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By Paul Delaney
Staff Reporter 

Blue Devils reach playoffs

 

Last updated 7/18/2014 at 10:11am



The Spokane Blue Devils accomplished what they set out to do — make the Spokane AAA American Legion playoffs.

Now it’s a matter of how long they stay and it’s so far so good.

Following a must-have sweep of the Northeast 49ers last week that nudged them past the Spokane Cannons and into third place in the final league standings, the Blue Devils beat the Cannons 6-3 this past Monday in a first-round playoff.

Then this past Tuesday afternoon, the Blue Devils got a 2 for 5 performance with three RBIs and a run scored from Cheney’s Tanner Smith in an 11-4 win over the Cannons. The win in the loser-out game earned the Blue Devils the No. 3 seed out of Spokane. Earlier in the day the Blue Devils lost 11-1 to the Spokane Northstars where the winners emerged as the No. 2 seed from Spokane.

The Blue Devils advance to the regional playoffs Saturday in Chehalis against an opponent that had not yet been determined as of press time.

Blue Devils’ head coach Steve Hare hoped for big production versus the 49ers and he got it. “Most of the games (this season) we’d get eight runs, nine runs, we just didn’t want to put ‘em away,” Hare said. “

The first game Hare told his players to “Open up the door on these guys, it’s just a crack right now, and then kick open the door with a lot of runs.”

They did just that beating the 49ers 14-1 and 8-0 July 8 and capping the sweep with a 12-1 swamping July 9.

“It was nice to see,” Hare said.

Smith was on fire versus the 49ers going a collective 6 for 7 with 8 runs scored and a pair of RBIs. Kyle Barsness saw action in two of the games, was 1 for 6 and a run scored.

After the conclusion of the Spokane league season the Blue Devils traveled to play this past weekend at the Walla Walla Sweets Tournament where they went 1-4. Spokane won their first game 6-3 over the Eastside BBC of Bellevue, Wash. That was followed by losses of 11-1 to the Walla Walla Bears, 6-0 to the Seattle Tides, 13-6 to the Spokane Northstars and 9-8 to Caldwell, Idaho.

“Ultimately, for me as a coach, it was trying to get through the tournament with the idea that we had playoff games starting Monday so I really couldn’t use much of my pitching,” Hare said.

The Walla Walla tournament might have had a different outcome had Hare chosen to sacrifice his pitching arms there rather than save them for the playoffs.

At Walla Walla, Barsness went 2 for 8 with 2 runs scored and an RBI in four games. Smith struggled in five games with one hit in 14 plate appearances getting an RBI and scoring a run.

Paul Delaney can be reached at pdelaney@cheneyfreepress.com.

 

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