Bad weather halts 14-year-old district game

FRANKCLAY — District tournament play in the Babe Ruth 14-year-old age bracket was scheduled to continue on Friday with three games at Frankclay Field. However, severe thunderstorms rolled through the area, causing two of the three games to be completely washed out.

The only contest that was played pitted the Mineral Area American All-Stars against the SEMO South All-Stars. Two full innings were in the books when rain forced the game to be delayed for more than 90 minutes.

The two teams returned to field and completed the top half of the fifth inning, before the second wave of storms forced the game to be postponed, with the American All-Stars holding a 5-0 advantage. The game will resume today, but the exact time for the resumption was not known at press time.

Dustin Bess was cruising on the mound for Mineral Area. Bess was working on a two-hit shutout through four innings of work.

Mineral Area picked up two runs in the top of the second inning. Jimmy Thompson legged out an infield hit to lead off the frame. Thompson swiped second base, and scored the Americans’ first run on and RBI single by Eric Koppeis, who ended up at third base after an error on the play. Bess executed a perfect squeeze-play bunt to score Koppeis.

Thompson also led off the fourth inning with a single. Koppeis delivered again for Mineral Area with an RBI triple to the rightfield fence. Waylon Gonz added an RBI ground-out to put the American All-Stars in the driver’s seat at 4-0.

Calvird started another scoring rally in the fifth inning with a lead-off triple. Derek Stroup hit a slow roller to the SEMO South pitcher. Peter Winningham’s throw to the plate was late, allowing Calvird to score the Americans’ fifth run of the game. Winningham escaped the fifth inning without any further damage being done. Bess threw one pitch in the bottom of the fifth inning before play was halted.