BLUFF ENDS CHAFFEE'S 31-GAME WIN STREAK

SENATH, Mo. -- The Poplar Bluff American Legion baseball team is not about to give up on its improbable dream of a district title without a major fight.

After losing to Sikeston Monday night in the first round of the District 14 Tournament, Poplar Bluff faced the daunting challenge of having to win six straight games in order to claim the championship.

Well, it's now five down and one to go after two impressive victories Saturday.

First, fifth-seeded Poplar Bluff eliminated third-seeded Cape Girardeau Ford & Sons 11-5 in Saturday afternoon's loser's bracket final.

Poplar Bluff then came back in the evening and handed top-seeded Chaffee Medicap Pharmacy its first tourney loss, 9-4 in the championship round.

So Chaffee and Poplar Bluff will come back here today for one final winner-take-all title contest at 2 p.m.

"I have to hand it to the kids," said Poplar Bluff manager John Moon, whose squad improved its record to 29-17. "I know I'm dead tired, but there is no quit in them."

Chaffee fell to 43-9 after having its impressive 31-game winning streak snapped. While manager Jeff Graviett was disappointed at not having wrapped up the crown Saturday night, he knows his team has one more solid crack at it.

"You've got to hand it to Poplar Bluff. It's not easy to come out of the loser's bracket like they've done," Graviett said. "But we earned the right for somebody to have to beat us twice. We feel good about the last game."

Things didn't look good for Poplar Bluff when it fell behind 4-0 in the second inning as Chaffee knocked starter Ryan Libla out of the game.

But Poplar Bluff got a brilliant relief performance from Todd Acre, who hurled 5 2/3 scoreless innings after having thrown five innings during Friday night's win that eliminated Sikeston.

"We threw junk at them to start but they were hitting Libla," Moon said. "We brought in a little more velocity and Acre did a great job. He gave us a chance."

Poplar Bluff chipped away on offense despite having just five hits. Moon's team got one run in the second, two in the fourth and one in the seventh to tie the contest at 4-4.

Then in the bottom of the eighth, Jamie McAlister led off by drilling the first pitch from reliever John O'Rourke well over the left-field fence for a tie-breaking home run. Poplar Bluff added four more runs in that frame off of O'Rourke to break things open.

"I knew John would try to get ahead. I just got a good swing," said McAlister. "We're battlers. Being in the loser's bracket didn't bother us one bit."

Kurt Humphrey earned the victory as he retired all five batters he faced after relieving Acre.

Chaffee starter G.P. Glueck was impressive, allowing four runs (three earned) but just two hits in six-plus innings.

"G.P. threw the ball extremely well," said Graviett.

Adam Friga relieved Glueck in the seventh after Glueck had walked the leadoff batter. That man came around to score the tying run, but Friga retired the final three batters of the frame.

Glueck doubled twice to lead Chaffee's nine-hit attack. Jon Heuring also had two hits.

"We started out strong, but their second pitcher came in and did a good job," Graviett said.

And now the season for both Chaffee and Poplar Bluff rests on what happens today. On paper, Chaffee would appear to have an edge because ace hurler Matt Stroup who can seemingly throw effectively just about every day will get the ball after pitching nine innings against Sikeston Wednesday and three innings against Cape Friday.

On the other hand, Poplar Bluff ace McAlister said he doesn't have much left in the tank and likely won't start after throwing more than 170 pitches during a brilliant 18-strikeout performance that eliminated host Dunklin County Thursday night.

But Chaffee appeared to have a big edge on paper entering Saturday night's game as well, so what will happen today is anybody's guess.

"I know Chaffee will be ready and they'll have their best pitcher going," Moon said. "But we'll be ready too."

Cape places third

Cape, which could have easily been playing for the championship Saturday night after losing an 8-7 heartbreaker to Chaffee in Friday's winner's bracket final, instead had to settle for third place after Poplar Bluff scored the final nine runs of the loser's bracket final to wipe out a 5-2 deficit.

Poplar Bluff scored five sixth-inning runs -- the final two unearned -- to go up 7-5 and later added plenty of insurance as Cape finished with a 27-22 mark.

John Thies suffered the loss. He pitched five solid innings before running into trouble. In 5 1/3 innings, he allowed eight hits and six runs (five earned).

John Snider gave up three runs (none earned) and four hits in 1 2/3 innings. Rob Carr allowed two runs and two hits in one inning.

Justin Welker, Tyler Schlosser and Tim Wencewicz all had two of Cape's nine hits.

McAlister and Jeff Janacek both had three of Poplar Bluff's 14 hits. They also each homered, as did Humphrey.

Tom Schultz earned the victory with five innings of one-run, three-hit relief.