Rain spoils Still-Maddox pitcher's duel at Advance

Note: A photo gallery of the game is available at this link: View Photos Here

ADVANCE, Mo. - Mother Nature spoiled the fun in the top of the fourth inning Monday evening as heavy rain halted a scoreless Senior Babe Ruth pitcher's duel between the SEMO Strokers and Charleston Fighting Squirrels at Advance.

Charleston ace lefty Doug Still, who was drafted in the 33rd round (1003rd overall) of the Major League Baseball First-Year Draft Saturday, struck out seven of the nine hitters he faced Monday and faced the minimum in three innings of work.

SEMO Strokers righty Peyton Maddox, who is a Bell City talent, nearly matched Still's dominance on the hill as he allowed only one hit in his first three innings of work.

"Both pitchers did a real nice job," Charleston coach Michael Minner said. "I thought Dougy was in command. His velocity was real good. He threw the ball well and kept us in the game. Their kid did a nice job on the mound as well. I would have liked to have finished this one and seen how it played out. Anytime you get in a scoreless game you enjoy it."

Play was halted because of heavy rain and did not resume after leadoff hitter Colton Hampton was hit by Maddox at the start of the top of the fourth inning.

"It sucks when you get rain any day, especially when you have a good game like this going," Strokers coach Chris Asmus said. "It's tough to pitch the ball, make plays in the field and hit the ball with the rain falling like this."

The only hit the Strokers collected was a two-out single by No. 9 hitter Preston Hahn in the bottom of third inning.

"Preston has hit in the nine-hole for Oran the last couple of years," Asmus said. "That's been his role. He accepts that role and enjoys it. He knows he's not a nine-hole hitter, but he also knows he's going to see pitches to hit down there and that's a good thing for him."

Charleston's only hit was a one-out double by Cody Payne in the top of the third inning.

"He threw strikes," Asmus said of Maddox, who struck out one. "If he stays around the strike zone he's pretty tough."

The Strokers, which are in their second year of existence, play their home games at the Advance High School baseball field.

"We are young," Asmus said. "We consist of a lot of young kids. I've got a few older kids around them. We tried to put a pretty good nucleus together and let the older kids show the younger ones what it's all about. We are inexperienced and play that way, but we are getting better every day."

The Fighting Squirrels players all wore uniforms with the No. 10 Monday night to symbolize their franchise's tenth year of existence.

Charleston, which has won the Senior Babe Ruth state title six of the last seven seasons and advanced to the World Series last season, has won 10 of its first 12 games this summer.

"It's a good group of kids first and foremost," Minner said. "We've got a group of kids that enjoy playing the game. They enjoy being around each other and that's what we pride ourselves in is getting good groups of baseball kids. We feel like we've got as good of a shot as anybody to be good at the end of the year. I never worry about what we do during the season. We are going to play a lot of baseball and give everybody a look to find our best nine. At the end of the year we will be playing our best baseball.

"We feel like we've got the makeup to be a pretty good team," Minner added. "We are going to be solid on the mound, defensively we'll be all right and we are going to swing the bats. We've got all three phases that we need to be successful and at the end of the year hopefully we'll be as successful as we want to be."

The SEMO Strokers are slated to return to action Wednesday when they host Jackson Junior Legion.

Charleston has a game scheduled each of the next eight days. The Fighting Squirrels are slated to return to action Tuesday when they play a road doubleheader at Piedmont Senior Babe Ruth at 6 p.m.

"They've got some kids from traditionally talented programs like East Carter, Greenville and Neelyville that had good high school seasons," Minner said of the first-year Piedmont Senior Babe Ruth team. "It will be a tough challenge. They are doing a good job. Our Babe Ruth League has really flourished and taken off in the right direction. We've got 11 teams. They are all competitive and on any given night there are a lot of guys that have the potential to be really good."

Charleston Fighting Squirrels 0, SEMO Strokers 0 (Game called in fourth inning)

CHAR 000 xxx x - 0 1 0

SEMO 000 xxx x - 0 1 0

2B - Cody Payne (CH).

DUSTIN WARD - dward@dailystatesman.com Doug Still, a Sikeston grad drafted by the Atlanta Braves, delivers a pitch for the Charleston Squirrels.

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