

Neelyville V vs Peabody V at 2:15 p.m.

Dexter V vs Benton V at 3:00 p.m.

Notre Dame V vs East Poinsett V at 3:45 p.m.

Benton V vs Neelyville V at 4:30 p.m.

Dexter V vs Alton V at 5:15 p.m.

Poplar Bluff V vs East Carter County V at 6:00 p.m.

Neelyville V vs Notre Dame V at 6:45 p.m.

Jackson V vs Van Buren V at 7:30 p.m.

Twin Rivers V vs Plato V at 8:15 p.m.

Bearcat Event Center - Court #3

For Complete Schedule click HERE.

Stoddard County, Missouri - The 2015 SCAA All-Conference Baseball Awards have been released.

The 2015 SCAA Player of the Year is Devin Trammell of Bernie.  He recorded a 0.875 ERA while striking got 92 in 64 innings.  He hit .374 with 22 RBIs and two home runs.

Bell City baseball coach Justin Simpher was named the SCAA Coach of the Year.  Simpher coached the Cubs to a 25-3 season and its very first State Championship in the history of their high school.

Those named to the 2015 SCAA All-Conference team are Devin Trammell, Matt Vernon, and Brock Beacham of Bernie, Dawson Mayo of Advance, Nate Finney and Austin Hicks of Bell City, Noah Vandiver of Bloomfield, Chris Dunivan of Puxico, Landon Johnson and Garret Reynolds of Woodland.

2015 SCAA Honorable Mention went to Cole Nichols, Bobby Wright, Peyton Maddox of Bell City, Josh Shidler of Richland, Austin Beck of Bernie, Tim Hector of Bloomfield, and Austin Rodgers of Puxico.

All-Conference Awards are voted on by SCAA coaches.

Dexter, Missouri – The Dexter Bearcats boys basketball team will host a BASKETBALL SHOOTOUT tonight at the Bearcat Event Center.

First game will be at 5:50 p.m. with Portageville and Malden competing. 

Poplar Bluff Mules will play the Dexter Bearcats at 6:40 p.m.

Twin Rivers will play Portageville at 7:30 p.m.

Poplar Bluff Mules will then play Malden at 8:20 and finishing out the evening will be the Dexter Bearcats playing Twin Rivers at 9:00 p.m.

The games will consist of 18 minute half with 3-minute halftimes and 4 minutes between games.  It’s a SHOOTOUT!!!!

Other rules are four 30 second timeouts per game, one free throw attempt for all 2FG/3FG shooting fouls, made shot with a foul will be played as normal, last 2 minutes of the game, all non-shooting fouls will be 1 & 1 free throws and last 2 minutes of the game, shooting foul will be 2 shot or 3 shot free throws.

This is FREE and open to the public!  Come join the Bearcats and see some great basketball tonight, Monday, June 8^th beginning at 5:50 p.m.

Shown in the photo:  Ethan Flowers at the 2015 Rib City Shootout! 

Dexter, Missouri – MaKayla Waldner is known for her athletic talents at Dexter High School in girls tennis, girls basketball, track and field and even Bearcat football, but what many do not realize is that she is a star soccer player.  Waldner has been playing soccer since she was in the second grade and will now compete in the North American Cup National Championship in Seattle, Washington.

Though Dexter High School does not offer a soccer program MaKayla dedicates herself to a traveling team – the St. Louis Scott Gallagher ECNL Illinois Metro girls soccer team in Collinsville, Illinois. She travels twice per week to St. Louis to practice and perform with her fellow athletes.

Her team recently accomplished what many soccer teams only dream of and that’s being in the top 1/3 in the nation.  Waldner has traveled to Phoenix, Arizona, Dallas, Texas, Orlando, Florida, and Chicago, Illinois to play against some of the best soccer athletes in the country.

During the last week of June she has the opportunity to travel to Seattle, Washington to compete at the North American Cup National Championship.  The best amateur soccer players in the United States will be there along with soccer scouts looking for players for the World Cup and even the Olympics.  It’s the best of the best and MaKayla has earned her place to be a part of this experience and deserves to be there.

MaKayla is even giving up a an all expense paid trip to New Mexico to compete with Team Missouri in Track so she could prepare for soccer in Seattle.  Now that's true dedication to the sport!

Waldner is ranked 90^th out of over 2,500 soccer players, which is quite impressive.  All this while still maintaining Top 10% in academics at Dexter High School, pretty impressive!

Her coach explained to her that 90% of these athletes go on to D1 schools and play soccer at the college level.  Waldner made a verbal commitment in her sophomore year of high school to play at Mississippi State and plans to honor that commitment.  Making that type of commitment at an early age is almost unheard of, but Mississippi State believes in her and her ability to play on the soccer field.

It’s extremely rare for an athlete to accomplish so much in a sport that she does not have available to her close to home, but MaKayla is a rare athlete and our community is quite proud of her accomplishments.

MaKayla would like your help to make her dream of playing soccer in Seattle a reality.  There is about $1,500 in expenses, which includes her flight, hotel, and food for six days. 

If you would like to help her with a monetary donation, please inbox her on Facebook (MaKayla Waldner) or her mom (Kimberly Waldner) for more information.  Checks can be made to SLSG and she appreciates any monetary donations, big or small.  Donations are tax deductible as well.

MaKayla says of her talent, "It feels great to know that I have made it to this level and continue to get better.  At first I was pretty nervous at how I would handle the play, but I became very comfortable after the first couple of games."

"I can't wait till I go to college and I see faces that I have seen for the passed two years," continued Waldner.  "It's going to be so exciting."