CAPE, PADUCAH SPLIT DOUBLEHEADER

Cape Girardeau's Ford & Sons American Legion baseball team had to turn to its ace Wednesday night to salvage a split of a doubleheader with visiting Paducah, Ky., at Capaha Field.

After Paducah won the opener 7-3, Cape scored two runs in the bottom of the sixth inning of the nightcap to rally for a 9-8 lead.

Ford & Sons starter Dustin Dannenmueller then walked four batters in the top of the seventh, although one was thrown out trying to steal by catcher Chris Bradshaw.

But Paducah had the bases loaded with two outs when Cape manager Ron Michel sent Todd Pennington, who had been the designated hitter for that game, out to the mound.

Pennington, a hard-throwing righthander who had pitched a nine-inning victory over Dunklin County Monday night, struck out Michael Roof looking to end the game.

Cape is now 18-16 overall while Paducah, which annually fields a top-flight team, is 22-5.

"We figured we'd let Penny nail it down," said Michel. "He's a good one."

Pennington also stood out at the pate in the second game with three hits, including an inside-the-park-home run. He drove in four runs after getting two hits in the opener.

Shane Gibson also added three second-game hits for Cape.

Dannenmueller got the win. In 6 2/3 innings, he allowed 11 hits and seven earned runs while striking out nine and walking seven.

"I thought Dustin did a pretty good job," Michel said.

Pennington's RBI single in the sixth tied the contest and Scott Reinagel drove in the winning run with a ground out that plated Shane Gibson.

Brad Paxton had three hits for Paducah while Nathan Taylor had four RBIs.

Paducah pitching was the story of the opener as two hurlers combined for 13 strikeouts. Winner Jose Tirado fanned seven in four innings while Shawn Yarbrough fanned six in three hitless and scoreless innings.

Roof had a two-run homer to pace the Paducah offense against loser Michael Minner, who went all seven innings and allowed just four earned runs and eight hits.

Cape had only five second-game hits.

Late Tuesday night, Cape dropped a 13-12 decision at Perryville, with Minner getting the loss in relief as the host squad rallied with three in the ninth.