Friday, July 13, 1951

W L PCT
Vancouver ... 59 28 .674 —
Spokane ..... 56 30 .651 2½
Salem ....... 42 44 .488 16½
Wenatchee ... 41 44 .486 17
Tri-City .... 40 47 .460
Victoria .... 37 51 .420
Tacoma ...... 36 50 .419
Yakima ...... 34 51 .400

VANCOUVER [Erwin Swangard, Sun, July 14]—There must be some real red faces in the respective officers of the Portland Beavers of the Pacific Coast and Victoria Athletics of the Western International baseball leagues.
The red faces concern the case of one John Ritchey, catcher extra-ordinary of the Vancouver Capilanos of the WIL, for whom neither the Beavers or Athletics could find employment.
But those faces probably will turn crimson when they read today’s papers because for the umpteenth time Ritchey was just about the whole show as Capilanos, leading the league, salvaged another victory in the late innings.
In case you are interested Ritchey headed the popularity poll by about 1000 votes before last night’s game against Wenatchee got under way before close to 4000 fans at Little Mountain Stadium.
Today he will have added considerably to his lead.
LOU TOSSED BIG BALL
The dusky catcher climaxed an exciting, tense game with an inside the park home run to turn the tide against Lou Tost, the veteran southpaw.
The score was 3-2 for the Chiefs as Bob McGuire opened the last half of the eighth with a double. Ray Tran promptly sacrificed him to third.
Tost had Ritchey at one ball and two strikes. He kept the ball inside but coolly, calmly Ritchey, incidentally the league’s leading hitter, bided his time. He fouled off two pitches. Finally Tost switched and threw one outside.
NICE BREAK FOR DON
Ritchey swung, the ball took off like a bullet, rifled over short between Will Hafey at centre and speedy Lyell [sic] Palmer in left. It kept going and hit the wall 400 feet away.
Hafey gave chase which Ritchey streaked around the bases. He beat the relay by a scant margin with a beautiful slide under catcher Len Neal.
It meant victory No. 6 against two losses for durable Don Tisnerat.
Caps go again twice today against Chiefs, a seven-inning affair and a nine-inning afterpiece with the fun starting at 7 p.m. Pete Hernandez (9-1) and Bob Snyder (18-2) will pitch.
Wenatchee .... 000 002 010—3 10 1
Vancouver ..... 000 100 12x—4 9 2
Tost and Neal; Tisnerat and Ritchey.

SPOKANE, July 13—A double win over third-place Salem Friday night moved Spokane one-half game closer to the Western International baseball league king-pins, the Vancouver Capilanos. The Indians shut out the Senators 2 to 0 behind John Conant's seven-hitter in the opener and downed them 7 to 5 in the nightcap.
First Game
Salem ......... 000 000 0—0 7 0
Spokane ..... 000 110 0—2 6 0
Schmidt and Dana; Conant and Johnson.
Second Game
Salem ......... 000 100 202—5 5 0
Spokane ..... 340 000 00x—7 12 0
Lew and McKeegan; Rockey, Roberts (8) and Sheets.

YAKIMA, July 13—The Yakima Bears got two fine pitching jobs Friday night to defeat the Tri-City Braves 1 to 0 and 2 to 0 in a Western International league baseball doubleheader. Ted Savarese southpawed his way to a one-hit, 1 to 0 victory in the seven-inning opener besting Tri-City's Jack Brewer who pitched five-hit ball.
Then, Larry Powell, the clever veteran, scattered eight hits to good advantage in the finale for the Bears.
First Game
Tri-City ...... 000 000 0—0 1 0
Yakima ....... 000 010 x—1 5 1
Brewer and Pesut; Savarese and Brenner.
Second Game
Tri-City ...... 000 000 000—0 8 0
Yakima ....... 000 002 00x—2 8 1
McCollum and Pesut; Powell and Tiesiera.

VICTORIA [Daily Colonist, July 14]—Greeted by fans as they disembarked from the Seattle boat yesterday afternoon and drive in state to their homes by the hard-working Athletics’ Booster Club, Victoria Athletics failed last night to start their 10-game home stand auspiciously.
They went down 14-6 to Tacoma Tigers in the first game of a three-game series and slipped dangerously close ton the W.I.L. basement.
Bill Osborn, who has been the steadiest of all on the mound, probably hadn’t got over the surprise of four full days of rest and went out before he could get the side out in the second inning, trailing 8-0.
John Brkich did no better and left under first in the fourth in favor of first-baseman Hal Jackson, who did reasonably well, slipping only in the sixth when the Tigers added their final three runs.
HOME-RUN ROUTE
The Tigers took the home-run route to their big early lead. Vince DiMaggio, eldest of the three famous brothers, hit the ball over the fence on each of his first two swings. His first circuit smash came in the first inning with Butch Moran aboard to climax a four-run start. He hit his second off Brkich in the second immediately after Moran had sent Osborn to the showers with a three-run homer.
Four of the five Tacoma runs in the second came after the A’s had again failed to complete an inning-ending double play.
But for the big early lead, Victoria might have made it close. Mel Knezovich needed all of his big lead and was several times in danger of being replaced as the A’s reached him for 13 hits. However, the losers faltered each time they had a big inning in prospect. Double-plays, one of them on some bad base-running by Milt Martin, wiped out there scoring chances.
PLATE LEADERS
Martin, with four singles in five trips, and Gene Thompson, with a double, two singles and two walks for a perfect night, led the A’s at the plate, but there was no consistency in the attack with the sixth and seventh-place hitters unable to find the range.
The series will end today with the usual afternoon-evening twin bill. John Tierney and Ron Smith will do the mound work for the A’s. Tacoma will send Henry Miller, big Negro pitcher, and rookie Hal Dodeward to the hill.
Tacoma .... 450 200 300—14 18 0
Victoria ..... 000 201 201— 6 13 2
Knezovich and Watson; Osborn, Brkich (2), Jackson (4) and Martin.