CAPAHAS TRY TO PRESERVE NBC HOPES; KOHLFELD FACES SAN FRANCISCO IN ELIMINATION GAME

The Kohlfeld Capahas, after making their second long trip to Wichita, Kan., will now be out there until they lose again as the National Baseball Congress World Series continues.

Capahas' manager Jess Bolen and his players are hoping they won't be coming back for quite a while.

The Capahas will have their third game of the double-elimination event at 6 p.m. today when they take on the San Francisco (Calif.) Seals.

Kohlfeld's next loss will mark the end of the road for Bolen's squad. But as long as the Capahas win, they'll keep playing as they try to climb the ladder in the 32-team tournament, which is scheduled to conclude Friday.

The Capahas put themselves in a hole during their initial trip to Wichita as they suffered a tough 11-10 loss to Clarinda (Iowa) last Friday. But the Capahas came back two days later and stayed alive with an 8-5 win over Austin (Texas) before returning to Cape Girardeau.

Before heading back to Wichita earlier this week, Bolen expressed confidence that his squad could still make some noise in the tournament.

"I still think we've got the ballclub to do well out there," he said. "Losing that first game was really tough because you definitely want to stay in the winner's bracket as long as you can. But we bounced back to win our second game.

"Just like last weekend out there, the whole key for us will be pitching. Our offense is definitely good enough to do well out there and so is our defense. It depends on how we pitch."

The Capahas, 31-6 on the season, certainly put up impressive offensive numbers during their first two games in Wichita, getting 16 hits in each contest.

Tom Breuer batted a sizzling .667 in the first two games as he went 6-for-9 with four doubles and four runs batted in.

Also batting well for the tournament so far are Lance Craft (.444), Jeremy Johnson (.444), Darin Kinsolving (.400), Ryan Murphy (.400) and Cory Crosnoe (.364).

Kinsolving also has four RBIs while Craft has stolen five bases.

"We hit the ball our first two games out there like people have seen us hit the ball all summer," Bolen said.

Bolen said he has picked up a few additional pitchers to help bolster the Capahas' staff for the remainder of the tournament, including Eric Moore and Ryan Frazine, who played for Paducah (Ky.) during the season.

Moore handed the Capahas one of their defeats during the season, a 1-0 setback.

CAPAHA NOTES: More donations have come into the Capahas over the past several days, including one of $500 from the Cape Girardeau Chamber of Commerce.

Also making recent donations to help with the Capahas' expenses in Wichita were Cliff's Rent To Own, Euil Trickey and Rick Wieser, bringing the total donations to about $2,000 since the fund drive began nearly two weeks ago.