Vandals force field change

Sunday's games in the National Baseball Congress Mid-South Regional were moved from Capaha Field to Notre Dame Regional High School because a vandal or vandals caused the Capaha diamond to be unplayable.

Some time early Sunday morning, a water main was turned on and apparently left on for several hours, flooding the infield and causing tournament director Jess Bolen to make alternate plans for the day's scheduled games.

Bolen, Capaha Field Committee chairman, said he received a call from the Cape Girardeau police at about 6 a.m. Sunday notifying him of the problem.

When Bolen arrived at the field, not only was the infield waterlogged but one of the bases had been pulled up and apparently thrown toward a fence. There were several empty beer cans on the field and several folding chairs from the dugouts were on the field, he said.

The person or persons who did the damage had to climb a locked fence to get on to the field.

"Whoever did this had to make some effort to get to the field. You just can't walk in," Bolen said. "It's really unbelievable. You work your butt off to get a field that's nice and playable and then somebody just doesn't care anything about that and does this."

A Cape Girardeau Police Department spokesman said there are no suspects at this time and an investigation is ongoing.

Bolen praised Notre Dame athletic director Chris Janet for allowing Sunday's games to be played at the high school.

"I called Chris early Sunday morning and he had no problem with coming out, unlocking equipment for us so we could get the field ready and letting us use the field all day," Bolen said.

-- Marty Mishow