Sikeston first baseman Stan Ivie touches first base a split second before Charleston's Paul Johnson Tuesday afternoon at VFW Stadium. (Josh Mills/Standard Democrat) [Click to enlarge]

SIKESTON -- Last week was a rough week for the Sikeston Bulldogs. A walk-off home run by Dexter, another walk-off loss to Kennett in 12 innings and a two-run defeat by their rival Notre Dame had the Bulldogs riding a three-game losing streak coming into their game against Charleston.

"We've had a tough week," Sikeston head coach Kevin Self said. "Some of that hangover is from the Dexter game. That was a game that kind of really turned it around. We've hung on to that because it affected us at Kennett and then it affected us again at Notre Dame."

It seemed to once again affect them against the Bluejays at VFW Memorial Stadium on Tuesday afternoon but the Bulldogs rallied in the bottom of the seventh inning to pull out a walk-off victory, 6-5.

Sikeston fans saw their team looking up at the Bluejays, 5-3, at the start of the bottom half of the seventh inning.

Seth Baker led off the inning by reaching base on an error and then advancing to second. A walk to Chase Ferrell put runners on second and first with no one out. Then, a sacrifice bunt by Cody Anderson advanced both runners to put them in scoring position.

The next batter, Josh Pierce, hit a ball in the infield and was just quick enough to beat out the throw. The infield hit scored Baker and brought the Bulldogs within one run of the lead with only one out and two men on.

"Great job in the last inning of guys getting on," Self said. "Seth (Baker) hit it in a good spot and gets on and then we get another walk. Cody (Anderson) gets the bunt down and that gives us a chance."

Pierce took second base during Matt Ritch's at-bat, which set up Sikeston with two men in scoring position. Ritch then fanned on a high fast ball from Bluejays hurler James Miller for the second out.

Charlie Bohannon stepped in the box and became Sikeston's last chance of bringing some runs home with a man on second and third with two outs.

Bohannon hit a come-backer to Miller that went between his legs and started to roll towards the Bluejays shortstop, Chase McClendon. McClendon scooped up the roller and fired a throw to first base. His throw skipped to the first baseman, Eric Rowling, which went by him.

Ferrell scored the tying run from third and Pierce was right behind him with a slide into home to end the Bulldogs three-game losing streak.

"It's good to get off the snide," said Self. "Because those things can start to affect you mentally more than anything and I think that's what it was doing."

Sikeston had five hits on the afternoon all by different players. Pierce, Ritch, Bohannon, Scott Droddy and Vince Howard got the hits for the Bulldogs which were all singles.

The starting pitcher for the Bulldogs was Bohannon. He went 1 2/3 innings allowing two runs on two hits and five walks. After allowing two runs across and walking the bases loaded in the second inning, Sikeston decided to go to the pen.

"Charlie had a little trouble throwing strikes but sometimes that happens," Self said. "I felt like I needed to go to somebody else and Logan (Kirkpatrick) came in and got us out of the inning. I felt that was a big part of the game only giving up two there in the second inning."

Kirkpatrick went four innings, allowing two runs on five hits and three walks. Droddy picked up the win on 1 2/3 innings of work.

"A lot of things get based on what you do against Sikeston," Charleston head coach Michael Minner said. "It would have made our year to beat them and we let another one slip away. One of these years we're going to make a play in a clutch situation to get the ball game won. Today, we just didn't do it."

Miller received the loss for the Bluejays on a complete game. He allowed two earned runs on five hits and four walks. Miller also struck out seven batters.

"I can't say enough," Minner said about Miller's performance. "He battled all day long with big pitch after big pitch. He continued to make them, we just didn't make the plays behind him when it counted. When you get a chance to beat a good ball club you have to step up and you've got to make the plays."

Charleston had seven hits against the Bulldogs pitching. McClendon was the Bluejays leading hitter going 2-2 with one run and one RBI. Eric Rowling had the only extra-base hit for either team with a double to left field in the first inning.

Charleston will try to rebound from this tough loss today when they travel to Scott Central to take on the Braves. As for Sikeston, building on this win will prove to be difficult task in their next couple of games as they will take on some premier teams throughout the area.

"It gets a little tougher this week. We've got to go to Fredericktown, then we have Farmington here which will probably be the best club we'll face all year, at least to this point. Then we got DeSmet who will be better than them. We've got our work cut out for us. We're going to have to pick it up in a hurry."

The Sikeston-Fredericktown game will be on Thursday at 4 p.m.