Valley Electric is hot

Valley Electric, the Mountain View Middle School representative in Spokane Valley Boys Baseball, is running away with the Giants League.

The team beat nearest contender VEBA (Evergreen) 12-4 in a makeup game last week and topped Hurliman Heating (Horizon) 21-3 for a 7-0 record.

Every other team has two losses or more with numerous games either unplayed or unreported.

Joey Lawrence struck out 12 and allowed only one run in eight innings of pitching.

Jesse Perry went 8-for-8 in the two games, with two doubles, two triples and nine RBIs. He was one of five players with multihit games.

Eric Wageman went 6-for-7 and drove in five runs, while Jon Hicks and Blake Bowman each had three-hit games against Hurliman Heating. Bowman drove in four runs.

“Banner Furnace and Fuel (Pasadena Park) returned a favor and regained undisputed first place in the Midget League.

Nine days after losing to Valley Instant Printing (Trentwood), Banner won 12-8 to break a first-place tie. VIP’s loss had come on the heels of a 4-1 triumph over Randall & Hurley Inc. (Ponderosa) which had been part of a three-way share of first entering the week.

Banner is now 7-1 with four games to play. Valley Instant Printing and Randall & Hurley are both 6-2.

The league remains six teams strong with three others holding 5-3 records after last week. Conley’s Place moved up by beating one of the teams it is tied with for fourth, Brad DeCounter DDS (Ness) 16-11.

Casey Fink homered, and Derek Marcus tripled in the win. Marcus and Connor Cook combined for a double play. Kendrick Bennett was 2-for-3 in a win over Grocery Outlet.

“Spokane Valley Shrine (Otis) is also tied for fourth after splitting two games.

“A-L Compressed Gases (McDonald) and Commercial Lending NW (Greenacres) continued their unbeaten march to a year-end showdown in the Pee Wee League American Division.

Spokane County Deputy Sheriff’s lost for the first time in the National Division, but retained undisputed first place as the week played out.

A-L allowed just one run in each of its two wins last week. Four different pitchers split duties and combined for 32 strikeouts in 11 innings.

One of them, Trace Hussey had five hits and four runs batted in during the week. Another, Angelo Gonzales was 3-for-3 in one win with a three-run single.

A third, Kyle Bush, homered to drive in three runs. The fourth, Trent Ferster, fanned nine and allowed no-hits during his three-inning turn.

“Commercial Lending got a 5-0 shutout victory from Colton Peha and Jake Love, who struck out 14 batters and allowed three hits. The team scored 20 runs in its other win. J.D. Boden was 2-for-3 with four RBIs.

Spokane County Deputy Sheriff’s lost 9-8 in eight innings to Mark Spear Homeselling (Otis Orchards) when Dylan Swannack‘s triple in the second extra inning plated the winning run.

It was the team’s second straight win over an unbeaten foe, but its 9-2 loss to Gibson’s Nursery prevented it from sharing first place in league. The loss followed completion of an earlier tie game with Gibson’s (Chester), won by Mark Spear 12-11.

Swannack was 4-for-4 in the two regularly schedule games and pitched three shutout innings in the makeup.

Gibson’s Nursery’s Tyler Bates pitched another win and went 3-for-3 with a triple to move the team into fourth place.

The Deputy Sheriff’s, which had three home runs against Mark Spear, two by Mike Hansen, bounced back for a 9-1 victory over George Velis DDS to remain atop the Division.

Win spoiled a dandy one-run, three-inning pitching stint by Brandon Stalker. Stalker also had eight strikeouts to stifle River City Pizza early, but it took his sixth-inning home run to tie the game after the East Farms team had rallied for a lead.

“Spokane Valley Baseball is in need of additional umpires who will be paid to work upward of four games per week. To join, call 922-0420.

Fine A flight efforts

For the second straight week Jeanne Allemand shot low gross 42 to lead Painted Hills Ladies League golfers.

And Gail Baily, who had A flight low net of 35, produced her own superlative. Baily holed a bunker shot on No. 11 for not only a chip-in during the weekly outing, but also a birdie.

In B flight Debbie Paullin had low gross 55, and Liz Grafos netted 33. Marie Nelson shot 55 in C flight, and Margaret Tirk netted 31.

D flight winners were Candy Blackmer with low gross 57, and Penny Lancaster with net 31.

Jody Cantrell shot 49 in the no-handicap division, and Dorothy Rausch had the week’s other chip-in, on No. 12.

Blind draw to win

Liberty Lake Women’s 18 Hole golfers played a Blind Draw game, scoring their best nine holes and counting half their handicap.

Net winners in A flight were Kathy Brown with 35.5, and Billie Etter with 36.

B flight best net scores were a 31.5 by Debbie West, lowest of the day, followed by Carol Schultz‘s 37.

Louise Newtson finished at 35.5 in C flight and Marie Nelson had 36.

Maggie Steffy was at 33.5 in D flight followed by Linda Dreher‘s 36.5.

Liberty Lake winners

Karen Strauss was on her game during this Thursday’s Liberty Lake Ladies Nine Hole Golf Club competition.

Strauss shot a low gross 43 to win first flight competition and earn overall best score.

Pat Thompson shot 58 in second flight, Linda Barry had 67 in third and Claudette Sayles 77 in no-handicap.

First flight net produced a tie score of 36 between Frances Martin and Mary Ann Grannell. Granell had chip-ins on both the 10th and 18th holes.

Emma Long netted 33 in second flight and Wilma Capaul was at 39 in third.