Spokane Valley softball tournament will be Saturday

With the regular season ended, the Spokane Valley Girls Softball League will begin its double-elimination tournament schedule Saturday.

The tournament, played at the East Valley Middle School complex, continues next week through July 31.

As many as 45 teams in four age group leagues from 16U through 10U can be involved.

Teams completed their seasons last week and Monday with Sir Speedy (9-1) wrapping up first place in the 16U League with its second win this year, 19-6, over runner-up White Elephant (9-2).

The champs were denied a perfect season, however, when Legends (4-6) pulled off an 11-7 upset on Monday.

BNSF (6-4) finished third in league with a 15-5 win over Walt’s Mailing. Kasey Peña hit a two-out grand slam home run and Michelle Lloyd recorded the maximum nine strikeouts during her three-inning pitching stint.

BNSF in the 14U league finished up with a pair of 16-1 victories for a 9-1 record and one game advantage over Commercial Battery. BNSF hasn’t lost since its season opener.

Division regular season champions in the 12U League were Kimmel Athletic, which rang up a perfect 10-0 record in Division II and Farrell’s Spray Service in Division I.

Included was Kimmel’s 14-7 win over OCB in late June, the only loss for the division runner-up team. Next closest teams were four games behind OCB.

Farrell’s Spray Service (9-1) edged Home Run Construction by a game in Division I when Home Run lost 13-8 to Awardmasters. It was the team’s only loss in its final nine games.

Panther Printing won its showdown with previously unbeaten Farmers’ Market to earn regular season honors in the 10U League.

Both teams finished with 9-1 records, but Panther Printing got the nod by virtue of its 20-2 romp.

McDonald’s finished a game behind the pair and two other teams, BNSF and Ford and Grimes aren’t far back. Farmers’ Market only beat Ford and Grimes 20-19, boding for an exciting tournament over the next week.

Form holds in playoffs

After a formful start in the early going of this year’s American Legion Baseball Junior AA playoffs, South Division fourth-place finisher Spokane Athletic Supply (West Valley) gained an early advantage over division champion Kimmel Athletic (University)

WV (12-8 in league) scored eight first-inning runs, but needed a seventh inning RBI hit by Phil Gannon for a 10-9 triumph in the opener of its best-of-three playoff series with U-Hi (17-1 during regular season).

Brian Peterson had three hits and Gannon two for the upset victors. Chris Sothen had three hits to pace an 11-hit effort from University, which scored seven runs in the fifth inning to tie the game.

WV had survived a scare by No. 5 Medical Lake winning 3-2 in a loser-out game to move opposite U-Hi in the first round of the divisional tournament.

WV scratched out single runs in the first, third and fourth innings, Mike Helmberger with two hits and Gannon with a double. They proved to be enough for pitcher Alex Stanley.

Playoffs continue Friday with the two first-round winners from both the South and North Divisions playing another best two out of three series through Sunday in the District V tournament.

Seeding games will determine which three teams qualify for state the following weekend in Centralia.

SAS (Central Valley) lost 12-2 to third-place Kimmel (Ferris) in another loser-out tournament game to end its season.

Trevor Nearing had three of CV’s four hits in the game. He was the team’s second-leading hits producer this season behind Nick Lallier.

CV (10-10) had earned the sixth seed in a tiebreaker over East Valley (9-9), the team missing two games that could have made difference.

Ryan Campbell, Skyler Schiller, Justin Gallagher and Travis Hauff were the team’s season hitting leaders.

In the Senior (AAA) League, league champion Bandits – with players from University, Ferris, Lewis and Clark, and Chewelah – and the second-place Cannons – from Central Valley, East Valley and West Valley – are playing in a double-elimination tournament through Sunday that determines Spokane’s state entrant.

The Cannons lost their tournament opener 9-2 to the North Stars despite a home run by Gary Jones. The Bandits played the Blue Devils on Wednesday.

Also under way is the Junior A 16 and under playoffs involving four teams each from East and West Divisions.

A pair of University teams finished first and third in the East Division and are joined by Freeman-Liberty are in the field.

The best of three format pits the first-round winners against each other beginning today. Finalists advance against the West finalists Sunday with three teams ultimately qualifying for the state championships July 30 in Spokane.

Stars in town

The Spokane Stars Elite Blue girls basketball team will play locally for the last time, at The Warehouse Summer Classic before heading to Augusta, Ga., for the Nike Nationals that begin on Monday.

The Warehouse tournament is NCAA sanctioned and features 26 teams in four pools from three states and Canada. Included are teams from Mead and Ferris.

The Stars play Friday against teams from Montana and San Jose at 12:20 and 3:50 p.m. in pool play on the Jazz Court. Saturday they play at 10:10 a.m. and 12:30 p.m. against Emerald City and Puget Sound.

Top two teams in each pool advance to the single elimination championship tournament, which begins at 5:10 that afternoon and concludes Sunday with semifinals at 10:10 a.m. and championship at 12:30 p.m.