CHAFFEE BATS COMING ALIVE AT THE RIGHT TIME

Most of the year, pitching and defense were probably the strong suits of the highly successful Chaffee Medicap Pharmacy American Legion baseball team.

But during last weekend's zone tournament, Chaffee picked up the pace considerably offensively and that was one of the keys to the squad qualifying for this week's state tourney in Columbia, Mo.

"We really picked up our offense in the zone tournament and that was great to see," said Chaffee manager Jeff Graviett. "All summer, we just didn't hit like I thought we would, but in the zone, we just turned it on. Going into the season, I knew we had the hitters and it was nice to see them break out like that."

Chaffee (47-10) has a .322 team average and the 10 players who have the most at-bats are all hitting at least .280, making Medicap Pharmacy fairly dangerous up and down the lineup.

Justin Simpher leads the way with a .447 average, along with five home runs and 35 runs batted in.

John O'Rourke is at .391 with 32 RBIs and 54 runs scored while Andrew DePeder is not far behind at .368, with four homers, 48 RBIs and 45 runs scored.

Others batting above .300 are Matt Stroup (.341), Todd Friend (.311) and Garrett Cook (.311). Friend leads the team with six homers, including two huge blasts in the zone tourney. Cook has three homers.

Rounding out the lineup are Perry Rice (.297), Adam Friga (.290), Jon Heuring (.286) and G.P. Glueck (.280). Friga has a team-leading 21 stolen bases.

In the pitching department, Chaffee has a stellar 2.88 team earned-run average, led by its big two of Stroup (13-2, 2.10) and Simpher (8-1, 2.28). They will start Medicap Pharmacy's first two state tourney games.

Glueck (4-2, 3.76) and Friga (6-0, 3.05) have been the squad's next most reliable hurlers.

Following is a brief look at the other three teams in the state tournament:

Blue Springs

According to manager Jim Moran, Blue Springs (38-20) has no real standouts but relies on balance and chemistry.

"We've got no superstars, but there's no telling who is going to step up and the kids are playing good together," he said. "We're just a team that works hard and has a really good mix."

Moran said his team's top hitters are Brent Kreisler and Mike Mendenhall, who are both in the .400 range. Among the leading pitchers are Matt Watley (7-1) and Drew Reynolds (4-1).

Kirksville

Manager Bob Crisp actually thought Kirksville (38-5) might be a year away when this season began.

"We only have four seniors, so we kind of expected to be a little better next year," he said. "But we expected to be very good this year and we have been."

Kirksville has a stellar team batting average of close to .360, with Matt Williams, Dustin Murphy, Zane Taylor, Brandon Crisp and Adam Bethel all in the .400 range.

On the mound, Taylor is 8-0, which includes an 18-strikeout, two-hitter in the zone championship game. Seth Minter (10-1) and Scott Slaughter (9-2) are other top hurlers.

Rolla

Former Southeast Missouri State University pitching standout Jason Swearingen is the head coach for Rolla (32-13), which won its first district title in more than 50 years this summer.

"We play good defense, get solid pitching and seem to have timely hitting," said Swearingen, who completed his eligibility at Southeast in 1998 and is also the Rolla High School head baseball coach.

Rolla's top hitters are John Miller, Matt MaCormick and Cory Campbell, who are all batting close to .400. Leading pitchers are Tommy Haller (8-0) and J. Newrer (6-0).