American Legion tournament starts Saturday

The Bandits and Cannons, both with players from Spokane Valley high schools, will be host teams during the annual American Legion Senior League Fourth of July baseball tournament.

Games begin Saturday and continue through Tuesday’s holiday with championship and consolation final games at Shadle Park’s Al K. Jackson Field.

The tournament has added a 13th team this year, but will still be played in two divisions with the champions in each advancing to the title game and second-place finishers to the game for third and fourth places.

Each team is guaranteed five games during the four-day event.

Games will be played beginning at 8 a.m. at both Jackson and Spokane Falls Community College fields and will feature an 8:30 p.m. game each day at the lighted Shadle Park field.

Others in the field are the Newport Grizzlies, Bud Bay Embroidery, Bethel Huskies, Liberty Cannons and Stillaguamish Tugs, Great Falls Electrics, Kalispell, GK Eagles, Medicine Hat, Alberta, Meridian and Idaho Falls.

This year’s AA tournament has taken on a different look as well. It has increased to 15 teams in three divisions played at Whitworth, North Central and Gonzaga Prep.

Six of the teams are from the local Legion league including Medical Lake, Ferris and Gonzaga Prep from the South Division, NC, Mt. Spokane and Shadle Park from the North.

After teams play their four pool games, seven Tuesday games, beginning at 9 a.m. with the final three at 2:30 p.m. will determine placers.

Kimmel and NC are in a field with the Coeur d’Alene Loggers, Lake Stephens and Bremerton. Mt. Spokane and Medical Lake are in with the Coeur d’Alene Lakers, Olympia and Puyallup. Gonzaga Prep and Shadle Park are in the pool with Medicine Hat, Lakewood and West Valley-Yakima.

Bandits pull away

The Bandits, past the midpoint of the 20-game American Legion Senior baseball season, are threatening to run away with the league.

Going into Wednesday’s doubleheader against the Pullman Patriots, the Bandits (10-2), including players from University, had a four-game lead in the loss column over the Spokane Valley Cannons (7-6).

Last week they beat the North Stars 6-4 and 13-2 and beat the Blue Devils 16-1 to gain further ground on the field.

In between they split six games during the Dwight Church Memorial tournament in Lewiston.

University pitchers hurled the wins over the North Stars, Nick Burger with relief from Dan Jordan getting the first win. Adam Smith, who caught, had a hit.

Smith pitched a four-hitter and had two hits himself in the team’s second victory.

Burger had two hits, including a double, and Smith hit safely against the Blue Devils.

In Lewiston, Smith also had two hits in each of the Bandits’ first four Dwight Church tourney games. Among the games were wins over Riley Creek 6-1, Billings 5-3 and the Yakima Beetles 8-7.

Losses were to the Lewis-Clark Twins twice, 7-6 and 10-7, and to the Boise Senators 13-1. Jordan had four hits during the tournament, Burger, and Connor Brooks also hit safely.

The Spokane Valley Cannons returned from a tournament in Eureka, Calif. last week, to begin the final nine games of their league season.

They swept the North Stars 7-5 and 3-1, Greg Bradley with a four-hitter in the second win. He had two hits, including a triple in game one. Nick Lallier led the team with three hits in the two wins.

During the California tournament, the Cannons lost 9-0 and 10-2 losses to Petaluma and the Sonoma Rebels. They beat the North Humboldt Giants 5-2 behind pitcher Bradley and South Humboldt 13-1, Dane Knudson with a three-hitter. On Sunday the team lost 12-3 to the host Eureka Falcons.

Brad Johnson had two of the Cannons four hits in the initial two losses.

In the other three games, Ryan Maynes had eight hits, including a home run. Lallier had four hits, with a triple and double, while Mark Lengyel and Matt Peterson each had two-hit games.

Kimmel cleaning up

If Kimmel Athletic’s run through the Spokane American Legion AA baseball league has been easy so far, they won’t be bored this week.

The University team is currently hosting the Northwest Wood Bat Tournament.

“These teams are all-star teams from all over Washington,” said coach Scott Sutherland. “(The players) will really get their eyes opened.”

The University team ran its overall record to 16-0, 12-0 to lead the South Division of the AA league by three games over Garco Construction (Gonzaga Prep).

This week the team beat Lewis and Clark 9-2, Cheney 9-5 and Pullman 7-2. U-Hi had six hitters batting over .400 before the three wins.

Tyler Olson, who entered the week with a .500 batting average, 18 RBIs and two home runs, added four more hits, including a triple and two doubles.

Another hot hitter, Brandon Shryock, who was .447 with 15 runs scored, had two doubles and three runs batted in against Pullman.

Jacob Olsufka (.400 batting average, 15 RBIs) went two for three against Cheney.

Billy Moon (who had a 0.40 earned run average before the game) matched Olson’s 4-0 pitching record (1.02 ERA) and struck out 12 against Cheney despite battling a streptococcus virus.

Jake Baldwin improved to 5-0 against Pullman. And Cameron Cook is 3-0 with a 1.58 ERA after beating LC.

Spokane Athletic Supply (8-4) remains third in the division following 10-0 and 13-0 shutouts over Medical Lake and West Valley.

The Central Valley team got shutouts from Zach Malone and Trevor Shull who allowed just two hits each in the wins.

Geoffrey Davis had four hits in the win over Medical Lake, and Blake Bledsoe added four against WV.

Eleven players combined for 29 hits during the two wins.

SAS also won three games during the Bear Bash weekend tournament.

East Valley defeated Medical Lake 12-8 for its third win of the summer. Tim Stewart, Kevin Barbieri and Jeff Bittner all had three hits in the victory.