Otis Orchards Teams Finish The Job This Time

Boys baseball

A pair of Otis Orchards teams that had been close before and one from Sunrise Elementary that gained momentum with each passing game are this year’s Spokane Valley Baseball champions.

Jim Frazier Trophy Shop in the Giant League and Norma’s Burger Barn in the Midgets erased memories of past near-misses with their title victories over Greenacres teams.

A four-run first inning was enough for Jim Frazier during a 6-1 victory over Greenacres Gypsum. Norma’s 8-3 win wasn’t decided until the 11th inning of a dramatic game with Norma’s Burger Barn-Greenacres.

After losing their first two games, Dave’s Grill lost only once in its final 14 outings and routed Svedala 17-2 for the Pee Wee title.

Gibson’s bat lifts Jim Frazier

Pitching was the key to Jim Frazier Pro Shop’s 16-1 season but the bat of Nikko Gibson didn’t hurt.

Gibson hit a three-run triple in the first inning and two-run single in the third producing five of the six runs.

Pitchers Keith Wycoff and Gibson allowed just two hits and struck out 16 opposition batters.

“I really think the secret to our success was our pitching,” said coach Bill Gibson. “Not the whole thing of course, you have to have bats. But we had four or five really outstanding pitchers.”

Wycoff, who also catches, and Gibson didn’t even see much mound action until the latter half of the season for a team which won its last 13 games, the coach said.

Jim Frazier players made the finals of the Midget tournament two years ago and lost. They weren’t about to be dissappointed again.

“Being there before, the kids wanted it badly,” said Gibson. “They came to games pumped up and came to every practice. We had kids who knew the game inside out.”

Included are Nikko Gibson, Wycoff, Brandon Duke, Danny Szfransky, Tim McNamara, Joey Binder, Jeff Treannie, Scott Downs, Hal Hutchinson, Brandon Lennox, Brian Duran, Benn Danelo, Senica Hill, Josh Birt and Sean Carlson.

The future of East Valley baseball appears secure. Not only did Jim Frazier win the 13-14-year-old league, but two other East Valley-area teams also were strong.

Les Schwab Tire shared its division title and Valley Firefighters tied for second in its division.

Greenacres Gypsum was third in its division but won four straight games after losing once to reach the finals.

“We weren’t disappointed,” said coach Mike Boast. “The kids were pretty excited. You can’t score runs if you can’t hit. After the first inning it was a pretty good game.”

Norma’s goes unbeaten all the way

As Pee Wees two years ago, these Otis players went undefeated during regular season only to be upset in the second round of playoffs.

Saturday’s championship victory, no matter how long it took, was imperative.

“We couldn’t give it up,” said Norma’s second baseman Derek Anderson, son of coach Steve Anderson. “Even if it went 11 innings, we weren’t going to lose that game.”

Andrew Ettinger made sure of it. He hit a two-run double in the first inning and after Greenacres tied, scored the go-ahead run in the ninth.

Again Greenacres caught up, but in the 11th inning, Ettinger hit a bases loaded triple and scored the final run on Brandon Bucher’s second RBI of the game.

A key to the victory was that after pitchers James Haile and Ettinger completed their turns, Tony Scalici came in and threw four innings of 1-run, 9-strikeout baseball.

“Pitching was awesome for us,” said Anderson, “but all around we were good. Sometimes we had bad hitting days and awesome pitching and then it would flip-flop.”

Other team members included Landon Beattie,Steve Baker, Jay Kuntz, Jake Sawyer, Ryan Hulett, Jake Bogart, Jesse Tilton, Jared Lorang and J.T. Rose.

They finished the year with a 15-0 record two years after the stunning loss.

“We waited so long and it finally happened,” said Anderson. “That’s what everyone on the team pretty much thinks.”

Greenacres, fourth in its division during the regular season, finished with a 11-4-1 season record.

Pee Wee suspense ends early

In contrast to the game that followed, there was little suspense in the opening game of the Valley Baseball championships.

“We played probably our best game all year,” said Dave’s Grill coach Don Huffman. “We had 15 hits so actually did some ripping.”

There may be good reason that Dave’s experienced its success despite the fact there are only five 10-year-olds and 10 9-year-olds on this 13-3 team.

Huffman was one of several parents who were local high school athletes. Three of Dave’s players, Marshall Huffman, Chris Jackson and Tyler Luedkte have grandparents who played baseball professionally.

“We have about eight kids on the team you can tell who have been around it,” said Huffman, whose dad George played for the Spokane Indians and who was himself a standout prep player.

Dave’s Grill took charge quickly on 3-for-3 hitting by A.J. Gosney and Adam Hesseltine and a 2-for-2 game by Luedtke who drove in four runs.

Other team members who played in the five-inning game were Brad Beck, Zach Chesher, Nathan Foster, Ryan Kenworthy, who tripled in the title game, Mike Mosier, Eric Smith and Sean Thompson.

Kasey Crick, Kevin Johnson and Tommy Kadoya were on vacation.

The loss ended a Cinderella run for Orchard Center team Svedala. The team had gone 6-5-1 during the regular season and was eighth in its division.

In the playoffs, the team then won four straight games, by a total of six runs.

, DataTimes