LEGION BASEBALL LAUNCHES 2000 CAMPAIGN TONIGHT

Cape Girardeau Ford & Sons and Chaffee are both looking for strong seasons while Jackson has a new manager and is hoping to improve its program as the 2000 American Legion baseball campaign approaches.

Cape, Jackson and Chaffee all compete in District 14 that has added a new team in Stoddard County to bring the district's membership up to eight squads.

Rounding out the district are two-time defending champion Dunklin County, Sikeston, Poplar Bluff and Charleston, which had its debut season last year.

Chaffee visits Jackson tonight to open the season for those two squads while Cape gets things under way Saturday night when Hannibal pays a visit to Capaha Field.

Following is a preview of Cape, Jackson and Chaffee:

Cape Girardeau

Ford & Sons went 39-14 during Ron Michel's first season as manager in 1997, but since then the squad has struggled some, going 24-26 in 1998 and 23-22 last year.

"I would hope we'd be a little better than we've been the last couple of years," said Michel. "I think we'll have a pretty solid team. We've got 11 boys back and most of them were starters for us last year."

Returning players are Cape Central High School products Mark Fisher, Josh McIntosh, Justin Cook and Joe Hamilton; Scott Reinagel, Wes Steele, Mark Ostendorf and Tommy Wencewicz of Notre Dame; Garrett Broshuis and Daniel Turner of Advance; and Matt Jones from Egyptian (Ill.).

New additions to the squad, all from Cape Central, are Dusty Barrows, Rob Carr, T.J. Erlacker, Zac Fidler, Jay Pierce, John Snider and Justin Welker.

Headlining the pitching staff will be Broshuis, last year's ace who has signed to play for the University of Missouri. Cook and Ostendorf figure to be other primary starters while Pierce, Jones, Turner and Welker are also likely to see plenty of mound action.

"I think we'll have some pretty decent pitching, if we can play defense," said Michel.

Assessing the District 14 race, Michel pegs Dunklin County as the favorite to win yet another title, with Chaffee a strong contender and Sikeston and Cape looming as potential contenders as well.

"In my opinion, Dunklin County should be very strong again and Chaffee will be solid, then it's probably us and Sikeston," Michel said.

Jackson

Jackson, which revived its program in 1997, will have its third manager in as many years this season.

Corey Bullard, a 1995 Jackson High School graduate, takes over a squad that went 8-20 last year.

"I'm looking forward to it," said Bullard. "We're kind of rebuilding, but I hope to help get the program going."

Bullard is counting on speed to play a major role for his team this summer.

"I've told everybody that we'll play a lot different style of baseball than has been here in the past," he said. "We have a lot of speed and we're going to use that with a lot of stealing and hit-and-running."

Bullard will use players from six area high schools, the most from Jackson: Joey Beard, Jason Brown, John Jackson, Ricky Renfroe, Joel Walters and Pat McComas.

There are four players from Woodland: Danny Lincoln, Jeremy McCain, Kyle Long and Paul Long.

Other players are Chad Jones and Jamell Austin from Cape Central; Dane Sander from Perryville; Jason Van de Ven from Leopold; and Andrew Green from Delta.

Bullard expects his pitching staff to be solid with the likes of Kyle and Paul Long, Brown and Van de Ven.

Overall, Bullard said he looks for Jackson to have a respectable season.

"My goal is to have at least a .500 season and I think that's very realistic," he said. "Anything better than that would be great."

Chaffee

Chaffee was strong last year, going 26-15 and finishing second in the District 14 regular season behind Dunklin County. The team also wound up third in the district tournament.

With several of the key players from the 1999 squad returning, along with a host of standouts off Chaffee's Junior Legion team that won the state title and placed third in the regional, second-year manager Jeff Graviett expects to field another strong club.

"Dunklin County will be super loaded again, but I think we'll be pretty solid in most areas," said Graviett, who also serves as Notre Dame High School's coach. "I look for us to be able to at least challenge (for the district title)."

Chaffee will feature players from five area high schools, including eight from Notre Dame, which has made two straight trips to the Class 2A Final Four.

Headlining Notre Dame products on the team is slugger Josh Eftink, who had 22 home runs and 75 runs batted in during Legion ball last year. He's headed to Southeast Missouri State University on a baseball scholarship.

Others from Notre Dame on the squad are Brian Obermann, John O'Rourke, Todd Friend, Chris Henley, Scott Eftink, Andrew DePeder and Lance Dohogne.

Making up the rest of the team are Chaffee's Matt Stroup, Perry Rice and Travis Hanback; Kelly's Brad Kolwyck and Justin Simpher; Scott City's Bill Posey and Jacob Ressel; and Oran's Garrett Cook and Adam Friga.

Along with Josh Eftink, other returners from last year's club are Obermann, Kolwyck, Henley and Ressel.

O'Rourke, Friend, Stroup, Rice, Hanback, Simpher, Koch and Friga all competed on Chaffee's standout Junior Legion squad.

Graviett expects to have a strong pitching staff, featuring the likes of Obermann, Stroup, Simpher, Posey and others.