The American Legion zone tournament begins Thursday evening in Jackson with five teams vying for the state berth out of the double-elimination bracket.

Host Jackson (23-27) plays at 8 p.m. Thursday night against Rock Memorial (32-16) of Imperial.

That follows an opening game featuring 31-4 Manchester against Anheuser-Busch of St. Louis.

Manchester rolled through the tourney for District 10 (St. Louis County) with four straight wins.

Dunklin County (25-17), which was unbeaten through the District 14 tournament, plays Friday afternoon against the Jackson-Rock Memorial winner.

According to Stltoday, the Post-Dispatch Web site, some leading players from the northern teams statistically are:

Manchester:

- Ryan Schildroth, .461 batting average, 56 runs, 19 SBs.

- Nick Peterson, .447, 33 runs, 4 saves.

- Mike Waller, .442, 35 runs, 31 RBIs.

- Matt Crowley, 3 HR, 6 triples, 42 runs, 51 RBIs.

- Drew French, 7-0, 2.20 ERA/7 innings in 35 IP.

- Andrew Hawkins, 5-0, 1.29 ERA/7 innings in 38 IP.

- Ben Vasquez, 4 saves, 46 Ks in 37 2/3 IP.

- Casey Gerken, 4-0, 1.42 ERA/7 innings in 29 2/3 IP.

- Tim Hassett, 6-1, 2.77 ERA/7 innings in 55 2/3 IP.

Rock Memorial:

- Mike Luczak, .461, 38 RBIs, 41 runs, 4 HR.

- Andrew Keating, 7 HR, 48 runs, 31 RBIs, 15 SBs.

- Luke Schlechte, 57 runs scored, 6 HR, 35 RBIs, 21 SBs, 1.58 ERA/7 innings and 47 Ks in 40 IP.

- Travis Zugmaier, 2.28 ERA/7 innings and 53 Ks in 43 IP.

Manchester opened its season with a 12-2 win against Jackson on May 26. Post 208 is 2-0 against Anheuser-Busch but one of its losses was an 8-1 decision against Rock Memorial on July 3.

Rock lost twice to Festus during the regular season (8-6 and 15-14) but swept through the district tourney with a 7-6 win against House Springs and 5-4 and 13-5 wins against Festus. Rock was 1-1 this year against Anheuser-Busch, and also edged Scott County 6-5 on June 30 in St. Louis.

Schedule

Thursday

Game 1: Manchester vs. Anheuser-Busch, 5 p.m.

Game 2: Jackson vs. Rock Memorial, 8 p.m.

(Dunklin County has the bye)

Friday

Game 3: Elimination game, loser of Game 1 vs. loser of Game 2, 10 a.m.

Game 4: Dunklin County vs. Game 2 winner, 1:30 p.m.

Game 5: Elimination game, winner of Game 3 vs. loser of Game 4, 5 p.m.

Game 6: Winners bracket final, Game 1 winner vs. Game 4 winner, 8 p.m.

Saturday

Game 7: Elimination game, winner of Game 5 vs. loser of Game 6, 1 p.m.

Game 8: Final round, winner of Game 6 vs. winner of Game 7, 4:30 p.m.

Sunday

Game 9: If necessary, championship-deciding game, rematch of Game 8, 1 p.m.

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With Dunklin County leading 7-0 after three innings in Friday's District 14 Legion final against Scott County, Post 303 coach Jamie Johnson told his team they needed to score 10 or 15 more runs.

While he had that kind of respect for Scott County's attack, Dunklin did pour it on with plenty more offense in a 20-3 victory.

Scott County left the bases loaded in the third and fourth innings in frustrating fashion. Post 369 has the bases loaded with one out in the third but No. 3 hitter Trenton Moses struck out and cleanup batter Cody Carlyle flied out.

In the fourth, Post 369's leadoff batter reached base but was erased on a double play. Scott County then proceeded to load the bases with two outs before Caleb Seyer flied out.

That was part of a frustrating day for Scott County, which thought it had a runner out on an appeal play in the first inning and debated a call on a Dunklin County home run in the fourth inning that gave Post 303 a 9-0 lead.

Check out the video clips from the game, as well as postgame interviews with Dunklin coach Johnson and winning pitcher Sloan Richardson.