Saturday, July 21, 1951

               W  L  PCT GB
Vancouver ... 63 33 .656 —
Spokane ..... 61 34 .642 1½
Salem ....... 48 47 .505 14½
Wenatchee ... 46 48 .489 16
Tri-City .... 43 53 .448 20
Victoria .... 42 55 .433 21½
Tacoma ...... 39 55 .415 23
Yakima ...... 39 58 .400 24½

VICTORIA [Colonist, July 22]—Just like any other club, Vancouver Capilanos can be stopped by good pitching.
The W.I.L. leaders ran into a double dose of it yesterday at Royal Athletic Park and saw their lead sliced as Victoria Athletics took both ends of the usual afternoon-evening Saturday fare, 8-1 and 3-1.
HELPS PLAYOFF CHANCE
Results moved the A’s closer to fifth place and closed the gap separating them and the first division to five games they also gave the A’s their second series win at Victoria over the Caps and left them with a 5-6 record for the season against the pace-setters, the best showing of any team against Bill Schuster’s hard-hitting club.
As is almost always the case when a club gets good pitching, the A’s could do little wrong yesterday as Bill Osborn and Jim Hedgecock silenced Vancouver bats with some fine moundwork.
Osborn, coming right back after being hit hard in his last two starts, pitched what was probably his best game of the season to record his eighth victory in 14 decisions.
The quiet righthander, hitting the corners with what appeared to be a slider, worked ahead of the hitters throughout and was in charge all the way. He gave up but eight hits and five of those were of blooper singles.
Meanwhile, his teammates got their hits when it counted. They scored their first six runs on five safeties, three of them doubles, as they took full advantage of Jerry Barta’s wildness.
Hedgecock ran into tougher opposition under the lights with Carl Gunnarson, veteran southpaw, a tough-luck loser. All four runs were slightly tainted and the two wronghanders might be pitching yet but for the breaks which usually decide the close ones.
Gunnarson had a slight edge, giving up only six hits and two bases on balls, but Hedgecock had better support as the Caps could only score once on seven hits and five walks. Two of the hits off Gunnarson were bunts, one was a lost-in-the-lights double and a fourth was a fluke single which plated the game’s first run. Hedgecock gave up his first hit in the fourth, Gunnarson with two out in the fifth and the game was scoreless until the seventh.
ERROR DECIDES IT
Victoria scored first when Bob McGuire lost Gene Thompson’s long fly and it fell for a double. Bill White blooped a single on the foul line behind first base and Thompson sprinted home.
A dubious call on a stolen base at second base put McGuire in position to score on Dick Sinovic’s double in the eighth and tie it up. But an error let the A’s through for the winning runs in their half.
BUNT PAYS OFF
Dunn opened by beating out a perfect bunt. Hedgecock followed with another bunt and Gordie Brunswick threw low to second base and all hands were safe as Jim Moore juggled the ball. Jim Clark laid down another bunt, which forced Hedgecock but sent Dunn to third to score after Don Pries had flied to deep centre. Marv Diercks provided an insurance run by following with a triple.
FINE DEFENSE
Turning point of the game came in the fourth inning when Brunswick led off with a single and was called safe at second on a fielder’s choice as Sinovic grounded to Pries. Hedgecock then took most of the pressure off with a great move which trapped Sinovic off first.
It was one of the many fine plays turned in by the A’s. They came up with two double plays in the finale and one in the afternoon to erase as many threats, and Bill White made two magnificent catches in right field. He probably saved the bacon in the ninth inning of the night game when he made an almost unbelievable grab of Reno Cheso’s lead-off bid for what would have been a triple. The ball was hit to deep right and White just speared it after leaping high against the fence.
NO. 10 FOR SOUTHPAW
It helped give Hedgecock his tenth win and it was the second game in a row in which he limited the opposition to a lone run.
Manager Bob Sturgeon took the day off, installing Bill Dunn at second base. Dunn fielded well and although he made only one hit, it was the one which started the game-winning rally in the mazda encounter. Attedance for the two games was approximately 3,000.
Vancouver .... 000 000 010—1-7-1
Victoria ......... 000 000 12x—3-6-1
Gunnarson and Cheso; Hedgecock and Martin.

TACOMA, July 21 — Behind effective pitching by John Conant, the Spokane Indians tonight rolled over the Tacoma Tigers 11-4 in a Western International league ball game.
The Indians' victory, plus Vancouver's double defeat, left Spokane but 1½ games away from the league-lead.
Conant was in trouble in only one inning — the fourth — when the Tigers put together five hits for three runs. However, Spokane unlimbered a 13-hit attack to stay out of trouble.
Jim Wert with four hits in five tries including a triple, and with three stolen bases, was the biggest thorn in the side of the Tigers.
Spokane ...... 003 024 002—11-13-2
Tacoma ....... 000 300 010— 4- 9-1
Conant and Sheets; Miller, Schulte (6) Mishasek (6), Kipp (8) and Watson.

KENNEWICK [Herald, July 22]—Jim McKeegan lined a single through the box in the top of the ninth inning for the Salem Senators last night to drive in Bill Spaeter with the winning run in the nightcap of a twin bill. Salem won the first game 4-1 and won the last game 3-2.
Aldon Wilkie, crafty lefthander, gave a brilliant display of his pitching prowess in the bottom of the ninth inning. With the bases full of Braves, and only one out, Wilkie got Vic Buccola on a pop fly to the infield and turned out the lights at Sanders field by forcing Buddy Peterson on a fly to the outfield.
Although the Braves outhit the Senators 8 to 7, five of the Salem blows went for extra bases, including one triple and four doubles.
Tri-City pushed out ahead in the fourth inning when Neil Bryant singled and scored on a triple by Sam Kanelos. Kanelos followed Bryant to the plant on Nick Pesut's single.
Thus the score stood 2-1 for Tri-City going into the top of the ninth inning. Glen Stetter opened with the third double of the game for Salem and Bill Spaeter followed with another that chased Stetter in.
Then with two out McKeegan lined his single. The two teams wind up their series tonight with a single game at 7:30 o'clock.
Al Spaeter sent the Braves ahead in the opening inning of the first game when he tripled and scored on Buddy Peterson's long fly ball.
Jim McKeegan, the Senator's young red-headed backstop who played with the Braves last year, tied it up in the second inning when he belted one over the left field wall.
Salem iced the game in the third inning when Richie Myers led off with his second successive single. Bob Costello then walked Gene Tanselli, it was Costello's first walk of the game. With one out, Peterson bobbled Glen Stetter's roller and the sacks were clogged with Senators.
Costello then issued his second free pass of the inning to Bill Spaeter with Meyers walking in from third. Dick Bartle then rifled a single to plate Pancelli and Stetter. That was all for Costello. Jack Brewer got the next two men out to retire the side.
Brewer held the Senators well in check giving up but one hit and striking out five over the rest of the seven inning game.
Sal De George counted his 10th victory of the season. He held the Braves to five well scattered hits.
First Game
Salem ....... 013 000 0—4 5 0
Tri-City ... 100 000 0—1 5 2
DeGeorge and McKeegan; Costello, Brewer (3) and Pesut.
Second Game
Salem ........ 010 000 002—3 7 0
Tri-City ..... 000 200 000—2 8 0
Wilkie and McKeegan; Greenlaw and Pesut.

WENATCHEE, July 20—Bill Boemler set the Wenatchee Chief s down with two hits tonight as the Yakima Bears blasted Wenatchee 11-2 in a Western International baseball game.
Lil Arnerich, Wenatchee second baseman, got the first hit off Boemler — a scratch single In the fifth. Will Hafey, Wenatchee outfielder, poled a home run as the first batter in the bottom of the ninth.
Meanwhile, Boemler's teammates unloosed an 18-hit barrage which coupled with seven Wenatchee errors, enabled Yakima to coast home.
Yakima .......... 004 301 210—11-18-0
Wenatchee .... 000 010 001— 2- 2-7
Boemler and Tiesiera; Treichel, Breisinger (5) and Roberson.

Hewins Fragments
By Jack Hewins
[AP Seattle Sports Columnist, from Sunday, July 22, 1951]
Until they can train John Conant to pitch every night it looks like sad times for the Spokane Indians in Yakima’s Western International league game.
In one string of 24 games there Spokane won only two, and Conant pitched ‘em both. From the date of his July 14, 1948, decision to his July 17, 1951, victory, Yakima took 14 in a row from the Tribe in Parker Field.
• • •
This is a pitchers’ year in the WIL, with records (at last look) like Bill Bevens’ 14-7 for Salem, Bob Snyder’s 19-3 for Vancouver and Jim Holder’s 9-0 for Spokane.
• • •
Shortly after he was tossed out of a game in Salem, Vancouver manager Bill Schuster showed up wearing an umpire’s cap and claimed he’d been made an honorary ump by the arbiter (name of Valencourt) who gave him the heave-ho.