Coach Bolen delivers game-winning single

Tom Bolen basically has retired as a player for the Plaza Tire Capahas while he assumes more coaching duties with the summer baseball team.

But Bolen, who played for his father -- longtime Capahas manager Jess Bolen -- on a full-time basis the previous 14 years, still will see occasional game action when needed.

Such a case presented itself Friday night as the Capahas were shorthanded against the visiting St. Louis Printers.

Bolen's timing for his return couldn't have been much better as he came up with the game-winning hit, a seventh-inning RBI single, during a 4-3 victory.

"It was fun," Bolen said. "It's always fun to be out there."

Bolen, 34, was seeing his first playing time of the season in Plaza Tire's 11th game.

"I'll just play whenever somebody needs a break or when we just need players," Bolen said.

Bolen, who grew up around the Capahas, said it has been a lifelong goal of his to take over as manager of the squad once his father decides to step down.

Jess Bolen still is going strong in his 44th season directing one of the nation's oldest amateur baseball teams but eventually he'll hand over the reins to his son.

"It's always been my dream," said Tom of running the Capahas.

Tom Bolen, a local mail carrier for the United States Postal Service, has been coaching third base in place of his father for much of this season.

The younger Bolen, who served as designated hitter Friday, still coached third when he wasn't batting.

Bolen came through at the plate. He reached on errors his first two times up -- scoring once -- then drove in a run with a sacrifice bunt in the fifth inning as Drew Pixley scored all the way from second base for a 3-3 tie.

Sean Bard led off the seventh inning with an infield single, was sacrificed to second by Pixley and advanced to third on Clint Cashen's ground out.

Up stepped Bolen, whose soft line drive bounced safely into right field as Bard scored the go-ahead run.

Bolen's hit might not have been a thing of beauty, but he was glad to produce against hard-throwing Billy Roll, a Cape Girardeau native and former teammate of Bolen's at Lindenwood College in St. Charles, Mo.

"Facing Billy, it was tough," said Bolen, who attended Central High School. "He's got a heck of an arm and he still throws really good."

Roll, 32, a Notre Dame Regional High School graduate who has made his home in the St. Louis area for a while, spent one season with the Capahas in the early 2000s but has played for the Printers the past several years.

Roll went seven innings, allowing two earned runs and five hits -- two of them infield singles -- while striking out six and walking six.

"I'm surprised I went that long," Roll said. "But I love pitching here."

Plaza Tire's Dustin Hunter got the better of Roll by working all nine innings. He allowed one earned run and five hits while striking out nine and walking two.

"He's got a great arm and he's gotten stronger since last year," Tom Bolen said.

Hunter, who recently completed a two-year career at Mineral Area College in Park Hills, Mo., gave up all three runs in the first inning. He allowed just three hits over the final eight frames.

"He was impressive," Jess Bolen said. "You don't ever look for anybody to go all nine innings, especially in this [hot] weather, but he wasn't laboring."

The Capahas have played much of the early season with a makeshift lineup as several of their key players only have been able to be on hand sporadically.

Several pitchers had to play positions Friday and one of them -- Jason Chavez -- turned in several sparkling plays at third base.

Chavez's biggest defensive gem came in the eighth inning with a runner on first and nobody out. He fielded a hot shot and started a double play.

Chavez later leapt to snare a line drive for the game's final out.

"He's a good athlete," Tom Bolen said.

Bard and Cashen both had two of Plaza Tire's six hits.

Printers 300 000 000 -- 3 5 3

Capahas 020 010 10x -- 4 6 2

WP -- Dustin Hunter. LP -- Billy Roll. Multiple hits -- Printers: Josh Gibson 2-4. Capahas: Clint Cashen 2-4, Sean Bard 2-5. Records -- Printers 2-8, Capahas 8-3.