FORD & SONS TO HOST LEGION TOURNAMENT THIS WEEKEND

The field has been sliced almost in half from last year, but this weekend's third annual Capaha Classic Tournament still promises to feature plenty of exciting American Legion baseball.

Cape Girardeau Ford & Sons is once again serving as host for the five-team event, which will be played today, Saturday and Sunday.

"We don't have as many teams as last year (nine squads competed in 1999), but hopefully we'll still have a very good tournament," said Cape manager and tourney director Ron Michel. "I think we'll have some solid teams in here this weekend."

Ballwin should rate as a strong tourney favorite, since one of the team's primary feeder high schools is Lafayette, which finished second in this year's Class 4A state tournament.

"Ballwin always has a very strong team and I look for them to be really good again," Michel said. "They're usually pretty loaded."

Other squads in the field, in addition to Cape, are Washington, Manchester and Rogersville.

"I think after Ballwin, it should be pretty wide open," said Michel.

Round-robin play will begin today with four games, three at Capaha Field and one at Central High School.

Today's Capaha schedule features Ballwin vs. Washington at 5 p.m., Cape vs. Washington at 7:15 p.m. and Ballwin vs. Manchester at 9:30 p.m.. At Central, Manchester and Rogersville will square off at 5:30 p.m.

The rest of the tournament will be played at Capaha, with five round-robin games set for Saturday: Rogersville vs. Washington, 10 a.m.; Cape vs. Ballwin, 12:30 p.m.; Ballwin vs. Rogersville, 3 p.m.; Manchester vs. Washington, 5:30 p.m.; and Cape vs. Manchester, 8 p.m.

There will be one final round-robin game Sunday as Cape faces Rogersville at 10:30 a.m. Then the two squads with the best records will square off at 1:30 p.m. for the championship.