Thursday, May 13, 1948

STANDINGS
              W  L Pct. GB
Tacoma ..... 11  6 .647 --
Wenatchee .. 11  9 .600 1½
Salem ...... 12 11 .522 2
Yakima ..... 12 11 .522 2
Victoria ... 11 12 .478 3
Bremerton ... 9 10 .474 3
Spokane ..... 9 12 .429 4
Vancouver ... 9 13 .409 4½

VICTORIA, May 13—Veteran Hub Kittle's strike-out ball pulled him out of almost constant trouble tonight as he hurled Yakima Packers to a 7-5 victory over the Victoria Athletics in the opening game of a four-game Western International League series.
The tobacco-chewing veteran stuck it out until the end, although the Packers' bull-pen was busy the whole night. Victoria loaded the bags in the third, fourth and fifth innings, and had two men on in the seventh, eighth and ninth frames — all with less than two out — but left a total of 13 runners stranded as Kittle struck out 15.
Sal Recca and Archie Wilson each went down on strikes three times and Frank Cirimele, Bob Koraleski and manager Ted Norbert all went down swinging in pinch-hitting roles.
Del Owens was the first of four Victoria pitchers and left after five innings on the wrong side of a 6-3 count and charged with his second loss.
Holding a 3-1 lead at the end of four innings, the visitors sewed it up with three runs in the fifth. Larry Orteig and Gene Thompson hit successive home runs, the latter clout inside the park. A walk to Neil Bryant and Diamond Cecil's double accounted for the other run.
The A's managed one run in the third after loading the bags with none out. Two scored in the fifth, while Monty Pfyl's error permitted the final Victoria runs in the eighth.
Yakima ........ 102 030 100—7 9 1
Victoria ....... 001 020 020—5 8 2
Kittle and Eastwood; Owens, Logue (6), Goot (7), Walkinshaw (9) and Recca.

Wenatchee at Tacoma, double-header, postponed, rain
Spokane at Bremerton, postponed, rain
Salem at Vancouver, postponed, rain.