District 14 race wide open

The quest for the American Legion District 14 title will be a little bit easier this year, since one of the programs has dropped its team, leaving five teams to chase the championship.

Jackson returns as the defending champion of District 14, which was reduced to five teams this year after Twin Rivers dropped out. Local programs Cape Girardeau Ford & Sons and Scott County also compete in the district, while Sikeston and Dunklin County fill out the field.

Perryville competes in District 13.

Jackson and Cape both advanced to last year's zone tournament since Jackson was the host team. Both squads were ousted early, however, as Festus rolled through the zone to a state title.

"We won the district last year, and I'd like to play in the championship game again this year and win it again," Jackson coach Mark Lewis said.

Jackson fields a team of players from Jackson, Cape Girardeau, Oak Ridge, Caruthersville, Bloomfield as well as Egyptian, Ill.

Lewis said he's looking for Austin Morrison, Nick Roe, Geoff Enders, Logan Lawson, Bret Groening and Zach Ayers to provide the bulk of the pitching for Jackson. Lewis added that Brandon Cooper and Chad Minson will be counted on as the primary offensive catalysts.

Cape Ford & Sons coach Dave Meyr has been pleased with the play of his young squad so far this summer.

"We're going to be pretty young this year, but so far we've played pretty well," Meyr said. "We've been in every game pretty much so far."

Meyr said he thinks his team will continue to hold its own against the more experienced teams in the rest of the district.

"I think this year is going to be an open district again, kind of like it was last year," he said. "Scott County and Dunklin County have a little age and experience over everyone else."

Jeremy Brinkmeyer, Kirk Boeller and Lance Young will rack up most of the innings on the mound for Ford & Sons. Ty Craft, Blake Slattery, Young and Brinkmeyer should be the primary offensive producers.

"If we make plays and not make many mistakes, we'll be able to play with everyone," Meyr said.

Scott County has returned for its second year on the Legion senior circuit.

Post 369, which finished 11-14 last season, features a blend of players -- including nine returning from last year -- representing several area schools, including Chaffee, Kelly, Notre Dame, Scott City, Advance, Bell City and Charleston.

"Last year, we were the young group out of all the teams that were out there," Scott County coach Tom Dirnberger said. "We've got a little bit more pitching this year. We're strong up and down the lineup."

Trent Moses and Rusty Hendricks, who both played for Advance in the spring, will have their first Legion experience this summer after the Senior Babe Ruth baseball team in Advance opted to not field a squad due to a lack of players.

Andy Stephens, Caleb Daughhetee and Lucas Dirnberger will likely see plenty of time on the mound for Scott County. Shane Menz, who batted .500 last summer; Daughhetee, who played shortstop this spring for Kelly High; Jacob Essner; and Blake Dirnberger will be asked to spark the hitting attack. Moses, who did not strike out his entire season at Advance, also presents a problem for opposing pitchers.

Erv Armbruster heads the Perryville squad after taking the last two years off. Armbruster, in his 18th season as the Perryville skipper, replaced Don O'Keith.

Perryville will return just three players -- all a year removed from the high school baseball scene -- for somewhat of a rebuilding year.

"If we play .500 this year, I'll be tickled," Armbruster said. "I don't know how we're going to look until the season really gets going, though. It's just a matter of our defense."

The squad had only played one game going into Wednesday's doubleheader at Cape.

"It had been a month since my boys had even seen pitching," said Armbruster, whose team suffered a season-opening 11-3 loss to De Soto. "I was tickled to death with how we came out."

Dave Ochs and Alex Armbruster will likely account for most of the innings on the mound for Perryville, while those two and Brian Buchheit will be counted on to bolster the lineup.

"We're going to be in pretty good shape for hitting and pitching," Armbruster said. "Most of our guys can hit the ball."