JR. LEGION TOURNAMENT TO BE HELD THIS WEEKEND

Some of the region's rising young baseball players will be on display this weekend when the annual Wood & Huston Bank Junior American Legion Tournament is held in Cape Girardeau.

Eight teams will make up the field for the three-day event that begins today and runs through Sunday. The Cape Wood & Huston Bank squad is the host, and games will be played at both Central and Notre Dame high schools.

"We should have an excellent tournament," said Cape manager and tournament director Steve Williams. "There are a number of quality teams in it. We've already played several of the teams and we know they're salty."

Junior Legion squads consist primarily of players 16 years old, with some 15-year-olds and a few 14-year-olds.

"There will be some of the top 16-year-olds from St. Louis south, as well as Paducah (Ky.)," Williams said. "A lot of these kids are already starters for their high school teams and quite a few of them will turn out to be some of the best high school players around."

The tournament will feature two four-team divisions, with divisional play set for today and Saturday leading up to Sunday's finals.

Teams in the National Division are Cape, Perryville, Kirkwood and Anheuser-Busch. Squads in the American Division are Chaffee, Festus, Imperial and Paducah.

Today's schedule will feature four games, two on each field. At 2 p.m., Cape plays Perryville at Central while Chaffee plays Festus at Notre Dame. At 4 p.m., it's Kirkwood vs. Anheuser-Busch at Central and Imperial vs. Paducah at Notre Dame.

There will be eight games Saturday, four at each site. The Central schedule is: Cape vs. Kirkwood, 10 a.m.; Perryville vs. Anheuser-Busch, noon; Perryville vs. Kirkwood, 2 p.m.; Cape vs. Anheuser-Busch, 4 p.m. At Notre Dame, the schedule is: Festus vs. Imperial, 10 a.m.; Chaffee vs. Paducah, noon; Paducah vs. Festus, 2 p.m.; Chaffee vs. Imperial, 4 p.m.

Sunday's matchup's will be set based on records during divisional play. At noon, the third-place game will be at Central while the seventh-place game will be at Notre Dame. Then at 2:15 p.m., the championship contest will be at Central while the fifth-place game will be at Notre Dame.