CAPE, CHAFFEE DROWN FOES; RAIN WASHES OUT TITLE GAME

Cape Girardeau Ford & Sons and Chaffee Medicap Pharmacy both played well enough to advance to the title game of the second annual Capaha Classic American Legion Baseball Tournament.

But the local rivals will have to wait a while to determine the champion.

Heavy rains wiped out Sunday afternoon's scheduled title matchup at Capaha Field. When Chaffee plays in Cape July 14 in a District 14 doubleheader, the first contest will be used to determine the Capaha Classic champion.

"It's a shame we couldn't get the final game in, but since both teams are so close together, it'll definitely make things a lot easier than if we had to re-schedule a game with a St. Louis team," said Cape manager and tournament director Ron Michel.

Cape (7-7) and Chaffee (7-3) both went 3-1 in their respective pools to make the finals of the nine-team event.

Ford & Sons won the five-team Blue Pool outright since every other squad had at least two losses. Ballwin also went 3-1 in the four-team Gold Pool but Chaffee was awarded first by virtue of a Friday victory over Ballwin.

Cape, after losing its opening tourney game to Washington Friday, bounced back strong. Ford & Sons downed Manchester 7-3 Saturday, then came back in a late game Saturday night to rally past Rogersville 18-10.

Sunday morning, Cape knocked off De Soto 9-5 in its final pool play game.

"I thought we came back and had a good tournament and it's nice to make the finals," Michel said. "We're starting to play better."

During Sunday's win over De Soto, Josh McIntosh continued his recent torrid hitting with two home runs, giving him four in less than a week.

McIntosh belted a two-run shot in the third inning and a solo blast in the fifth.

Nathan Essner, Richard Harrison, Wes Steele and Mike Sullivan all joining McIntosh in getting two hits. Cape finished with 12 hits.

Mark Ostendorf was the winning pitcher. He worked all seven innings, allowing just one earned run while striking out six and walking three.

McIntosh also homered during Saturday's late win over Rogersville. Steele homered as well and drove in five runs.

Cape had 16 hits, led by Steele and Mark Fisher with three each. Harrison, McIntosh, Matt Bollinger and Daniel Turner all added two hits.

Turner notched the victory in relief. He worked the final 1 2/3 innings.

Ford & Sons trailed Rogersville 10-7 entering the bottom of the sixth inning, but Cape exploded for 11 runs to break things open.

Chaffee, meanwhile, finished up pool play Sunday morning with a 7-2 victory over Perryville.

"I thought we had a good tournament," said Chaffee manager Jeff Graviett. "We beat a real good Ballwin team and Festus (which Chaffee split two games with Saturday) was pretty good."

Brian Obermann pitched all seven innings for Chaffee Sunday, allowing six hits while fanning three and walking none.

Chaffee had 11 hits, led by Brandon Amick and Dustin Dannenmueller with three each. Lance Amick and Josh Eftink both added two hits. B. Amick hit a solo home run for his second homer in two days.

The game was tied 2-2 entering the top of the sixth inning when Chaffee scored five times to pull away.