Cape comes up short against A-B

After avoiding elimination by beating rival Jackson the day before, Cape Girardeau Ford & Sons coach Dave Meyr thought his team was primed for another strong performance.

Instead, Cape faltered defensively and failed to capitalize on numerous scoring opportunities Saturday afternoon during a 12-6 loss to Anheuser-Busch in the losers bracket final of the Zone 4 Tournament at Jackson's Legion Field.

"We played good yesterday, and I was looking forward to playing today," Meyr said. "But we just didn't have it."

So Cape's season is over after a third-place showing in the five-team zone tournament. Ford & Sons finished with a 21-25 record after losing two of three in the zone.

Anheuser-Busch went on to hand Festus its first tournament loss, 7-6 Saturday night, to force the "if necessary" championship game at 1 p.m. today. Festus had beaten Anheuser-Busch 10-3 in Friday night's winners bracket final.

Cape outhit Anheuser-Busch 16-11, but Ford & Sons left 14 runners on base and failed to score over the final five innings.

Just as damaging for Cape was its defense, which committed seven errors that accounted for five Anheuser-Busch unearned runs.

"We just didn't play good defense, and we left too many men on base," Meyr said. "We hit the ball pretty well, but we just couldn't come up with the really key hits."

Ty Craft, Kendal Deason and Kent Deason each had three hits for Cape. Michael Taylor and Trevor Irwin both added two hits. Kent Deason and Irwin each drove in two runs.

B.J. Gregg hammered three doubles for Anheuser-Busch, good for four RBIs.

Starter Anthony Wulfers took the loss, allowing six hits and seven runs (five earned) in 2 1/3 innings.

Lance Young allowed five hits and five runs (two earned) in 4 2/3 innings. Taylor hurled two perfect frames, fanning two.

David Wright was the winner in relief. He entered the game in the fourth inning, recorded three outs to escape a jam after Cape had scored two runs, and then blanked Ford & Sons the rest of the way.

"Their second pitcher came in and shut us down," Meyr said.

Anheuser-Busch jumped on top with three runs in the top of the first inning and Cape faced an uphill battle the rest of the way. Ford & Sons got close several times but could never catch up.

Trailing 4-0, Cape scored two second-inning runs to pull within 4-2, but Anheuser-Busch came back with three in the third to make it 7-2.

Cape answered with two in the bottom of the third, closing within 7-4.

After Anheuser-Busch went ahead 8-4 in the fourth, Cape scored two more in the bottom of the frame, making it 8-6 and knocking out starter Dominic Soaib.

But Wright came on to stem the tide and Anheuser-Busch steadily pulled away, scoring one in the fifth, two in the sixth and one in the seventh.

Despite a losing overall record, first-year coach Meyr proclaimed the season a success, particularly with the way Cape rebounded after some mid-summer struggles. Ford & Sons won 12 of its final 17 games, including nine of 10 during one stretch.

"I thought we had a pretty good season," Meyr said. "We struggled in the middle, but we played good ball at the end. We just didn't have it today.

"But the kids played their hearts out and battled all year."