By Jeff Wendland, Dispatch/Argus staff writer

It was deja vu all over again for three members of the Rock Island Legion Post 200 baseball team.

In 1998, Post 200 lost to Milan Post 569 in the first game of the District Tournament and then turned it on and rolled to the title, pounding Moline 24-1 and 20-4 on the final day of the tournament.

Once again this year, Milan put Post 200 behind the 8-ball on the opening day of the tourney. And, once again, Rock Island battled its way to the championship round and showed no mercy on its opponent -- this time East Moline Post 227.

After whipping East Moline 14-9 on Friday in the first title game, Rock Island brought out the big bats Saturday and clubbed Post 227 19-8 to advance to next week's 3rd Division Tournament in Pittsfield.

``I've been talking about it since Monday night,'' said Post 200 left fielder Jake Nelson, who was on that 1998 team along with current teammates Bryce Palar and Jay Molina. ``I told everyone we did it once, there's no reason we couldn't do it again.''

That was a sentiment was echoed by Palar and Molina.

``If we bring our best game, we didn't think anyone was going to beat us,'' said Palar. ``The first couple of days, when I wasn't in the lineup, I wasn't sure what to think. When I got back in there and started to get the feel of how the team was reacting, I knew we were going to do this.''

Added Molina, ``We don't have the pitching we had in 1998 and that made it a little more iffy. However, we have the bats and we have the belief in ourselves that we were going to get this thing done.''

That trio carried some of the biggest bats on Saturday.

Nelson had three singles, a double and two RBIs; Palar had two singles, scored three times and had three RBIs; and Molina had a pair of singles, a sacrifice fly and three RBIs.

``That's our leaders,'' said Post 200 coach Tim McChesney. ``They are the guys who get us going and the rest follow their lead.''

Post 200 did plenty of that on Saturday, pounding three Post 227 pitchers for 20 hits -- all nine starters and two reserves had base hits in the game and six players had at least two hits.

``We may not have dominating pitching, but we've had our hitting shoes on the last couple of days,'' said McChesney.

And the young Rock Island pitching staff wasn't bad.

Clayton George worked five solid innings Saturday to pick up his second win of the tournament. He and fellow 16-year old hurler John Brozovich had four of Rock Island's five wins in the tourney.

``We have great confidence in our young pitchers,'' said Palar. ``If they throw strikes, we'll catch it.''

And the hitters will hit it. That's a comforting feeling for a young pitcher.

``It is nice to go to the bullpen before the game knowing we have a lineup that can put up runs like we do,'' said George. ``I think that keeps us from being nervous in these situations.''

Rock Island put its second eight-spot on the board in as many days in the second inning Saturday, erasing a 1-0 Post 227 lead and making it ugly early.

So bad was it for East Moline that coach Alex Veloz was ejected for arguing an appeal play in the second and his assistant, J.P. Denato was thrown out for arguing a call at second base an inning later.

``I think our guys were still down from the game (Friday),'' said East Moline assistant Armando Veloz. ``We hoped that they wouldn't carry any bad feelings over, but I think they did. Then, Ryan Dunbar didn't have his best stuff and Rock Island jumped on him early.''

Rock Island opens Division play Wednesday at 7 p.m. against the winner of a game played Saturday between Galesburg and Oneida.

Copyright 2000, Moline Dispatch Publishing Co.