Prairie Bats Bring Two Wins As Legion Tournament Starts

Third-seeded Prairie of Post Falls pounded its way into the third round of the District I American Legion baseball tournament Thursday night at Sandpoint.

Prairie rapped 16 hits to defeat the Coeur d’Alene Lumbermen 12-5 in the first of two evening games. Prairie scored the tiebreaking run in the seventh inning to nudge the Moscow Blue Devils 5-4 in the second of four games on the tourney’s first day.

Fourth-seeded Lewis-Clark Twins of Lewiston advanced after Ryan Heitman pitched the Lewiston club to a two-hit, 9-0 victory over Sandpoint in the opener. The Twins met the tournament’s top seed, West Kootenay of Trail, British Columbia, in Thursday’s late game.

Play continues with four games today at Memorial Field. The championship game will be played Saturday at 6:30 p.m. The winner and at least one other team will advance to the state tournament Aug. 3-7 at Caldwell. Lewis-Clark is guaranteed a berth as host of the 1995 state event.

Jake Medlock tripled and homered to pace Prairie past second-seeded Coeur d’Alene. Teammate Kurt Reese contributed three hits as the Post Falls club worked over CdA ace Jesse Hoorelbeke.

Eric Singer singled, doubled and tripled and Al Bevacqua combined two singles and a triple to lead Prairie past Moscow.

Sennett Pierce had three singles to lead Lewiston’s 15-hit attack.

Spokane AA Legion

Olympic Sports broke free from a 6-6 tie to defeat Eagle Hardware 9-7 in the opening game of a best-of-three AA American Legion baseball playoff series at Whitworth.

Brett Hair’s two-run single in the fifth inning gave Olympic its margin of victory after Bill Conant pitched more than three innings of two-hit relief and earned the win.

The teams produced their 16 runs on only 16 hits, but benefited from 14 walks.

Game Two of the series will be played at Whitworth today at 6 p.m.

Basketball

The Texas Red Raiders eliminated the U14 Spokane Stars from the Shootout Tournament, the consolation portion of the U15/U14 AAU Girls National Championships at Nashville, Tenn.

The Red Raiders, who won 48-41, led 26-22 at halftime, although the game was tied 22-22 with 5 seconds left in the half. Before the intermission, Texas made two quick shots and took the lead for good.

Courtney Ferguson of Mead led Spokane with 10 points and five assists. Kelly McCaffery of Ferris had 13 rebounds.

Golf

Carlye Ingram of Meadows Springs eliminated Spokane’s Susan Sherman 2 up in the consolation portion of the Washington state Women’s Golf Association Championships at Walla Walla Country Club.

Sharon Johnston and Ann Swanson will play for the title today. Johnston edged Sue Ursino 1 up on the 19th hole. Swanson ousted Angie Cates, who eliminated Spokane’s Suzi Stone on Wednesday, 3 and up.

, DataTimes