Sports

Neither of the two local baseball squads got off to the type of starts that they wished for at the 2021 Babe Ruth 16-18 World Series over the weekend in Mobile, Ala.

After clinching the West – Prairie Land Division title 24 hours earlier, the Cape Catfish came back to earth in a 12-2 loss to O’Fallon on Saturday at CarShield Field.

EDITOR'S NOTE: The Dexter Statesman is counting down the 10 best high school games from the 2020-21 school year. New Madrid County Central's 73-72 overtime victory over Dexter comes in at No. 3 this week. The criteria for a game to make the list include competitiveness and meaning of the game. A game must involve a team(s) from Stoddard County and must have been covered first-hand by the Statesman or Semoball.com...

Jackson native "Mad" Max McNeely hopes to continue his winning streak at Friday night's Fighting Alliance Championship event in Independence, Mo. McNeely (5-4) will face undefeated pro Nyle Bartling (3-0) in the co-main event of FAC 9 — which will be broadcast live on UFC Fight Pass...

Second-year Southeast Missouri State men’s basketball coach Brad Korn is admittedly “a big theme guy, a big quote guy,” and he tapped into that trait prior to this summer in giving his student-athletes a mantra to pursue through their activities this off-season both on and off the court.

Poplar Bluff native Noah Burkey remained perfect this summer season on the mound, as he kept the O’Fallon offense at bay and led the Cape Catfish to a 6-2 road win on Wednesday.

Harrison Bader has fun playing baseball. You can see it everywhere, whether it’s on the field or in the clubhouse. And when the Cardinal’s young starting center fielder is having fun that means he’s producing. Since Bader was drafted by St. Louis from the University of Florida in the third round of the 2015 MLB draft, the knock-on his skills were whether his hitting would ever catch up with his fielding...

CHARLESTON - As the month of July began, the McDonald’s Fighting Squirrels were more resembling the “faltering” Squirrels than playing like a tough nut to crack. The 16-18-year-old baseball team dropped four of their first six July games and an extended postseason was not a certainty in anyone’s minds.

Bloomfield boys basketball coach Kyle Keith knows what the Wildcats must do to add to their win total from last season. “I tell them we don’t have one guy who’s going to get us 30 every night, so we have to buy into playing hard defense, trying to cut down on turnovers and keeping the game ugly on the defensive side,” Keith said during a recent Rib City Shootout at the Bearcat Event Center...

It was fitting that the final game veteran umpire Joe Bill Davis worked was a regional championship game. In his 40 years, Davis has called many championship games but the regional was to be his last. After 40 years calling balls and strikes and making safe and out calls, Davis is stepping away...

In the bottom of the ninth inning, the Cape Catfish were one strike away from beating the West -Prairie Land Division team, the Alton River Dogs, which is nipping at its heels of the first-place ‘Fish.

TOKYO (AP) — Simone Biles came to Tokyo as the star of the U.S. Olympic movement and perhaps the Games themselves. She convinced herself she was prepared for the pressure. That she was ready for the spotlight. Only, as the women's gymnastics team final approached on Tuesday night, something felt off for the American star. So rather than push through the doubts that crept into her head as she's done so many times before, she decided enough was enough...

CHARLESTON - There are obstacles for the McDonald’s Fighting Squirrels to reach the 2021 Babe Ruth Baseball 16-18 World Series in Mobile, Ala., not the least of which was trying to beat their rival, the Southeast Tropics, in the Regional and State Tournaments last week.

Cape Catfish starting pitcher Jalen Borders wasn’t especially sharp in his outing Saturday at Springfield. However, with a Catfish offense that pounded out 12 hits and scored 17 runs, Borders didn’t need to be great.

The Cape Catfish got off to a fast start in Sunday’s Prospect League game against Springfield, as the hosts took early leads of 2-0 and 5-2 before hanging on for a 5-4 victory at Capaha Field.

The past three summers have been memorable for the SEMO Spartans. The Spartans won their second-straight state championship Friday night, erupting for six second-inning runs and never trailing en route to a 10-6 win over the Southeast Tropics to win the Missouri Senior Babe Ruth 17-and-under baseball tournament at Chaffee.

EDITOR'S NOTE: The Dexter Statesman is counting down the 10 best high school games from the 2020-21 school year. The Dexter volleyball team's run to the state quarterfinals comes in at No. 4 this week. The criteria for a game to make the list include competitiveness and meaning of the game. A game must involve a team(s) from Stoddard County and must have been covered first-hand by the Statesman or Semoball.com...

CHARLESTON – The numbers from Tuesday’s Babe Ruth Midwest Plains Regional Tournament championship game, as they pertained to McDonald’s Fighting Squirrel pitcher Luke Nichols, didn’t necessarily lie, but boy, were they deceiving.

SPRINGFIELD, Mo. — Todd Obergoenner, Adam Friga, Brevin Giebler and Alex Wiseman made the cut Wednesday at the 24th Missouri Stroke Play Championships. The area golfers will play 36 holes Thursday at Twin Oaks Country Club to wrap up the event. Jack Parker of Columbia will take a one-shot lead into the final day after a 6-under-par 65 second round put him 9-under for the tournament...

The Dexter football team was much improved last season despite winning only three games. The Bearcats, who finished 3-6 a year after winning only one game, held leads in five of their six losses and could have easily won three more games if not for late-game letdowns...

Several factors have gone into why the Kennett High School football program has been wildly successful over recent years and having talented athletes is just one of those.

There is no lack of unknowns surrounding the Southeast Missouri State football program entering the 2021 season.

SPRINGFIELD, Mo. — Alex Wiseman finished the opening round of the 24th Missouri Stroke Play Championships at even-par Tuesday. The Poplar Bluff golfer was tied for 20th, four shots behind the leader at Twin Oaks Country Club. A group of area players were also looking to make the cut following Wednesday’s second round...

With the top three teams in the West – Prairie Land Division of the Prospect League each having won six of their past 10 games, the margin for the first-place Cape Catfish isn’t much in staying atop the division.

CHARLESTON — The McDonald’s Fighting Squirrels rolled through pool play of the Midwest Plains Regional Saturday, outscoring their opponents 33-3 in two games. Squirrels 16, Buckley Bombers 1 In their opening game of pool play Saturday morning, the Squirrels took advantage of nine walks and four errors from Buckley, cruising to a three-inning win...