Eagles face Selah at state today

West Valley coach Don O’Neal is hoping that Saturday’s first round of State 3A baseball for West Valley is a repeat of regional, even if the location has changed.

The Eagles play Selah at Yakima County Stadium today against Selah; a team they beat 5-3 at WV to open regional play.

“The bottom line is, if we play well, we’ll win; if we shoot ourselves in the foot, we’ll have problems,” he said. “It’s nice to play Selah, we know what they have. No one should shut us down.”

WV (17-5) qualified for state as the region’s No. 1 seed with a 3-2 victory over North Central last Saturday that O’Neal would like to think was a precursor of what to expect today.

“We played well against NC and they played well,” he said. “It was a great game.”

Despite out-hitting the Indians nine to three, it took extra innings for the Eagles to push across the winning run. They had scored twice in the third for starter Alex Stanley, only to have the Indians tie it in the top of the sixth.

Bryan Peterson‘s two-out single, however, scored the winner in the bottom of the extra frame. He was one of three Eagles – Justin Marlow and Matt Peterson were the others – with two hits in the game.

WV’s coach wouldn’t rule out a rematch with NC in the state quarterfinals in Yakima, although the fourth team in the regional format is top-ranked Newport from Bellevue.

“Newport has a good team, but they are beatable,” O’Neal said. “A big carrot for the guys is to play (in the State 3A semifinals) in Safeco Field.”

•East Valley nearly made it a clean sweep of three regional 3A state berths. The Knights came up just short, losing 12-11 to Selah.

The Knights had ousted Mid-Valley champion West Valley-Yakima 7-2 in a morning game and led 9-4 at one point against Selah before the Vikings rallied for two runs in the fifth and six more in the sixth.

EV (10-11) rallied for two runs in the seventh, but left the tying run at third base.

During the two regional games, the Knights had 26 hits, four apiece by a quartet of batters. Michael Stewart and Todd Matsuda had three hits each in the opener, Mark Lengyel and Tanner Hamilton had three each in game two.

•In 4A, a dearth of University runs meant the end of its bid for a state berth for the Titan players.

“They just left it on the field emotionally after the Ferris loss and couldn’t recover,” said coach Don Ressa. “They did all they could do and I’m proud of the way they played.”

U-Hi lost to Ferris 4-2 and Mead 6-1 in last Saturday’s games.

The Titans scored twice in the first inning of the district championship game against the Saxons, but scored only once over the next 13 innings. They left runners in scoring position in five of seven innings against Ferris, and in the third Travis Lewis was put out when he overran second base during a leadoff double.

Although they hit the ball hard against Mead, most were either loud fly outs or right at people. U-Hi had seven hits, but again left runners on base in every inning but one, five of them in scoring position.

State golf next week

Spokane Valley golfers will participate in various state tournament classifications beginning Tuesday at area courses.

University freshman Hank Frame qualified second from the Greater Spokane League in the 4A tournament with his two-day total of 147. His tee time is 8:36 a.m. at the Creek at Qualchan.

Central Valley defending champion Nick Grigsby failed to qualify. But Bear Katie Sorenson did. She begins at 9:28 a.m. at Hangman Valley.

Three East Valley golfers, Josh White, Ashley Saffle and Ashley Grater, qualified for 3A tourneys. White’s tee time is 10:48 a.m. at Indian Canyon. Saffle is scheduled for a 9:03 start at MeadowWood and Grater is in the final foursome that begins at 11:45.

Freeman has a four-golfer contingent to the 1A tournaments. Max Riggs, who finished third in the Northeast A League district meet with an 82, is joined by Ferman Pasold and Duke Egner. They tee off between 8:22 and 8:45 p.m. at Liberty Lake. Darby Moberg, with a 9:12 tee time is in the girls meet at Esmeralda Golf Course.

Strauss has solid nine

Liberty Lake Ladies Nine Hole Golf Club got two strong rounds from Karen Strauss.

Strauss shot 46 in first flight last week, where four players tied for low net, and improved to 44 in the most recent outing.

Shirley Schoenberger, Janis Smith, Lynda Sahnow and Arla Beck all netted 36 two weeks ago, and Beck won with 40 this week.

In second flight Sheryl Baumker with a low gross 54 and Joann Ruddell with 62 were winners. Carol Dahl netted 39 and 40 back-to-back.

Mary Gehrman with 59 and Judy Booth with 62 won third flight. Wilma Capaul netted 38 and Lee King, 37.

Fourth flight went to Alice Sturman with 72 and 74. Jean Skredsvig had a net 42 and Pat Reiter a 32.

Pam McIntyre won no-handicap with scores of 62 and 46.

Kathy Camyn birdied the 11th hole. Nancy Lampe , Arla Beck , Toby Pfeifer, King and McIntyre all had chip-ins.

Allemand’s right on

Jeanne Allemand has proved hard enough to beat during weekly Painted Hills Ladies League competition, let alone this past week when the task became downright impossible.

Allemand shot in impressive 39, including a birdie on the fourth hole, and won for the third straight week in A flight.

By comparison, Debbie Paullin‘s 50 led B flight, Elaine Lukes had 52 in C and Denise Adam had 55 in no-handicap.

There was a three-way tie with 60 in D flight among Nancy Moore, Dorothy Rausch and Candy Blackmer.

Net winners were Betty Grassl with 35 in A flight, Kathy Bates with 32 in B, Kathy Walker with 30 in C and Lynn Landford with 30 in D.

Grassl had birdies on the sixth and ninth holes, the latter with a chip-in. Linda Garves also had a birdie on No. 7, while Rausch on No. 3 and Blackmer on No. 7 had chip-ins.

Grassl paces Trailhead

Two days after her two-birdie round at Painted Hills Golf Course, Betty Grassl was the low gross winner during Trailhead Ladies Golf Club play.

She shot 48 for A flight with Joyce Jacobs scoring a net 34.

Sharron Collins shot 53 in B flight, with Iness Walth and Mary Ann Evans tying with 34 for net.

Eileen Couper shot 69, and Caroline Michielli had low net in C.

No-handicap winner was Jay Evans with 62, and Marjo Coy had a chip-in.

Medal play at Liberty

Liberty Lake 18-Hole Women’s Club conducted medal play and turned in some solid scores.

Patsy Lynn was A flight winner with 88, and Carol Schultz shot 95 in B flight. Louise Newtson won C flight with a 104, and Lily Shiosaki topped D golfers with 111.

Net winners were Jean Hatcher with 72 in A flight and Honey Conlon with 78 in B. Noreen Sale and Nancy Monteith tied with 79s in C and Myrna Neubauer had 76 in D.