CAPE: HOME OF DISTRICT CHAMPS; BULLDOGS, TIGERS TRAVEL SIMILAR PATHS TO SECTIONAL ROUND

When it comes to high school baseball, Cape Girardeau is batting 1.000.

With Cape Central and Notre Dame -- the only state-sanctioned prep schools in the city -- both capturing district championships, the City of Roses is the only city in the state with more than one school that can say that all of its baseball teams are perfect in the postseason.

With their district championships, the Bulldogs and Tigers will play sectional games Thursday. Class 2A Notre Dame will play host to Senath-Hornersville at 4 p.m. and 4A Cape Central will travel to Hillsboro for a 4:30 p.m. contest that will be played at Jefferson College.

"It speaks highly for both schools and the baseball in the city to get two district championships and that's impressive," said Cape Central coach Steve Williams. "It goes to show you how hard these kids work."

This is arguably the most successful duo of Cape Girardeau teams since the mid-1990s when Notre Dame won a state championship in 1993 and Cape Central won a 4A title in 1994.

Notre Dame, the top ranked team in 2A, would be considered a huge favorite in its game, while Cape Central might have a slight edge over Hillsboro.

The two teams -- which split games in the regular season -- have several similarities outside their district championships and 20-plus win seasons.

Both teams are built around offense.

Notre Dame has hit 25 home runs this season, while Cape Central slugged 17.

"A lot of times you coach like you play," said Williams, who once played Triple-A ball in the Phillies organization. "I believe when you go up to hit, it's time to hit. You need to be patient, but when you get a good pitch to hit, hit it."

Said Notre Dame coach Jeff Graviett, "Twenty-five home runs by a team just blows my mind. We feel right now, if we hold teams to four or five runs, we can beat anybody. With the two teams in Cape advancing, it proves that hitting is especially important in high school ball. That's both our strengths."

Need further proof of the teams' likeness?

The two teams' aces were almost identical.

Central's Justin Cook is 8-2 with a 1.90 earned run average.

Notre Dame's Mark Ostendorf is 9-1 with a 1.87 ERA.

Neither has an overpowering fastball, but both are obviously effective.

The two teams split games against each other this past season. Cape Central currently stands at 20-7, while Notre Dame is 20-4.

But as much in common as the Bulldogs and Tigers seem to have now, the teams shared no common threads heading into this season.

Notre Dame was coming off a season where it took second in state and lost just one starter to graduation.

Cape Central, on the other hand, was coming off a season where it took a lot of lumps and lost a lot of games to errors.

For Notre Dame, it has done what prognosticators expected.

Cape Central, which went 14-13 last season and had not won a district title since 1996, has virtually come out of nowhere to steal the district championship from top-seeded and state-ranked Sikeston last Thursday.

The Tigers went through a rebuilding year last year where several sophomores were thrust into starting positions. But few would've expected that they would win 20 games one year after.

"No. 1, they've worked hard," said Williams. "The fact that they've improved is a testament to them and their effort. A lot of sophomores played last year and we knew it would eventually pay off. If I had to pick one thing that was better, though, it's our defense. Not that we're making the diving catches or backhands and long throws now, but we're making the routine plays. Then you add an occasional great play and you've got something. Now our pitchers have confidence and that's great because we don't have the kind of guys who are going to strike out a bunch of guys."

As for Notre Dame, the Bulldogs -- since suffering an upset loss to Perryville -- have blistered opposing pitchers. Notre Dame has battered almost every top pitcher in the area in the last couple of weeks and rolled over every team in the district. Every Notre Dame starter with the exception of one has hit a home run this season.

"We just want to keep it going," Graviett said. "It seems like it's somebody different every day."

Though there is without a doubt a lot of talent on both Cape Girardeau teams, both Williams and Graviett acknowledge that there have been a lot of coaches before them who have helped mold the Bulldogs and Tigers into what they are today.

"It starts down in the youth programs in the summer and the camps," said Williams. "We've always got a lot of interest in baseball around here, not just in high school and college. We've got a lot of good baseball programs from t-ball all the way through."

Though Notre Dame's team is comprised of many players outside of Cape Girardeau, Graviett echoed Williams' sentiments.

"When you can split the talent in the city and still have them both so successful, that says a lot about the community," Graviett said. "All around here -- in Cape, Chaffee, Kelso -- there are strong little league programs. The group I have has a lot of good parents. The kids are pretty much developed by the time Steve and I get them."

Cape Girardeau has been the home to six state baseball championships, three each by Cape Central and Notre Dame.