Cape Jr. Legion nabs title

Cape Girardeau's Best Mortgage/Cliff's Rent To Own Junior American Legion baseball team won the championship of its own tournament in thrilling fashion Sunday, slipping past Festus 7-6 in the title contest at Central High School.

Cape, which improved its record to 19-11, and Festus had each finished first in their respective pools of the eight-team event.

"It was a good game, back and forth all the time," Cape coach Jay Crosnoe said. "They were a tough team and our guys played well."

Trailing 6-4, Cape scored three runs in the bottom of the sixth inning, taking the lead for good on Mitch Craft's two-run double.

Earlier in the game, Sean Bard had a three-run double in the fourth inning. Lee Essner and Brandon Cooper each had two of Cape's six hits.

Essner was the winning pitcher, allowing seven hits and all six runs while striking out four. Jake Welch came on in the seventh inning to earn a save.

In other tournament games Sunday, Imperial defeated Sikeston 6-4 for third place; Ballwin beat Paducah, Ky., 5-3 for fifth place; and Anheuser-Busch downed Jackson 10-5 for seventh place.

Jackson (11-10) received two hits apiece from Zach Brazer and Tony Longman against Anheuser-Busch. Brandon Stearns was the losing pitcher.

"It was just a really good tournament," Crosnoe said. "There were a lot of good teams and quite a few close, exciting games."