Friday, August 3, 1951

W L PCT GB
Vancouver ... 71 40 .640 —
Spokane ..... 69 39 .639 ½
Wenatchee ... 55 52 .518 16
Salem ....... 55 53 .509 16½
Tri-City .... 48 63 .432 23
Victoria .... 48 64 .429 23½
Tacoma ...... 46 62 .426 23½
Yakima ...... 46 65 .414 25

VANCOUVER [Keith Matthews, News Herald, Aug. 4]—The Capilanos most valuable mist-season purchase turned out to be a right-handed pitcher named Ron Smith.
Friday night at Capilano Stadium before 6000 people Ronnie righted the faltering Capilano ship by pitching a brilliant 1-0, 11-inning shutout.
It came after the Caps had dropped the opening game of the doubleheader, 3-2, to the troublesome Yakima Bears.
Ron’s foe in this unbelievably well-played baseball game was none other than Bill Brenner, who used to be the league’s best catcher but who is now making a bid for additional pitching honors.
Brenner went right along with Smith pitch for pitch and had it not been for Chuck Abernathy, the game might still be going.
It was Abernathy who delivered the big hit in the 11th.he came up with Charlie Mead on first one out and doubled into the right field corner. It was Chuck’s fifth hit of the game. Brenner purposely walked Ray Tran to fill the bases, but Smith fooled the strategy by executing a perfect squeeze bunt which scored Mead with the winner.
The split put Vancouver alone in first place, one percentae point ahead of Spokane, 7-6 loser to Tacoma last night.
DIAMOND DUST . . . Carl Gunnarson lost the first game, his seventh of the season, to Larry Powell of the Bears . . . the same clubs play tonight, one game at 8:30 and Bob Snyder will be going for his 21st win . . . the popular Vancouver righthander incidentally will be honoured with Bob Snyder Night . . . Monday, when the Caps open against Tri-City here, it is Penticton night at the ball park.
First Game
Yakima ............ 001 003 0—3 10 0
Vancouver ....... 002 000 0—2 4 0
Powell and Tiesiera; Gunnarson and Ritchey.
Second Game
Yakima ............... 000 000 000 00—0 5 1
Vancouver .......... 000 000 000 01—1 9 0
Brenner and Tiesiera; Smith and Ritchey.

SPOKANE, Aug. 3—The Spokane Indians dropped into second place in the Western International league baseball standings Friday night by losing a 7-6 decision to the Tacoma Tigers.
Tacoma ....... 100 001 212—7 11 3
Spokane ...... 001 003 020—6 9 4
Knezovich, Mishasek (1) and Lundberg; Conant, Roberts (2), Marshall (9) and Sheets.

SALEM, Aug. 3 — Wenatchee edged Salem 3 to 2 in a Western International league ball game here Friday night marked by a wild demonstration of fans and Salem players over a ruling by umpire Dick Valencourt. He called a balk on Salem pitcher Sal DeGeorge.
DeGeorge protested and was ejected from the game. Then fans began throwing things onto the field.
Salem players were ordered off the bench when they too began throwing things onto the diamond.
During the melee, 1,000 signatures were collected asking WIL league president Bob Abel, Tacoma, not to send Valencourt to Salem again.
Wenatchee ....... 000 020 010—3 7 2
Salem .............. 000 100 010—2 5 0
Raimondi and Roberson, DeGeorge, Lew (5) and McKeegan.

VICTORIA [Colonist, Aug. 4]—As a manager, Victoria Athletics’ Bob Sturgeon has been a huge success in Victoria.
Sturgeon and his charges returned home yesterday after a disastrous road trip which all but eliminated them from the W.I.L. Shaughnessy plyoffs and promptly looked like another ball club.
END LOSS STREAK
Playing against Tri-City Braves, who had just won four in a row from them, the A’s delighted about 2,000 paying customers at Royal Athletic Park by sweeping both ends of a doubleheader.
Bill Osborn tossed a one-hitter at the Braves in the seven-inning opener to record the first shutout of his professional baseball career, 6-0. In the wind-up, the Victorians backed Jim Hedgecock with some snappy infield play and timely hitting to come out on top, 13-7, with the slim southpaw just breezing after he had a huge lead.
AT HOME, .714
The double win left the A’s with a 15-6 record at home under Sturgeon, but their road record in the same period reads 7-18. It gives Sturgeon a .478 overall rating as a manager, an improvement over Dick Barrett’s .394 pace.
It was two tired teams who took to the field last night. Both clubs had played nine games in the last six days with the A’s finding time somehow to shift from Salem to Tri-City and from Tri-City to Victoria, two long jumps, between games.
After today’s afternoon-evening bill, it will be 11 games in seven days, quite a chore for the Victoria mound staff, which consists of five pitchers and first baseman Hal Jackson.
SPOILED EARLY
Osborn gave up a line single to lead-off batter Sam Kanelos in the first inning and that was all. Kanelos was immediately wiped out on a double play and the only other Brave to reach first base was Bill Edelstein, who waslked in the third. No runner reached second base.
Gene Thompson gave Osborn all the margin he needed in the first inning when he hit his third home run of the season with Jim Clark, hit by a pitched ball, and Marv Diercks, who had singled, on the bags.
GRAND SLAM HOMER
It was another home run which sewed it up in the finale. The A’s scored four runs off Cy Greenlaw in the third to take a 4-1 lead, made it almost certain with five more in the fourth. Greenlaw was replaced during the second uprising by Dick Stone, who came in with one out, one run in and the bags loaded. He got Milt Martin to ground to Kanelos, forcing the runner at the plate. Then Bill White stepped up and clouted the first pitch out of the park for four runs.
White went back to right field when Ben Jaffey was sidelines with a mild attack of tonsillitis and immediately posed a problem for Sturgeon by batting in six runs on his grand slam clout, a double and a single.
CLARK HELPS
Also in the limelight offensively was the hustling Clark, who had a triple, which touched off a four-run rally, three singles and two bases on balls in the second game and who reached base legitimately nine times out of ten in the last two games. Don Pries had three hits in the last game, got to first eight times out of ten changes in both games.
Defensively, Pries, Clark and Bill Dunn, who replaced Sturgeon at second base in the second game, all came up with two or more fielding gems.
WANDERING BOY
Meanwhile, business manager Reg Patterson announced for the tenth time that Bill Carr, the phantom righthander, is en route, should report today. To fill out the roster, the A’s have signed Bill Prior to a contract, will have the rangy righthander ready in case he is needed—or Carr again failed to show.
First Game
Tri-City ........ 000 000 0—0 1 2
Victoria ........ 300 030 x—6 7 0
Costello, Stone (6) and Pesut; Osborn and Thrasher.
Second Game
Tri-City ............... 001 201 003—7 15 0
Victoria ............... 004 601 30x—13 15 2
Greenlaw, Stone (4), Edelstein (8) and Pesut; Hedgecock and Martin.