Cape makes quick work of Bluff

Ford & Sons takes less than two hours to secure 5-2 victory.

By Marty Mishow ~ Southeast Missourian

Fans better not have been late for Monday night's American Legion baseball game at Capaha Field. If so, they might have missed it.

Sure, that's an exaggeration. But not by much.

The nine-inning contest between Cape Girardeau Ford & Sons and visiting Poplar Bluff took just 1 hour, 45 minutes to complete. Cape emerged with a 5-2 victory to continue its domination of regular-season District 14 play.

"I've never been in a nine-inning game that fast," Cape shortstop Seth Hudson said.

Ford & Sons improved to 22-11 overall and 8-1 in the district with one game remaining. Cape had already clinched the top seed for next week's District 14 Tournament in Chaffee as its closest challenger, Dunklin County, has four losses.

"We want to keep playing well and keep up the momentum for the tournament," said Cape manager Tom Reinagel, whose squad still has six regular-season games remaining over the next five days.

Pitching dominated Monday's contest as Cape's Lee Essner and David Mathis of Poplar Bluff (13-12, 4-5) both sparkled.

Essner, benefiting from much stronger defense than Mathis, worked all nine innings, allowing five hits while striking out 10 and walking none. Cape made no errors.

"It's the first time I've pitched nine innings this year, but I felt great. I only threw around 100 pitches," Essner said.

Mathis, like Essner a right-hander, also went the distance. In eight innings, he allowed nine hits while striking out 13 and walking two. Poplar Bluff had four official errors that accounted for two unearned runs and could have easily made several other plays that went for hits and figured into runs.

"If we could have caught the ball, we'd have been all right," Poplar Bluff manager Barry Stahl said.

Cape was suitably impressed with the hard-throwing Mathis, a Clarkton High School product who has been clocked at 87 miles per hour and will pitch for Three Rivers Community College.

"He's the best pitcher we've faced in a while," Hudson said.

Matt Wulfers and Josh Ford both had two hits for Cape, with Ford driving in a pair of runs. Patrick Slattery doubled and drove in a run while Hudson added an RBI.

Jarrod Deken went 3-for-3 to lead Poplar Bluff. Robbie Moore had two hits, including a home run.

Ford & Sons scored an unearned run without a hit in the second inning to grab an early 1-0 lead. Cape put four hits together during a three-run fourth to go up 4-0. Slattery had an RBI double while Ford and Hudson delivered RBI singles.

Poplar Bluff countered with a run in the fifth and Moore's homer to left field in the sixth made it 4-2.

Cape rounded out the scoring in the eighth on Ford's RBI single.

"Pitching and defense won it," Reinagel said. "Essner pitched a great game and their pitcher was really tough."

Ford & Sons plays at Paducah, Ky., tonight, then hosts Festus at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday before closing out its home and district schedule at 5 p.m. Thursday against Dunklin County. Cape visits Perryville for a doubleheader Friday night and ends the regular season Saturday afternoon at Imperial.