CAPS OPEN NBC TOURNEY WITH TKO

McDowell Capahas manager Jess Bolen is definitely not one to rub it in after a lopsided victory.

So Bolen was certainly not about to get on the case of the Murphysboro (Ill.) Red Wings after the Capahas' 21-4 romp Friday night during the opening game of the 1998 National Baseball Congress Mid-South Regional Tournament at Capaha Field.

The game was stopped after the top of the seventh inning by the 10-run mercy rule. And that couldn't have come a moment too soon because the contest had long since gotten out of hand.

"I don't really like to say much when we kick somebody's tail, because we've had our tails kicked before," said Bolen. "They're a first-year team and it's tough to get going in the first year."

There was no question that the teams represented an enormous difference in talent. Friday's victory marked the third straight lopsided win this year by the Capahas over Murphysboro.

The win pushes the defending Mid-South Regional champion Capahas into tonight's 8 o'clock winner's bracket final of the four-team, double-elimination event.

Goreville (Ill.) and Pine Bluff (Ark.) will square off at 1 p.m. today in the other first-round game. The loser of that contest will meet Murphysboro at 4 p.m. today in an elimination game while the winner will take on the Capahas at 8.

McDowell improved its record to 18-7 while Murphysboro fell to 5-11.

The Capahas had 18 hits and three home runs against three Murphysboro pitchers.

Tom Breuer, Shawn Pemberton and Mike Miller all had three hits while Lance Craft, Steve Kress, Ryan Murphy and Tom Bolen added two apiece.

Murphy, Bolen and Julio Vega had the homers while Miller drove in four runs. Breuer, Pemberton and Vega all added three RBIs.

Richie Phillips got the win, improving to 5-2. He allowed five hits and two earned runs in six innings. Phillips struck out 10 and walked two.

Jerry Wolsey closed things out by fanning the side in the seventh.

The Capahas jumped on top with three runs in the first inning and the rout was on.

Leading 9-2, the Capahas scored five runs in the fifth. Then, after the Red Wings got two in the sixth, McDowell finished of the romp with a seventh-run bottom of the sixth.