Just last week Jackson fell to their Indian counterparts from Kennett, but all bets were off in the SEMO Conference Tournament, and the Jackson Indians managed to get their revenge. After dispatching Sikeston and Poplar Bluff with relative ease over the weekend, the Tribe earned a chance to take on Kennett once again in the title game. With Jackson out for vengeance, they didn’t miss a beat and took down the rival squad with a rain-shortened 7-2 victory to claim the Conference Championship.
Missouri in May is anybody’s guess as far as the weather goes, but rain is usually a pretty safe bet. Naturally, the skies opened up in this one and Mother Nature was certainly a factor. However, the game did start on time and both tribes were eager to get after it.
Kennett was the home team and jumped out to an early 1-0 lead in the first, taking advantage of a Jackson error. They then tacked on a second run to go up 2-0 in the bottom of the third on an RBI double, and were likely feeling like they had gotten the better of their opponents in back-to-back matchups. But you can’t count out this Jackson team. Ever.
The Indians came right back in the top of the fourth and took advantage of a Kennett error to get on the scoreboard. Then, with two on and only one out, Quinton Borders laced a triple into deep center and drove in a pair of runs to give Jackson their first lead of the game. One out later Borders would add to that lead as he scampered home from third on a passed ball, and just like that, the Indians were up 4-2.
Then in the fifth inning they used a hit by pitch, a single and an error to plate another run. Rinse and repeat one batter later, as the Indians went up 6-2 after taking advantage of another Kennett defensive gaffe. Add a wild pitch that scored another run, and the Indians were sitting on a comfortable 7-2 lead.
Kennett couldn’t string together any offense in the fifth and after an additional half of an inning, the rains came. Standard Missouri High School rules state that a game is official after four full innings so this one was technically in the books. After some deliberating, and likely some radar monitoring, it was deemed that the game was final the next day and Jackson had another SEMO Conference Championship.
There wasn’t a ton of offensive production to speak of in this one, as Borders technically had the only two RBI in the game, but Steven Schneider did manage to go 2-for-3 to lead the team in hits. Jack Wyatt and Caden Bogenpohl were the only other Indians on the Jackson side to record a base knock. As for the pitching, it was all JP Sauer, as the team’s ace went all five innings and allowed just one earned run. He scattered two hits and two walks while fanning six en route to the victory.
It wasn’t necessarily how they drew it up, but the Jackson Indians are the SEMO Conference Champions and there is nothing wrong about that. They have a couple games left this week against DeSmet and Dexter, which should be tough competition, before they really need to zone in on the District Tournament that is less than two weeks away.
Congratulations Indians!
