W L PCT GBL
Yakima ...... 9 4 .692 —
Wenatchee ... 8 4 .667 ½
Tacoma ...... 9 5 .643 ½
Salem ....... 7 6 .538 2
Spokane ..... 6 7 .462 3
Tri-City .... 6 8 .429 3½
Vancouver ... 4 8 .333 4½
Victoria .....3 10 .300 6
YAKIMA, April 30—Yakima was back atop the Western International League heap Sunday by sweeping a doubleheader from Spokane, 8-7 and 20-0 in a 6½ hour baseball marathon.
It was a wild and wooly week-end of class 'B' ball which saw two shutouts, two extra inning games, one league record broken and runs galore. A gross total of 146 runs were hammered out during the 10 week end tilts, 63 of them in four Sunday games.
The Capstone was Yakima' 20-0 shutout of Spokane, which came within one run of the all-time W.I.L. record. The hapless Indians committed 10 errors to put a new mark in the record book. Tacoma and Wenatchee had been co-holders with two games each of nine errors.
Four of the errors were by third baseman Frank Matoh.
Ernie Domenichelli, who came to Yakima this season from Salt Lake City of the Pioneer league, shut out Spokane in the second game with six hits. John Conant, who was replaced in Yakima's seven-run fourth inning outburst, was the loser. The Bears went on to make nine tallies in the fifth to complete the shambles, as they smacked 17 hits.
The first game also a thriller-diller. It lasted 15 innings before the Bears shoved across two runs on Jim Baxes' single with men on second and third.
Club President Dewey Soriano was the winning pitcher. He came in in the llth and gave up one run in the 15th when Charley Bushong reached first on Baxes' error, stole second and came home on Matoh's single. Baxes redeemed himself by driving in Yakima's two runs in the bottom half of the same inning. Both clubs used three pitchers, with Dick Bishop being charged with Spokane's loss.
The game had been tied at 6-all in the eighth frame.
The 10 weekend contests left Yakima holding a half-game lead over Wenatchee and Tacoma. The Bears have a chance to fatten their margin Tuesday as they open a mid-week stand with seventh-place Vancouver.
First Game
Spokane .... 001 003 200 000 001—7 12 2
Yakima ...... 010 003 110 000 002—8 13 3
Roberts, Neeley (7), Bishop (8) and Rossi; Dickey, Rial (7), Soriano (11) and Tornay.
Second Game
Spokane .... 000 000 0— 0 6 10
Yakima ...... 002 792 x—20 18 1
Conant, Brock (4), Graybar (5) and Courage; Domenichelli and Tiesiera.
TACOMA, April 30—After Tacoma won the opener 6-2 behind Bob Kerrigan's effective pitching, the Tri-City Braves capitalized on the wildness of other members of the Tiger mound staff to gain a 12-8 decision in the second game of their Western Internationel baseball league doubleheader here Sunday.
The split of the twin bil1 left the Tigers with a 3-1 series victory but knocked them out of their first place tie with the idle Wenatchee Chiefs, who now lead by a margin of a few percentage points.
Jumped To 6-0 Lead
Kerrigan was staked to a 6-0 lead as Tacoma chased across three runs in both the first and fourth innings, and the left-hander held the Braves at bay until the eighth, when singles by Al Spaeter and Dick Faber and Jim Warner's double accounted for both Tri-City tallies. It was Kerrigan's third victory in as many mound starts.
Ken Kleasner, who started on the mound for the Braves in the opener, ran into that old Tri-City bugaboo . . . too many free passes. Kleasner gave way to Bob Felizzatto in the second inning with two away, after walking five. The young left-hander went the rest of the route giving up but three runs on seven hits. However, the three Tiger runs garnered in the first inning off Kleasner were enough to insure victory.
Outhit Braves
Tacoma outhit Tri-City by a 14-7 margin in the nightcap, but all the Braves' blows were bunched in an eight-run second and a four-run third inning, during which Tiger hurlers gave up eight walks.
Neil Bryant climaxed the big second stanza with a grand slam homer. Glen Stetter also hit for the circuit with a mate aboard in the Tacoma second.
Jim Warner's double accounted for another pair of the Tri-City scores.
Veteran Lou McCollum notched his second victory of the season for the Braves in the final game. Jim Brillheart, Tacoma manager, paraded seven pitchers to the mound in an attempt to halt the Brave onslaught, and even took a turn himself for one inning.
BACK HOME TUESDAY
Tomahawks, scalping knives, and Indians will be in profusion at Sanders Field Tuesday night when the second place Wenatchee Chiefs come to start three-game series with the Braves.
Wenatchee, idle Sunday after putting a pair with Victoria on Saturday, will face left hander Cy Greenlaw on the mound for the Braves. Joe Orrell is expected to get the nod from Manager Charlie Petersen fcr the Wednesday pitching assignment.
Some of the power that was absent from the Braves hitting lineup in the form of Clint Cameron and Nick Pesut came back to the Braves when Pesut's split finger cleared up sufficiently for lim to work behind the plate at Tacoma. However, it was still doubtful whether Cameron's leg would permit him to play Tuesday.
First Game
Tri-City ....... 000 000 020—2-8-5
Tacoma ....... 300 300 00x—6-10-1
Kleasner, Felizatto (2) and McKeegan; Kerrigan and Sheets.
Second Game
Tri-City ....... 084 000 0—2 8 5
Tacoma ....... 322 000 1—8 14 3
McCollum and Pesut; Walden, Tenner (1), Lazor (2), Entwhistle (2), Brillheart (3), Carter (4), Lousy (6) and Fischer.
ONLY GAMES SCHEDULED
ON THE INSIDE
By DON BECKER, Herald Sports Editor
[May 1, 1950]
Victoria's chances of copping the WIL flag took a quick nosedive when Edo Vanni, their slugging outfielder, got beaned while running from first to second. Wenatchee's Hank Sciarra was on the throwing end of the ball that sent Vanni to a hospital for observation. Experts had tabbed Victoria's big chance solely on the strength of Vanni's bat. Without him the Athletics chances are slimmer than a pitcher's hitting average.
San Diego added more strength to the already powerful Tacoma Tigers by shipping up Joe Bache, a shortstop. He broke in Thursday and collected two hits without a miscue in the field .. . as though Tacoma needed more help. Other gleanings from the WIL circuit show that Vancouver got outfielder Jim Keating from Seattle . . .He's down to the 'Caps on option . . . they can use the help ... but then so can Seattle.
Wenatchee has added a pair of infielders to their roster. The new third baseman is Don Fracchia and the boy at the hot corner answers to Allen Maul. Maul used to be with Bremerton in the league back in 1948. Both hit for .322 averages last year.
The Tacoma Tigers are battling the weather and the resultant loss at the gate with "Ladies Nights." On Wednesday nights the gals can ankle in for two-bits and on Saturday eve for 40c. They must have an escort on the latter date though. Ladies nights are nothing new In baseball of course, but Tacoma is the first we've heard of throughout the loop that's started this early. Usually the management starts these, 'long about July or August when the fans start hitting the vacation trail.
Kudos are due Arnie Sanborn for the excellent job he's doing on those recreations when the Braves are on the road. When you realize that some sports announcers like the Old Scotsman use as high as 21 assistants while Arnie goes it alone, you can better appreciate his task. The Scotsman, as an example to what lengths some of these announcers go in their recreations, has one fellow that does nothing but tap two bats together. Another one makes with a p.a. system to help make you think you're right at the game.
ABOUT THAT ROAD TRIP
The first road trip of the 1950 season proved to be a pretty disasterous one for the Braves... dropping five out of seven. But it did prove a couple of things. Namely that they can win the last one In each series. Now all we have to do is get the firsts and seconds because we've got the rest of them taken care of.
Jim McKeegan definitely stamped himself as a future baseball great on that tour. He upped his batting average and held down the right field post and catcher's slot. For an 18-year-old just out of high school that's doing mighty well in our books.
SECOND GRAND SLAMMER
When Neil Bryant hit that home run in the final game Sunday night he became the fourth Brave to collect a round-tripper and the second to do it with the bases loaded. Bryant also came through with a nice double. His four-master traveled an estimated 380 feet which makes it one of the longest Brave home runs of the current season.
That was quite a game. It's seldom that a team gets eight runs on three hits, but that's what the Braves did as the Tacoma Tigers paraded seven pitchers to the mound. Even Jim Brillheart, whose hair was long ago touched with the silver brush, took a crack at serving them up to the Braves. But Jim gave it up after one inning and finally had to call on his ace Don Carter to take over.
Well, it will be nothing but Indians starting Tuesday lasting through Thursday when-the Wenatchee Chiefs come to Sanders Field. Plenty of Wenatchee fans are expected to be on hand, hoping to gloat over a series sweep of their former club. But the Braves, back in the friendly confines of Sanders Field and the stomping of the fans, may surprise the high-riding Chiefs.
Where will you be May 7?... Us too.
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