American Legion A Baseball Playoffs Continue Tonight
Division co-champion Food Rainbow/Carsten’s Marine is one of four teams qualified for American Legion A League baseball playoffs.
The first two games of the playoffs are loser-out, with the survivors then playing a best-of-three series. All games are at Whitworth College.
Food Rainbow/Carsten’s, made up of players from Central Valley High School, shared the South Division title with Tony Roma, from Shadle Park High, with a 14-2 record and played the Panorama Twins Wednesday.
The Twins shared the North Division title with McDonald’s, from Mount Spokane High, with 10-4 marks.
Tony Roma and McDonald’s meet at 6 p.m. today.
Friday’s game is at 6 p.m. and on Saturday the games are at 10 a.m. and, if necessary, 1 p.m. to determine the league champion.
“That’s the end of the season for them,” said league president Dennis Thompson. “We’re the only ones who (have an A league) and there’s no place for them to go.”
Not so the AA (junior) and AAA (senior) Leagues whose playoffs run July 23-28. Winners will qualify for respective state tournaments in Mt. Vernon and Selah.
The top four finishers in the senior league will play a series of three best-of-three playoffs to determine the state entrant.
Among the playoff teams will be the Valley Cannons, from CV, EV and WV, and Browne Mountain Bandits, from U-Hi and Freeman.
In the junior league each division the winner receives a bye and the second- and third-place teams meet in a loser-out game, followed by three best-of-three series to decide a state entrant.
Playoff hopefuls include Spokane Olympic Sports (University High) and Spokane Athletic Supply (CV).
Valley baseball playoffs
There were only a smattering of upsets during first round of Spokane Valley Baseball League playoffs.
The Giant League’s top four teams advanced when Perfection Tire beat Valley Firefighters 6-3, top-seeded Auto Craft outscored Jim Frazier Trophy Shop 13-7, Broadway Eye Care beat Banner Fuel 8-2; and No. 2 seed Valley Electric beat George Velis DDS 9-2.
Banner Fuel had provided the only upset with a 9-8 win over Spokane County Deputy Sheriff’s Association in loser-out play.
Jim Frazier ousted Food Rainbow 10-6, and George Velis eliminated Greenacres Gypsum 8-2.
The remainder of the tournament is double elimination with games on Friday and into next week. The championship is July 26 at 3 p.m. at West Valley High.
Midget tournament continues
In first-round play Gibson’s Nursery beat Ashco Insurance 6-1, Northwest Fence beat Neurosurgery Assoc. 2-1, Metro Signs beat Art Conscious 116-11, Syncor upset Golden Knights 11-9, Olympic Sports beat Action Charter 11-10 and Spear’s Used Cars beat Valley Instant Printing 12-3.
Tournament continues next week with finals July 26 at noon at WV.
There were three one-run decisions in the first round of Pee Wee tourney play.
Pizza Hut escaped Leo’s Photography 12-11, Trent nudged Mike Girvin Cont. 10-9, and in a major upset Bond Chiropractic (3-9-1) beat Pure Water (7-6) 18-17.
Other scores were Dr. DeCounter over Food Rainbow 25-8, Olympic Sports 11-4 over White Elephant, Spear’s Used Cars over East Farms 2 22-10, Henderson Roofing over Pasadena Park 11-2, Jim Psomas DDS over Svedala 16-2 and, in a minor upset, South Pines 2 over Inland Imaging 16-8.
The teams played Wednesday and do so again next week. Championship is July 26 at WV, 9:30 a.m.
Vipers second in tournament
The Spokane Valley Vipers, sponsored by Northwest Fence, finished second in the Panhandle Babe Ruth Baseball 13-year-old tournament in Sandpoint.
Team members included Jade Webley, Travis Thompson, Ryan Masterson, Clark Masterson, Josh Japp, Brett Neste, Matt Person, Kevin Brown, Jimmy Link, Chad Powell and Mike Koentopp.
Coaches are Richard Webley and Randy Thompson.
Steelers second in Colorado
The U-14 River City Steelers, an affiliate of Spokane Valley Junior Soccer, recently finished second in the Colorado Triple Crown tournament in Denver.
The tournament included teams from 20 different states who had won state level tournaments.
The Spokane team outscored its opposition 31-3, winning pool games 11-1 over Minnesota, 5-1 over New York, 4-0 over South Dakota and 8-0 over Wyoming.
They beat Fresno, Calif., 3-0 in the semifinals before losing to Sacramento 1-0 in the championship game.
Team members include Valley resident Ryan Hartshorn, along with Matt Trainor, voted team MVP, Jay Estey, Justin Hanks, Ryan Loft, Joey Meier, Jake Moug, Spencer Ramsay, Sam Stoner, Jesse Volesky, Kevin Walters, Steven Wells, Tommy Basenberg, Ronnie Sanders and Josh Proctor. Proctor, along with Moug, was invited to join a travel team to Mexico.
Coaches are Bryon Walters and Randy Stoner.
The Steelers have been invited to the Florida Triple Crown tourney in October.
, DataTimes