Thursday, July 15, 1948

STANDINGS
              W  L Pct. GB
Tacoma ..... 55 36 .604 --
Bremerton .. 53 39 .576 2½
Victoria ... 50 40 .556 4½
Vancouver .. 44 40 .524 7½
Spokane .... 46 44 .511 8½
Wenatchee .. 40 50 .444 14½
Salem ...... 39 51 .423 15½
Yakima ..... 31 58 .348 23

WI Has Close Games
By the Associated Press
It was one of those light nights in Western International League last night with each of the four contests being decided by a single run. When the last ball was pitched, it looked like this:
Tacoma nipped Bremerton 3-2, Vancouver edged Victoria 5-4, Wenatchee squeezed past Spokane 9-8 and Salem oozed by Yakima 3-2.
The results increased the pace-setting Tacoma Tigers' first place margin over Bremerton to two and a half games.
Ken Clary, Tacoma right-hander, and Bremerton's John Marshall hooked up in a mound duel in the Tacoma fray. Each gave up eight hits with Clary getting the nod as Dick Greco and Hank Vallee put together successive doubles to break a 2-all dead lock in the eighth inning.
Bill Reese's triple, two errors and successive singles by Jack Palmer and Russ Walseth enabled Vancouver to score three runs and knot Victoria 4-4 in the eighth inning. Charlie Mead made the rally worthwhile by homering in the ninth.
Five home runs marked the Wenatchee-Spokane fray, but it was Jess McWilliams' ninth-inning single that drove in Les Scarpelli with the run that enabled the Chiefs to sweep their three-game set with Spokane. Bob Hedington, Bud Sheely and Gene Petralli each clouted four-ply blows for Spokane, while Bill Wilson collected a pair for Wenatchee.
Slugging Sammy Samhammer blasted out a two-run triple in the fifth and singled home Al Spaeter in the seventh to account for all the Salem tallies in the Oregonians' win over Yakima.

TACOMA, July 15—Tacoma Tigers moved two and a half games in front of Bremerton by nipping the Bluejackets, 3-2, tonight when successive doubles by Dick Greco and Hank Vallee broke a 2-2 deadlock in the eighth.
Bremerton ........ 100 100 000—2 8 0
Tacoma ........... 000 020 01x—3 8 1
Marshall and Volpi; Clary and Hargadon.

VANCOUVER, July 15—Charlie Mead's homer to short right field with two out in the ninth inning sent Vancouver fans home happy as the Capilanos defeated the Victoria Athletics, 5-4.
Sandy Robertson was happy, too, as he picked up the win. He relieved Larry Manier in the sixth inning after two men had scored, two men were on and one was out. Manier had given up a homer to Archie Wilson over the centre field wall, and singles to Babe Jensen, Dick Morgan and Russ Walseth. Robertson got two groundouts to end the inning, then the next six in a row before a couple of hits in the ninth inning that didn't result in a run.
The Caps were trailing 4-1 going into the eighth when Bill Reese opened the inning by tripling to the centre-field fence, then scored when Jack Palmer kicked away Charlie Mead's easy roller to second base. Joe Blankenship was brought in from the bullpen and Buddy Hjelmaa hit a grounder to short that Walseth booted and the tying runs were on. Two outs later, Robertson singled to load the bases then Len Tran stroked the ball into centre field and two runs came in on the sharp single to tie the game.
Blankenship was tagged with the loss.
Victoria ........... 100 102 000—4 11 3
Vancouver ....... 100 000 031—5 12 3
Harmsen, Blankenship (8) and Recca; Manier, Robertson (6) and Brenner.

WENATCHEE, July 15—In a home-run battle at Wenatchee, the Chiefs edged Spokane Indians, 9-8, on Jess McWilliams' ninth-inning single. Bob Hedington, Gene Petralli and Bud Sheely clouted Spokane home runs while Bill Wilson replied with two for the winners.
Spokane ........... 010 142 000—8 17 2
Wenatchee ....... 000 205 011—9 12 3
Orphal, Babbitt (6) and Sheely; McCollum, Rose (6), Stevens (7) and Gardner.

Yakima ......... 000 100 010—2 9 0
Salem .......... 000 020 10x—3 8 0
Strait and Estrada; Stevenson and Stumpf.