Festus turns back Dunklin Co. to capture Zone 4 tournament

The Festus Senior American Legion baseball team has been strong for a long time.

But Festus has taken things up several notches in recent years.

Festus won its fourth straight Zone 4 tournament title Sunday, beating Dunklin County 10-7 at Capaha Field in the if-necessary championship game that was set up by Dunklin County's 12-8 victory over Festus on Saturday night.

Two-time defending state champion Festus, which finished the five-team double-elimination event 3-1, will try for a state tournament three-peat this week in Sedalia.

"It never gets old," said 20th-year Festus coach Pat Bone, whose squad will carry a 31-4 record to its fourth consecutive state tournament. "We're tickled to death to be going back."

Conventional thinking suggested Festus, which lost plenty of talent from last season and has a young roster, would find it tough to claim another zone title.

And the road to state hasn't been easy for Bone's club. Festus lost its first game in the District 13 tournament before battling through the losers bracket. Its three zone victories were by a total of six runs.

"The last three years were a lot easier. This was different," said Bone, whose team advanced to the American Legion World Series in 2009. "It was such a tough tournament."

Festus beat Dunklin County, considered by many the zone favorite, 3-1 in Thursday's first round. Festus then scored three runs in the bottom of the eighth inning as it posted a wild 11-10 victory against Creve Coeur in Friday's winners bracket final. Dunklin County then defeated Festus on Saturday.

"We had to fight tooth and nail every game," Bone said.

Dunklin County (32-11) posted four straight victories after the opening-round loss. But the A's finally ran out of steam as five errors helped Festus score seven unearned runs.

Festus scored a run in the top of the first inning without a hit, thanks to a pair of errors. Two more third-inning errors led to four unearned runs as Festus went ahead for good at 5-1.

The A's trailed 5-4 after six innings but got no closer as Festus scored five runs over the seventh and eighth innings.