CAPE LEGION PUTS ON 8-TEAM TOURNEY

American Legion baseball teams from across the state -- as well as the area -- will converge on Cape Girardeau this weekend for the Capaha Classic Tournament.

Cape Girardeau Ford & Sons is serving as the host for the tournament that begins today and runs through Sunday. Cape manager Ron Michel hopes the tourney will become an annual event.

"We'll see how it goes this year, but we're hoping to make it an annual deal," said Michel, who came up with the idea for the tournament. "I think there will be quite a few strong teams here so it should be a good tournament."

Eight teams -- including Cape and Chaffee -- will compete at both Capaha Field and Cape Central High School's field.

Other Missouri teams in the field are Festus, Ballwin, Washington, Jefferson City and Rogersville while Paducah will make the trip from Kentucky.

Rogersville's appearance in the event will mark the return to Cape of former longtime area coach Bob Coons.

Coons recently completed his first season as the coach of the Logan-Rogersville High School team and he is in his first summer directing the Rogersville Legion squad.

Previously, Coons was an assistant baseball coach at Cape Central High School and also worked with Cape's Legion programs.

"It'll be good to have Bob's team here for the tournament," said Michel. "I'm sure he's looking forward to it."

Added Michel with a laugh, "Bob says his team's not very good, but he always puts a competitive team on the field."

The squads have been distributed into two four-team pools, with pool play set for Friday and Saturday. The finals will be played Sunday.

Making up the Blue pool are Cape, Washington, Jefferson City and Rogersville while Chaffee, Festus, Ballwin and Paducah are in the Gold pool.

"I look for Jefferson City to have a real strong team from the pool we're in," said Michel. "In the other pool, Paducah is always so strong, Ballwin is also always tough, Festus usually has a good team and Chaffee is pretty solid."

Today's action will begin with a pair of 5 p.m. games as Chaffee plays Paducah at Central and Ballwin meets Festus at Capaha.

There will be eight games Saturday, three at Central and five at Capaha.

Records from pool play will determine the pairings for Sunday, which include the championship contest at 1:30 p.m. at Capaha Field.

Capaha Classic Legion Tournament

Today's Games

at Cape Central

5 p.m. -- Chaffee vs. Paducah

at Capaha Field

5 p.m. -- Ballwin vs. Festus

7:15 p.m. -- Cape vs. Rogersville

9:30 p.m. -- Washington vs. Jefferson City

Saturday's Games

at Cape Central

10 a.m. -- Festus vs. Paducah

12:30 p.m. -- Cape vs. Washington

3 p.m. -- Chaffee vs. Festus

at Capaha Field

10 a.m. -- Chaffee vs. Ballwin

12:30 p.m. -- Rogersville vs. Jefferson City

3 p.m. -- Paducah vs. Ballwin

5:30 p.m. -- Rogersville vs. Washington

8 p.m. -- Cape vs. Jefferson City

Sunday's Games

at Cape Central

10 a.m. -- Fourth place pool winners

1:30 p.m. -- Third place pool winners

at Capaha Field

10 a.m. -- Second place pool winners

1:30 p.m. -- First place pool winners