Thursday, May 3, 1951

               W  L Pct. GB
Vancouver ... 11  2 .846 —
Spokane ..... 10  5 .667 2
Tri-City ..... 6  5 .545 4
Salem ........ 6  7 .482 5
Yakima ....... 5  7 .417 5½
Tacoma ....... 5  7 .417 5½
Victoria ..... 4  8 .333 6½
Wenatchee .... 4 10 .286 7½

VANCOUVER, B.C., May 3 — Spokane batsmen exploded with three home runs Thursday night for a 7-3 win over Vancouver Capilanos in a series opener.
Ed Nulty, Edo Vanni and Jim Wert homered for the Indians.
Vancouver Manager Bill Schuster was ejected in the second inning.
Spokane ....... 110 021 002—7-10-1
Vancouver .... 021 000 000—3-10-2
Wyatt and Nulty; King and Ritchey.

VICTORIA, May 3— Salem Senators snapped a losing streak Thursday night by coming from behind to edge Victoria Athletics 6-5, in the opener of a four-game series.
Catcher Jim McKeegan's three-run homer supplied the bulk of the Senator power. McKeegan left in the sixth inning at the request of the umpire Art Jacobs. Gene Thompson, Victoria outfielder, was excused in the eighth after a disagreement over a call at first.
Salem .......... 000 005 010—6-6-1
Victoria ....... 310 001 000—5-6-3
Bevens, DeGeorge (8) and McKeegan, Beard (6); Payne, Tierney (6) and Marcucci.

TACOMA, May 3 — Wenatchee enjoyed two big innings here Thursday night to defeat Tacoma 11 to 4. The Chiefs scored seven runs in the sixth inning after Tacoma starter Mel Knezovich had held them hitless in five innings.
Walt Pocekay's bases-loaded homer highlighted the big inning. The Chiefs added a four-run ninth with Lil Arnerich's triple the big blow.
Wenatchee ...... 000 007 004—11-15-1
Tacoma ........... 400 000 000— 4 -8-2
Dahle and Len Neal; Knezovich, Clark (6) and Watson.

KENNEWICK, May 3—The Tri-City Braves started late Thursday night but rolled up seven runs in the last four innings to defeat Yakima 7 to 2. The win gave the Braves a clean sweep of the three game Western International league series with Yakima.
Yakima scored a run in the second to go ahead. The Braves added one in the fifth to tie, then scored twice in the sixth. Art Wilson's double drove in Neil Bryant with the go-ahead run. Catcher Nick Pesut then unloaded his first hit in the last fifteen times at bat to drive in Wilson.
With Joe Nicholas holding Yakima runless the rest of the way, it was enough but the Braves added another run in the seventh and three insurance runs in the eighth. Buddy Peterson's triple with two aboard in the eighth drove in two runs and Clint Cameron chased Peterson across with a single.
- - - - -
KENNEWICK, May 4—The Tri-City Braves took a bus over to Tacoma this morning, and with them they took a five game winning streak. Augie Zande (1-1) the curve-ball artist who holds previous 8-4 victory over the Tigers, will start the first game of the four-game series tonight. Lou McCollum is slated for Saturday night's action with Ken Michelson and Dick Stone most probable for the Sunday double-header.
Although he had previously only gone four innings, including the spring training session it didn't bother Joe Nicholas last night when he handcuffed Yakima 7-2 to make a clean sweep of the series for the Tri-City team. The victory picked up a full game on Vancouver and Spokane, number one and two in the race respectively, who lost last night.
Some fancy fielding gems were sandwiched in with Nicholas' first decision, and he made one himself when he beat out the fleet Bill Andring to first base, taking the throw from Vic Buccola for the putaut. Nicholas won the foot race by half a step.
Nick Pesut, who had gone, hitless in his 15 previous appearances at the plate, made his drought breaking single pay off by driving in Artie Wilson with what proved to be the winning run of the game. Pesut's rapper to centerfield followed Wilson's double which also scored Bryant in the sixth inning.
Of the 21 hit total given up by both pitchers, eight of them went for extra bases with the Braves collecting four triples and two doubles.
PETERSON GETS HOT
Buddy Peterson picked up the tempo set by Buccola's hot smoking bat with both infielders slashing a triple and double, while Buccola also added a single. Peterson's efforts drove in two runs in me eighth and Buccola's double scored Al Spaeter in the fifth.
Spaeter and Artie Wilson also tripled for the Trl-City team.
Nicholas gave the 1782 paying fans, and several hundred of the younger fry attending the Family night game, a sample of superb pitching in the eighth. With base runners on second and third and two out, Yakima's Chuck Neal stalked to the plate. Neal had slammed out a triple, single and double in that order previously in the game. Pitching carefully all the way to the Bear first baseman, and always on the outside corner of the plate, the Braves sidearmer ran the count to 3-2 before he passed Neal. Then, with the bases loaded, he got pinch hitter Les Maddox on a called third strike to douse the threat. He set Yakima down in order in the ninth.
The Braves ran their double-play count to 16 with Neil Bryant on the hot corner starting both of last night's, One went the familiar route of Bryant-Spaeter-Buccola, and the other was Bryant-Buccola. The last mentioned was engineered when Bryant speared a line shot, by Manny Travis and then fired to Buccola to trap Bob Moniz who had wandered off first base.
Artie Wilson, who has won a regular berth in the outfield, accounted for two of the Tri-City runs with his double in the eighth and his deep fly ball in the seventh.
The five triples, four of which were garnered by the Braves, tied a WIL record. Hitting the
three basers for the Tri-City club got the other, which was the first, coming in the second inning.
The record is also held by four other league teams.
Yakima .......... 010 000 100—2 9 0
Tri-City .......... 000 012 13x—7 12 1
Powell, Bedford (8) and Tiesiera; Nicholas and Pesut.