AMERICAN LEGION BASEBALL READY FOR ACTION

Cape Girardeau Ford & Sons and Chaffee will be attempting to repeat strong seasons while Jackson will be looking for a turnaround as those three local American Legion baseball teams prepare for the start of the 1998 campaign.

Cape and Chaffee open their seasons tonight in the Chaffee Tournament while Jackson kicked things off Wednesday with a road doubleheader against the St. Louis Blazers.

Following is a preview of the three squads:

Cape Girardeau

Cape had a successful debut season under head coach Ron Michel last year, going 39-14, winning the regular-season District 14 title and finishing second in the District 14 Tournament.

But Michel said his team has plenty of question marks entering the new campaign.

"We're pretty young and right now we're not a schooled team," he said. "The first part of the season will be trial and error. We'll see what we have and go from there."

Cape suffered a big blow just this week when it was learned that Ross Bennett, one of the squad's top returning players, would need shoulder surgery and will be out indefinitely.

Bennett is one of seven returning players. The others are Craig Ringwald, Andy Sweet, Chris Bradshaw, Adam Bertrand, Shane Gibson and Todd Pennington. All are from Cape Central High School except for Pennington, who is from Shawnee (Ill.) High.

Others on the team from Cape Central are Greg Craft, Michael Minner, Joey McCullough, Mitch Ogles, Travis Klipfel and Matt Welker.

Rounding out the squad are Scott Reinagel and Nathan Essner, both from Notre Dame, and Steve Fowler from Shawnee.

Ringwald and Pennington, two top pitchers from last year, should once again head up the mound staff.

"They're really going to have to step forward for us," Michel said.

Michel rates Sikeston, Chaffee and defending tournament champion Dunklin County as some of the teams to beat in District 14.

As for his own squad, Michel is hoping for steady improvement leading up to the district and zone tournaments that Cape will host in July.

Cape will play Eureka at 6:15 tonight in the first round of the eight-team Chaffee Tournament that continues Saturday and concludes Sunday.

The home opener for Cape will be Wednesday when Chaffee comes to Capaha Field for a 6 p.m. doubleheader.

Joining Michel on the coaching staff are longtime coach Bill Bohnert and Mark Lewis.

Jackson

Last summer marked Jackson's first time to field a Senior Legion team in more than 25 years and the squad certainly went through some growing pains, going 3-30 while winning just one district game.

But manager Tom Campbell looks for better things this time around.

"It was a disappointing season last year, but we were in a lot of games where we fell just short," he said. "It was tough, but we were a young team. With an older team, we're hoping for quite a bit of improvement."

Jackson returns eight players from last year's squad: Travis Stevens, Justin Gladish, Zane McClard, Chris Schlick and Jared Suedekum out of Jackson High; Jason Bandermann and Greg Lincoln out of Woodland; and Mike McCall from Oak Ridge.

Todd Wessel, Jessie Boyer, Shawn Campbell and Jason Schuler -- all from Jackson -- join the team this year, as did Paul Long from Woodland.

Pitching was a strength for Jackson in 1997 and three of last summer's top hurlers return in Lincoln, McCall and Schlick.

"Our pitching kept us in a lot of games last year but our hitting was lacking," Campbell said. "Hopefully our pitching will be solid again this year and the hitting will pick up."

Coaching along with Campbell will be Robert White, George White and Bobby Friese.

Chaffee

Chaffee, 27-16 last year, enters its fourth season as an American Legion program looking for bigger and better things.

"This is probably the best group we've assembled so far as a Legion program," said Mike Umfleet, who takes over for Bruce Qualls as Chaffee's head man, although Qualls will still help coach. "We're very solid and I think we'll have a strong season."

Only a handful of players return from last summer, but a large group of players performed for Chaffee's Jr. Legion team that won last year's regional championship.

The team will be made up of players from Chaffee, Scott City, Kelly, Notre Dame and Oran high schools.

From Chaffee are Tommy Stidham, Josh Hanlon, Jeremy Vandeven and Dusty Leggett.

From Scott City are Brandon Amick, Lance Amick, John Wipfler, Jason Bickings, Keith Anderson and Justin Braun. Anderson and Braun both graduated from Scott City in 1997, making them the team's most experience players.

Kelly will provide Denver Stuckey, Jason Glastetter, John Livingston and Ben Klipfel.

From Notre Dame are Josh Eftink, Ryan LeGrand and Keith Hamm while Dustin Dannenmueller is an Oran product.

Umfleet said his squad will be extremely solid offensively and should have plenty of pitching with the likes of Stuckey, LeGrand, Stidham, Hamm, Dannenmueller, Hanlon, Glastetter and others.

Chaffee plays Blytheville, Ark., at 4 p.m. today in the opening round of its tourney.