Sports notebook: Cannons take third place in Legion Senior League

The Valley Cannons finished Senior American Legion baseball on a roll just in time for the Division playoffs.

Spokane Athletic Supply (Central Valley) and Kimmel Athletic (University) have played their way into the District V Junior American Legion championship series.

And one U-Hi and two CV A Legion teams have advanced to the postseason as well.

The Cannons won six of its last seven games to finish the Legion season with a 9-11 record and in third place in the Senior League.

They were scheduled to meet the Blue Devils on Tuesday in the first round of double-elimination play that determines one of two state qualifiers. The tournament championship will be played Saturday and concludes Sunday with a state seeding game against the regular-season champion Bandits. All games are at Shadle Park’s Al K. Jackson Field.

By winning the league, the Bandits earned an automatic state berth.

Last week the Cannons beat the Bandits 13-11, swept the Blue Devils 10-5 and 9-2 and split with the Pullman Patriots, winning 10-8 after losing the 8-5 opener.

Geoff Davis (Central Valley) had 10 hits during the games, including four doubles and a home run. Andy Vennum (West Valley) added nine hits, with a double, triple and home run and earned the win against the Patriots.

The Bandits finished the league season with a 15-5 record and two-game lead, including a 6-3, 10-3 sweep of the Blue Devils. U-Hi athletes Danny Jordan had five hits, Aaron LaPlante four and Billy Moon three.

“North Division champion Kimmel Athletic and South runner-up Spokane Athletic Supply played each other in a best-of-three series beginning Tuesday at Whitworth, while South champion Freeman played its best-of-three series against Newport.

All four teams have qualified for the State Junior Legion tournament will be hosted at CV and U-Hi beginning Aug. 2.

Spokane Athletic swept Lewis and Clark 8-2 and 8-6 in their divisional series to advance to the district finals. In the opener Derek Goehri and Blake Bledsoe both had two hits and doubled. Also with a pair of hits each were Joe Arlt, David Borgman and Fano Pau.

Kimmel Athletic outscored Mead 15-14 and 21-12. Jacob Olsufka and Craig Keeton each had five hits in the opener, Olsufka finishing with eight and Keeton, seven, during the doubleheader. Travis Clark had four hits in each of the wins as part of the 44-hit outburst.

Freeman beat Pullman 16-6 and 3-2 to advance to the district tournament. Thomas Kestell and Abe Mega combined on a three-hitter in the second win and Shamus Reilly had two hits, including a double. Kestell had two hits in the opening win.

Tourneys this week

Regular season of Spokane Valley Girls Softball competition ended, teams this week are busy with league tournaments that conclude this weekend at East Valley Middle School.

BNSF completed a perfect 16U League season and secured first place outright with a pair of wins, 9-6 over third-place Einestein’s Car Wash and 8-3 in the title showdown over Home Run Construction.

Home Run, despite a 30-9 win over Tri-Diamond during which Danica Hanley, Emily Mauro and Ryleigh Riggin drove in five runs a piece, finished two games back. Hanley and Mauro homered, Riggin doubled twice and Brittany Soucy hit a triple and drove in four more runs.

“Spokane Transfer won its final four games to go 10-0 in the 14U League. The team finished a game ahead of Arby’s.

Included were victories over Kim Hotstart, Dairy Queen, Artistic Landscape and Jewell Excavating. Jade Leibrecht had a hand in three of the wins with three hits in one game and triples in two others.

Hailee Toles had two hits against Kim Hotstart and struck out 11 batters in four innings pitched in a 5-3 win over Dairy Queen. Hanna Harder allowed a hit and a run pitching three innings in the victory and had two hits against Kim Hotstart.

Christie Tombari had three hits in that game, Natalie Hobbs hit a 3-run triple against Artistic Landscape and Shelby Harbison and Hailey Wesselman each homered against Jewell Excavating.

Other 14U highlights: Evergreen Heating’s Hannah McGlothin hit a double and two singles in a loss to Kim Hotstart whose Analiese Collins had an unassisted double play.

Also for Evergreen, Cheyenne Abele tripled and singled. During a win over Artistic Landscape, Makala Beaudry-Norris and Alyssa Rothmund had two hits each and Jennifer Sherman scored four runs.

Arby’s Ashley Pickert hit two triples and Hannah Bailey homered in a win over Farmers’ Market. Also hitting triples were Dairy Queen’s Rebecca Howard and Old Country Buffet’s Brittany Cullen.

“Towey Ecological and McCoy’s Pitching both finished 10-0 in the 12U League harbinger of a potential tournament showdown this week.

Jessica Mitchell and Bailey Towey combined for 14 strikeouts in Towey Ecological’s win over Rowand Machinery. Mitchell homered and Towey tripled.

Destiny McCoy hit two home runs, one of them a grand slam, in McCoy’s Pitching’s win over Dana Graphics. Teammates Kiara McCoy also homered and Miley McKinley tripled.

Elsewhere, Alayna McCarty homered during a win by Commercial Battery and Old Country Buffet’s Marissa Czapla drove in a pair of runs and Bailey Osborne homered.

“U.S. Zinc finished atop the 10U League standings with a 9-1 record, one game ahead of McCoy’s Pitching.

Among last week’s highlights: In two games last week, Victor Lumber’s Kalista Mettler went 6-for-6 driving in eight runs. She doubled twice. Teammate Josie Freier was 2-for-3 in one of the games. In the other, Reilly Jones was 3-for-3, while Melanie Cunnington and Ashley Fowlkes had two hits each, including a triple.

Old Country Buffet’s Chloe Scholtz hit a 2-run home run. Hannah Downey of Panther Printing struck out six in three innings. BNSF’s Cori Michielli and Sarah Parker each hit two-run doubles.