Republic, St. George’s Avoid Upsets

Republic and St. George’s reversed a trend established by other top seeds during early games at Friday’s Panorama League baseball tournament - they both won.

Third-seeded Republic beat Selkirk 17-0 at Republic, while fourth-seeded St. George’s topped Springdale 12-2 at Seafirst Stadium. Selkirk and Springdale had advanced by beating higher-seeded teams earlier in the afternoon.

The tourney picks up Monday at Seafirst, with St. George’s (15-6) playing Panorama champion Northwest Christian (10-1) at 9:30 a.m. and Republic (18-3) meeting No. 2 Curlew (18-2) at noon. All four advance to the District 7-B tournament against Bi-County League teams.

At Republic, Mark Rickard (4-0) pitched a two-hitter to eliminate Selkirk (8-14). In the day’s first game, seventh-seeded Selkirk eliminated sixth-seeded Northport 10-6. Shawn Davis homered for Selkirk. Northport finished 9-12.

At Seafirst, Ben Helms (8-3) struck out 13 and walked none, and Jesse Dhillon had four runs batted in to guide St. George’s over Springdale (7-15). In the opener, Jasent Stricker threw a two-hitter, struck out 10 and hit a three-run homer to lift eighth-seeded Springdale to an 8-1 win over fifth-seeded Cusick (11-10).

, DataTimes