It was just a year when the writers liked the Cape story the best

Cape Henlopen has become a powerhouse of boys and girls lacrosse over the last 10 years having a major impact on the sports of baseball and softball all the way down through the Little Leagues. And as good as the lacrosse programs have become, using Atlantic Lacrosse as a feeder program and to say nothing of the dreaded Greene Turtle teams, the strength of competition statewide is not strong compared with trying to make a living in baseball and softball.

You can have a pretty good hardball team bordering on respectable, as is the case with Cape this season, and struggle to make it above .500.

The baseball team dropped to 0-3 over the weekend, losing at Caravel 6-5 after carrying a 5-3 lead into the extra eighth inning. Jared Boothman had a home run and RBI double for Cape while Jordan Plivelich stroked a triple. The Caravel win was number 300 for coach Paul Niggebrugge, who has coached 24 years and won state titles in 1998 and 2006. Cape hasn’t won 300 baseball games since the creation of the school district in 1969.

Cape baseball lost at Sussex Tech last Thursday 12-2 while the softball team also lost to the Ravens 14-4.

LET’S GO CAPE - Thursday, March 25, at the Cavaliers Country Club in Newark the Delaware Sportswriters and Broadcasters Association honored the 2009 state championship girls lacrosse team with the Delaware Team of the Year Award. Cape can celebrate like no other school in Delaware and brought six tables of players and parents to the $50 a plate banquet begging the question how much chicken would $2,500 dollars buy in Sussex County?

I was introduced as the presenter, and the lacrosse girls jumped the volt meter cheering and clapping and, for the first time in my grandfather years, I wanted to ask the other writers in the room the rhetorical question, “Who da man?” There were 29 state champions in Delaware scholastic sports in 2009 with only 10 being won by public schools. If you subtract championships broken down by divisions there were three public school champions in open tournaments - all girls teams and all who felled dragons in the finals. Milford softball over Caravel, Sussex Tech field hockey over Tower Hill and Cape’s lacrosse win over St. Andrew’s.

One champ is as good as another - it was just a year when the writers liked the Cape story the best.

SUDDENLY DUKE - I’m glad Duke made it to the final four of college basketball because I know so many locals with Duke connections and 10 times as many people who can’t stand Duke believing there is an underground conspiracy of officials, announcers and athletic administrators who want to see tall, skinny white guys with fat SAT scores hoist the championship trophy.

West Virginia would have a Moon Pie and RC Cola weeklong party if the Mountaineers win the title. A frenzied, sugar-freaking, hillbilly-yelling chocolate Yoo-Hoo celebration! Butler would be the best story and you can’t count them out although five million people already have. Michigan State will win this tournament from here because of Tom Izzo’s coaching over the last 15 years. His Spartans have reached the final four six times, including a national championship in 2000.

SNIPPETS - Gus Johnson is the best college basketball announcer in the country. I’d love to see Gus get to call the final four and championship games. Step off, smooth operators and give the black man the microphone. Send Jim Nance to the Masters early so he can do a little background hobnobbing with the power elite. Personally I hope Tiger Woods melts down and bites somebody and screams, “It was fun while it lasted!”

The Mary Washington women’s lacrosse team with Cape’s Leigh Ann Redefer starting in goal is 7-2. The Eagles defeated Stevenson 14-7 Saturday, March 27, as Redefer had 15 saves.

I have two first cousins, Bobby and Gary, who are career blackjack dealers in Vegas. Where did I go wrong? Hit me!