CAPE REACHES DISTRICT FINALS: FORD & SONS WINS TWO GAMES

SIKESTON -- Cape Girardeau's Ford & Sons American Legion baseball team, its back to the wall, came through in the clutch Friday to remain alive in the District 14 tournament.

Top-seeded Ford & Sons, which lost to Sikeston Wednesday in its first tourney game, claimed two victories Friday and advanced into today's championship round of the double elimination event.

Cape (39-13) defeated Chaffee 9-1 and then came back to knock off Sikeston 10-6.

Ford & Sons and second-seeded Dunklin Co. are now the only two remaining from the original field of seven. Those squads will square off at 5:30 p.m. today. A Dunklin Co. victory will give it the championship while Cape would need to win two games in order to capture the title.

Cape had little trouble in either game Friday. Against Sikeston in the losers' bracket final, Jeff Lappe pitched 8 2-3 innings, allowing eight hits and three earned runs. Jeff Michel came on to get the final out of the game with the bases loaded.

Cape had 11 hits on the game. Ross Bennett led the way with three hits. Jeff Beasley had two hits and drove in four runs.

Sikeston (32-17), which earlier in the day had lost to Dunklin Co. 8-7 in the winners' bracket final, grabbed a 2-0 lead against Cape with two unearned runs in the bottom of the first inning. But Lappe was in control until running out of steam in the ninth when Sikeston scored its other four runs.

Ford & Sons tied the contest in the third on an RBI triple by Ross Bennett and an RBI single by Lanson DeBrock.

Cape took the lead for good in the fifth when Nathan McGuire drilled a leadoff home run over the left-field fence.

Ford & Sons added two runs in the sixth and then broke the game open with four in the seventh, the key blow being Beasley's bases-loaded triple.

Earlier Friday evening, Cape eliminated Chaffee (27-16) behind the 1-2 combination of Todd Pennington and Lappe.

Pennington pitched all nine innings in the extreme heat and humidity, allowing just three hits while striking out 12 and walking just five. He appeared to tire in the late stages but still had enough left to finish off the complete game victory.

"I was a little tired at the end, but I knew I was going to finish," said Pennington.

Said Cape Legion manager Ron Michel, "Todd gave us a great performance. To pitch all nine inning as hot as it was is really something. When you get into the losers' bracket you want to save as many pitchers as possible. It's great to only have to use one."

Lappe supplied most of the offense for Cape as he drilled two home runs over the short (290 feet) right-field fence. Lappe hit a three-run homer in the fifth inning that gave Cape a 5-1 lead and his two-run shot in the seventh made it 7-1.

Pennington also had two hits for Cape, which finished with a total of eight hits. Pennington's two-run double in the second inning had given Cape the early lead at 2-0.

Jason Landis suffered the loss for Chaffee. He went 7 2-3 innings, allowing all nine runs (five earned) and all eight hits. Tim Lowery went the final 1 1-3 innings.

"We had a pretty good season overall," said Chaffee manager Bruce Qualls, whose team had finished third in the regular season district standings. "We played everybody tough in the district. We lost a real tough game Thursday (2-1 to Dunklin Co. in 12 innings). That one really hurt."