Host faces daunting odds in tourney

~ Perryville's Legion team has struggled this season

Perryville again will be the center of attention for American Legion Senior baseball in this part of the state.

Five teams -- ranging from Cape Girardeau to St. Louis -- will converge on Perryville City Park from Thursday through Saturday for the Zone 4 tournament.

The winner of the double-elimination event, which concludes with Saturday's 1 p.m. championship round, earns a berth in the state tournament that begins July 30 in Blue Springs.

"There should be a lot of good baseball," zone tournament director Erv Armbruster said. "Our field is in really good shape and we're looking forward to it."

Armbruster said part of the reason Perryville hosted the zone tournament in 2008 and again this year is that there was so little interest from other Legion programs.

"I don't think anybody really wanted it and we were approached about it," he said. "It takes work, but it's really not that bad."

Armbruster said he likes the idea of getting to showcase the Perryville City Park field, behind the Perry Park Center, that has undergone extensive improvements.

"We just did about a half-million dollars worth of things to the field. We've got sunken dugouts, new lights," he said. "It's really a nice field and I think all the teams will enjoy playing here."

Perryville's team earns an automatic berth as a bonus for hosting the tournament.

Perryville lost both its zone tournament games in 2008 and enters this year as an underdog with a 3-21 record.

But Armbruster, who serves as an assistant coach for the squad, said Post 133 is much better than its record and is looking forward to a second chance this week.

"We play with people until the sixth or seventh inning and then we just fall apart, he said. We have lost some really tough games. We lost both our district tournament games by one run.

We use wood bats most of the year and now we go to aluminum. I think were ready.

Armbruster believes Perryville has a solid shot at winning Thursdays tournament opener against Herbert Hoover from St. Louis at 11 a.m.

Herbert Hoover earned an automatic berth as the only team from District 11-12.

District 10 champion Eureka from suburban St. Louis and District 13 champion Festus the perennial state power is probably the tournament favorite square off at 2 p.m.

Cape Girardeau Ford & Sons Post 63, the District 14 champion, will meet the winner of Perryville-Herbert Hoover at 5 p.m., with the losers of the tournaments opening two games squaring off in the first elimination contest at 8 p.m.

The winners bracket final will be at 1 p.m. Friday, followed by elimination contests at 4 p.m. and 7 p.m. There either will be one or two games Saturday as the tournament concludes.

Price of admission is $4 per day or $10 for the entire tournament. Children 5 and younger will be admitted free, with senior citizens getting in for half price.