Ford & Sons advances to American Legion zone final

Cape Girardeau's Ford & Sons American Legion baseball team advanced to the championship game of the Zone 4 Tournament by beating Anheiser Busch 6-3 in Friday night's winner's bracket final at Heine Meine Field in St. Louis.

Ford & Sons (27-14) will play at 7 p.m. today for the championship of the double-elimination event. If Cape loses, it would play a final title contest at 1 p.m. Sunday.

Anheuser Busch (25-7) plays Festus (21-13) at 1 p.m. today in the loser's bracket final for the right to take on Cape tonight.

Wayne Essner (4-1) pitched 8 2/3 innings for the victory Friday night. He struck out 12, walked five and allowed five hits. Lee Essner retired the final batter in the ninth to earn a save.

Cape had just four hits but took advantage of five A-B errors. Aaron Dohogne and Lee Essner each drove in two runs for Ford & Sons, and Blake Urhahn scored three times.