Saturday 15 March 2008

Monday, May 11, 1953

               W  L  PCT GB
Lewiston .... 12  3 .800 —
Vancouver .... 9  6 .600 3
Victoria .... 10  7 .588 3
Wenatchee .... 8  9 .471 5
Tri City ..... 7  8 .467 5
Yakima ....... 8 10 .444 5½
Calgary ...... 7  9 .438 5½
Edmonton ..... 6  8 .429 5½
Spokane ...... 6 10 .375 6½
Salem ........ 4  7 .364 6


VANCOUVER, B.C. — The Vancouver Capilanos slugged their way to an 11-8 victory over the Victoria Tyees Monday night in the opener of their three-game Western International Baseball League series here. It was the league’s only action.
The Tyees actually out-hit the Vancouver club 16-9 but the Caps more than made up the deficit with four resounding triples. The three-baggers came from the bats of Dick Briskey, Jim Wert, K Chorlton and Frank Mascaro.
The victory boosted the Caps into second spot behind Lewiston Broncs and dumped Tyees back into the third place vacated by Vancouver.
- - -
VANCOUVER [Victoria Colonist, May 12]—Some timely Vancouver hitting and some untimely Victoria bases on balls combined at Vancouver last night to give the Capilanos an 11-8 WIL triumph over the Tyees before a crowd of about 1,4000.
The game was the first of nine between the two Canadian Coast clubs within a week. They play tonight and tomorrow at Vancouver, move to Victoria for single games Thursday and Friday, two Saturday, and a holiday fixture Monday, and then return for a game at Vancouver Monday night.
CHANGE POSITIONS
Last night’s result reversed the standings for the two clubs, the Caps moving into second place, 12 percentage points ahead of the Tyees. Both trail the leading Lewiston Broncs by three games.
Two four-run innings ruined the Tyees. They saw a 6-3 lead evaporate into a 7-6 deficit in the sixth and a 7-7 tie become an 11-7 Vancouver lead in the seventh as their pitching faltered.
Berlyn Hodges started for the losers and was in a fair way to record his first win when he ran into control trouble in the sixth. Don Hopp, winner for four straight as a starter, came on as a relief pitcher, got neatly out of the inning but ran smack into more trouble in the seventh and was charged with his first setback.
TOO MANY TRIPLES
A first-inning triple by Dick Briskey, first of four three-base hits for the Caps, and Frank Mascaro’s outfield fly opened the scoring, but the Tyees came right back with four runs in the third, and they might have had more if Lu Branham, who led off with a single, hadn’t been cut down trying to steal.
After Branham was caught, Don Pries and Bob Moniz singled and manager Cec Garriott hit his second inside-the-park home run—his third base-base smash of the season. Chuck Abernathy doubled and scored the fourth run on Gale Taylor’s first hit.
Bases on balls to Briskey and Davis, an error by Jim Clark and an outfield fly got two back for the Caps in the third.
LOSES CONTROL
Single runs in the fourth and sixth gave the Islanders a 6-3 lead but Hodges, perhaps unsettled by an inning-opening blooper single by Don Lundberg, walked three men in a row in the Vancouver sixth.
When Hodges threw two straight balls to Wert, Garriott called on Hopp. Wert hit a bad-bounce triple for three runs, then Hop got things momentarily out of control by retiring the meat of the Vancouver batting order—Mascaro, manager Harvey Storey and Gordon Hernandez—without having the ball hit out of the infield.
K. Chorlton started the seventh-inning trouble with a lead-off triple and scored on a single by Davis. A base on balls, another single and Mascaro’s triple finished it. The Tyees managed to get the tying run to the plate in the eighth, when pinch-hitter Nap Gulley singled in a run, but Branham took a called third strike.
Victoria ......... 004 101 101— 8 16 3
Vancouver ..... 102 004 40x—11 9 3
Hodges, Hopp (6), Bottler (8) and Martin; Fletcher, Myers (7) and Lundberg.

ONLY GAME SCHEDULED

Ball Openers in Calgary, Edmonton
Tomorrow the Day


EDMONTON, May 11 — (CP) — Organized professional baseball returns to Alberta Tuesday after a 31-year absence when the Edmonton Eskimos and Calgary Stampeders begin their first Western International League home stands.
The Edmonton Eskimos, with former major leaguer Bobby Sturgeon at the helm, play host to the Yakima Bears in the opener here. The Eskimos have a 6-8 record in games so far, all played on the road.
John Conant, an 18-game winner last year for the Spokane Indians, is expected to start for the Esks in the Edmonton inaugural.
John Ducey, colorful Eskimo general manager, predicted a large turnout for the opener. He said the class A status will draw the fans which have been denied organized baseball for so long.
Edmonton's renovated Renfrew Park, with a seating capacity of 5,500, has some of the finest installations west of Toronto.
The Calgary Stampeders are at horne to the Wenatchee Chiefs at their opener. Manager Gene Lillard, also former major leaguer, and president Bus Lacey have organized a well-rounded club.
Baseball has always been a popular sport in Calgary. In 1920, the Calgary Bronks of the old Western Canada League set a class D attendance record which still stands.
WIL president Bob Brown estimated the addition of Edmonton and Calgary to the league will raise the loop's total attendance from 700,000 in 1952 to over the 1,000,000-mark.

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