Victoria .... 75 37 .670 —
Spokane ..... 65 50 .565 11½
Vancouver ... 56 50 .528 16
Salem ....... 53 57 .482 21
Lewiston .... 53 59 .473 22
Yakima ...... 52 63 .452 24½
Tri-City .... 48 63 .432 26½
Wenatchee ... 45 68 .398 31½
VICTORIA [Colonist, Aug. 10]—It’s the fellow who does the hitting who gets baseball’s headlines but the fellow who saves his club runs on the field is important just as often.
Yesterday at Royal Athletic Park, he was more important.
Held to six hits by Wenatchee’s Bill Stites in the afternoon game, Victoria Tyees won it, 3-0, because two fine defensive plays saved them at least four runs. They got 12 hits and seven runs in the series finale under the lights, but sloppy defensive play enabled the crippled Chiefs to salvage one game—11-7—out of the five-game series and prevented the Tyees from adding a full game to their W.I.L. lead.
Spokane’s second-place Indians and Vancouver’s third-place Capilanos failed to take advantage of a chance to move up, both being rather lucky to gain doubleheader splits with Yakima and Tri-City respectively.
Carl Gunnarson, the ageless southpaw who seems to get better with the passing years, proved again the wisdom of his purchase from the Caps in yesterday’s first game.
PERFECT CONTROL
Showing perfect control of a fine curve, Gunnarson came up with his first shutout of the season and his sixth victory in seven decisions since joining the Tyees. But he was in trouble in four of the last five innings after settling down the first 10 Chiefs he faced and only a combination of his cool clutch pitching and two good plays by first baseman Chuck Abernathy prevented the Chiefs from making it a sweep.
The Chiefs, who picked up eight hits, put two runners on the bags in the fourth, fifth, seventh and eighth innings and their first two hitters on third and second with no one out in the fifth and seventh. But they couldn’t upset Gunnarson.
The Victoria southpaw retired the side in the fifth with a strikeout, a pop-up, and an easy infield roller got the first two outs in the seventh on a pop foul and a short fly to right field and the third when Abernathy made the second of his standout plays.
ABERNATHY STAR
Stites grounded to third-baseman John Treece, who uncorked a high throw. Abernathy got his six-feet, four inches high off the ground to drag it down and touch Stites before he got to the bag with the tying runs on their way to the plate. In the fifth, Abernathy made a backhanded catch of Walt Pocekay’s smashing line drive just instead the bag with runners on first and second to deprive the Wenatchee catcher of at least a double and the Chiefs of at least two runs.
Incidentally, Abernathy went hitless in three trips.
The Tyees blew a 5-0 lead in the night’s game as the crippled Chiefs finally caught up with the percentage and got some of the breaks for a change. The Tyees might have had a second shutout with more alert play but they wound up soundly licked.
LeRoy Han, the 18-year-old rookie righthander, had a four-hit shutout going into the sixth but ran into a six-run inning resulting from a wild streak and a missed chance at a double play.
HEARD TAKES LOSS
Shooting for two wins, Garriott send in Jehosie Heard in relief but the little colored southpaw didn’t have it last night and with the help of his teammates, blew a 7-6 lead and a chance for his 19th win. Instead, he took his seventh setback.
Han had two out and only one Chief on the sacks when he suddenly lost control in the sixth to walk three batters in a run and force in Wenatchee’s first run. Two doubles and a single completed the damage but the Chiefs should have been blanked. With one out and a runner on first, Laurie Monroe lined to Jim Clark, who had a chance to get the runner off first. His throw was a bit into the path of the runner and Abernathy was grounded as he failed to shift in time and the parade was on.
UNEARNED RUNS
The Tyees went ahead in the sixth with two runs but two singles around a wild pitch and a sacrifice tied it for the Chiefs in the seventh and they won it in the eighth with three unearned runs after Granny Gladstone missed a catch in right field after a long run.
Wenatchee manager Dick Adams hit a two-run double for the winning runs as second-guessers had one of their few chances to doubt Manager Cec Garriott’s strategy. Adams came up with one out and runners on first and third but Heard pitched to him although the next two hitters were lefthander Monroe and pitcher Frank Dasso, playing in the outfield.
GARRIOTT RESTS
Altogether, it was one of the Tyees’ poorer showings and it was coincidental with the first time Garriott failed to start a game this season. He benched himself in favor of Duane Helbig, pinch-hitting in the eighth and getting a dubious call on a third strike.
Defensively, the feature of this game was a sensational catch by Jim Clark, who went far into left-centre to pull down a Texas Leaguer.
First Game
Wenatchee .... 000 000 000—0 8 2
Victoria ......... 100 100 01x—3 6 2
Stites and Pocekay; Gunnarson and R. Bottler.
Second Game
Wenatchee .... 000 006 131—11 14 1
Victoria ......... 002 302 000— 7 12 3
Kapp, Bauhofer (4), Stites (6) and Pocekay; Han, Heard (6), Prior (9) and Martin.
VANCOUVER [News-Herald, Aug. 11]—The Capilanos lay 16 games behind front-running Victoria in the race for the WIL baseball championship, and on the face of it, the four-game series between the two which starts tonight would rate just another “so what:”
However, if you look a little deeper, you will find interesting proportions coming out of this meeting. It will be the first time the clubs have gotten together since Edo Vanni took over leadership of the Vancouver club and Edo, if it matters, insists his boys are the best.
Too, on this four-game set, may well rest Bob Brown’s decision to go after the “B.C. Championship” post-season series between the two.
Vanni is going after this series as if his life depended on it. His managerial career, at that, may well be under fire for the first time since he took over. All eyes will be on Edo’s running game which, to this date, has been both thrilling and productive.
An old campaigner and grand competitor, Bob Snyder, will shuffle out to the hill tonight to open for the Tyees. And according to Vanni all Bob has to do is “hand in there” and Gordie Brunswick will look after the rest.
Saturday, the Caps split with Yakima, winning a seven-inning first game after one extra inning 6-5 when Vanni punched out a single to score Len Tran in the eighth. Ed Locke picked up the win, his seventh, and although he gave up five runs, only one was earned.
Then, Yakima tied into Van Fletcher, who is having his troubles in spades these days.Van lost it 6-2 as Tom Del Sarto held Vancouver to three hits and got over a shaky late-inning finish.
DIAMOND DUST—Brunswick came within inches of his 11th homer in the first game when he exploded a 380-foot double off the left-centre field wall in the first inning … Locke tripled twice in this game to help his own attack and one was a 410-foot bomb dropped over the centre field’s head … Len Tran doubled in the eighth inning of the second game, but when he forgot to touch first base, the hit was taken away from him … 3784 people attended the doubleheader.
First Game
Yakima ……... 000 050 00—5 9 1
Vancouver … 200 021 001—6 7 2
Thompson and Donohue; Locke and Ritchey.
Second Game
Yakima ……..... 040 000 200—6 11 0
Vancouver ..... 000 000 200—2 3 0
Del Sarto and Albini; Fletcher, Whyte (2) and Duretto.
KENNEWICK [Tri-City Herald, Aug. 9]—The Tri-City Braves split a doubleheader with Spokane Saturday night at Sanders Field.
They dropped the seven-inning opener 1-0 when pitcher Bob Greenwood walked a run in in the top half of the seventh. The Braves went on to take the nightcap 4-3 but Spokane threatened dangerously in the top of the ninth.
In the first game, both teams were scoreless going into the seventh. Then in the top half Bouchee was walked, and Johnson attempted to bunt. Bouchee was thrown out but Johnson was safe.
Pitcher Jack Spring sacrificed Johnson to second to leave two away. Then Greenwood walked Ed Murphy, Sam Kanelos and George Huffman to send in the winning run.
Victory still looked possible in the bottom half of the inning. Vic Buccola was walked. He moved to second on Greenwood's sacrifice and Ray Hamrick popped out.
Don Lopes was called out on strikes — two of them, called by ump Hal Sorenson. The decision was unpopular with the fans and throughout the second game, the officials were greeted by chorus of boos.
Police had to chase three men away from the ump's dressing rooms between the games.
Greenwood was in trouble once before the seventh. In the fourth inning, Mel Wasley got a hit and moved to second on Bill Sheets bunt. Greenwood attempted to throw to second but the ball went to center field.
Wasley holed up on third and Sheets went to second. Brown then walked to load the bases and Bouchee struck out. Johnson hit a ground ball to shortstop Ray Hamrick who pegged Wasley out at the plate. Then Spring struck out to end the threat.
The Braves threatened in the second. Tommy Marier walked but was thrown out when Joe Scalise hit a ground ball. Nick Pesut got a hit and Vic Buccola walked to load the bases. Then Greenwood struck out to end the inning.
In the second game, Dave Brittain pitched steady ball until the ninth frame. Then he walked Jim Brown, Bouchee and Johnson.
Pat Simmons, batting for Dick Bishop, singled and drove in two runs.
George New was called in to take over the mound and he retired Murphey out one run came, in on the play. The next two batters, Kanelos and Huffman, flew out to and the threat and the game.
Defensively, beautiful catches by Hamrick and Des Charouhas helped Brittain get his win. Hamrick snagged his in the top of the fourth when Wasley hit a Texas leaguer in his direction.
Charouhas made his in the top of the fourth. Wasley was walked and Sheets hit a fly to right-center field. Charouhas made a diving catch, flipped the ball to right fielder Scalise, who pegged to Buccola on first which caught Wasley way off base.
Meanwhile, the Braves picked up one run in the sixth when Kovenz got a hit and he was scarifice to second by Charouhas. Marier was walked and Pesut singled to bring in the run.
In the seventh, Hamrick and Lopes each got singles and Kovenz walked. Marier rapped out a single to score Hamrick and Lopes. Scalise nit a ground ball to third and the throw to first was dropped, allowing Kovenz to score.
First Game
Spokane ….. 000 000 1—1 3 0
Tri-City …... 000 000 0—0 4 3
Spring and Sheets; Greenwood and Pesut.
Second Game
Spokane …… 000 000 003—3 5 1
Tri-City …….. 000 001 30x—4 14 2
Bishop and Sheets; Brittain, New (9) and Pesut.
SALEM, Aug. 10—Bill White singled in the 10th inning to drive in a run and give Salem an 12-11 victory over Lewiston in Saturday night's Western International League baseball game here.
Lewiston had tied up the game in the sixth inning by, scoring, eight runs. They came on an error, three walks, two singles by Jack Helmtith, a double and a single by Milt Smith, and singles by Charley Mead, Glenn Tuckett and Snag Moore.
Salem's big inning was the second when seven runs were scored.
The two teams meet again Sunday in a night doubleheader. Sal DeGeorge (5-7) and Bill Brenner (14-8) will pitch-for Lewiston. For Salem it will be Ray McNulty (14-2) and Bud Francis (4-2).
Lewiston ….. 012 008 000 0—11 19 1
Salem …….... 272 000 000 1—12 13 1
Schulte, Bowman (2), Clancy (8) and Lundberg; Hemphill, Francis (3), DiBiasi ( ) and Nelson.
SPORTS NOTES
By Gil Gilmour
[from Tri-City Herald, Aug. 10, 1952]
SAD
Its a sad situation when the hometown team has to play in foreign parks to make enough cash to stay in the business. But that is apparently what is going on now at Wenatchee.
Dick Richards, whose gates are even smaller than Wenathcee's, says it won't happen here because it isn't fair to the loyal 500 who do attend the game. But Dick still hints broadly about moving elsewhere.
I doubt if it will happen though, for the simple reason there isn't an "elsewhere" to go that has the potentialities of the Tri-City area. As residents here become more settled they will adopt the old "hometown" loyalty and the hard core of faithful fans will be considerably darger even if the Braves are again at the bottom of the standings.
And if the potentialities of the area aren't developed, the Braves management should start kicking, themselves instead of dismissing the Tri-Cities as a poor baseball area.
Dick Richards, whose gates are even smaller than Wenathcee's, says it won't happen here because it isn't fair to the loyal 500 who do attend the game. But Dick still hints broadly about moving elsewhere.
I doubt if it will happen though, for the simple reason there isn't an "elsewhere" to go that has the potentialities of the Tri-City area. As residents here become more settled they will adopt the old "hometown" loyalty and the hard core of faithful fans will be considerably darger even if the Braves are again at the bottom of the standings.
And if the potentialities of the area aren't developed, the Braves management should start kicking, themselves instead of dismissing the Tri-Cities as a poor baseball area.
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