CAPE LEGION SWEEPS DUNKLIN COUNTY OUT OF FIRST IN DISTRICT

Cape Girardeau's Ford & Sons American Legion baseball team fell out of serious contention for the regular-season District 14 title quite a while ago, but that doesn't mean the squad can't have some fun trying to spoil another team's championship hopes.

Monday night, Cape had all kinds of fun by knocking powerhouse Dunklin County from the district's top spot with a doubleheader sweep.

Ford & Sons received stellar starting pitching from Garrett Broshuis and Justin Cook -- along with some extra-inning heroics in the second game --to prevail 3-0 and 5-4 in eight innings at Capaha Field.

Cape, by sweeping its third straight district doubleheader, improved to 24-16 overall and 15-9 in District 14 play.

Dunklin County, the two-time defending district regular-season and tournament champion, is now 34-6 overall and 21-5 in the district as it fell out of a first-place tie with Chaffee.

Ford & Sons will have a chance to play the spoiler role again tonight --and continue to build momentum for next week's District 14 Tournament in Charleston -- when it visits Chaffee for a 6 o'clock doubleheader.

"It's about time we had two wins like this," said Cape manager Ron Michel, whose team started off the season strong, then tailed off for a quite a while but now seems to be peaking at the right time. "Early in the year, it seemed like we were getting all the breaks, and now we're starting to get those breaks again."

Broshuis, headed to the University of Missouri on a baseball scholarship, had -- by his own admission -- something of a disappointing senior season at Advance High School, and he also hasn't been real pleased with the way his summer had been going.

But the hard-throwing right-hander flashed some of his dominating form from last year during Monday's opener as he fired a three-hit shutout, with all of the hits coming in the first three innings. Broshuis struck out six and walked five in going the seven-inning distance.

"I had some velocity for a change," said a smiling Broshuis. "This is definitely the best I've thrown (this year). I had been sick (during the high school season), lost a little weight and didn't really have all the pop in my fastball I would have liked.

"It's been a slow process, but hopefully I'm getting it back. And it's great to see the team getting something going now."

A two-out single in the third inning by Scott Reinagel plated T.J. Erlacker, who had singled, and that was all the scoring until the sixth, when Wes Steele drilled a two-run home run over the left-field fence.

Cape had eight hits off Jon Binkard, who went the distance. Steele and Reinagel both had two hits.

In the nightcap, Cook picked up where Broshuis left off as he blanked Dunklin County for the first five innings as Cape built a 3-0 lead against standout left-hander Justin DePriest.

Cook allowed two runs in the sixth, his final inning of work. He gave up six hits while fanning five and walking none.

"Justin pitched a great game," Michel said.

Dunklin County tied it in the seventh off reliever John Snider. Cape came close to winning in the bottom of the seventh, but Tommy Wencewicz was thrown out at home as he tried to score from first on a one-out double by Mark Fisher.

The visitors went ahead 4-3 in the top of the eighth as DePriest tripled and scored on a sacrifice fly by Derek Cunningham.

But Ford & Sons was not to be denied on this night. Dusty Barrows led off the bottom of the eighth with a single, went to second on a wild pitch and scored the tying run on Steele's double into the left-field corner.

Daniel Turner's fly ball to center allowed Steele to advance to third. After Dunklin County elected to intentionally walk two batters to load the bases with one out, Justin Welker ended things when his fly ball to center easily went over the drawn-in outfield for an RBI single as Steele jogged home.

"These are two good wins," said Welker. "We're on a roll and hopefully this will stay with us."

Fisher had three of Cape's 11 hits, including a triple and double. Barrows and Welker added two hits each.

Snider, despite allowing two runs in two innings, got the win. He fanned three, walked one and gave up two hits.

Kerry Emerson, who relieved DePriest in the seventh, took the loss.