Nitro Finish Third In Softball Tourney

After cruising unbeaten into the semifinals, the Spokane Nitro lost two straight games Sunday and wound up third in the American Softball Association’s Junior Olympics Western Area Championships at Evanston, Wyo.

The Cypress (Calif.) All-Stars dropped the Nitro into the losers bracket with a 5-0 victory, offsetting a nine-strikeout performance by Spokane’s Jennifer Stockman.

Then, the Bonita Valley All-Stars of Chula Vista, Calif., defeated Spokane 4-2. Katie Hoffman had two of seven hits for the Nitro.

Bonita Valley went on to win the tournament, defeating Cypress twice, 7-2 and 5-4.

Golf

Katie King, representing Manito Golf and Country Club, finished with a two-day total of 151 to win the Wandermere Classic women’s amateur tournament that ended Saturday at Wandermere Golf Club.

Teenage standout Britney Holt, fresh from a fourth-place finish Thursday in the Polo Golf Southwestern Junior Classic, won the championship flight by scoring 155 for the 36 holes.

Eighteen Inland Northwest boys and 11 girls will begin competition today in the Pacific Northwest Golf Association’s junior amateur championships.

The 43rd annual boys event, with a field of 144 players 17 years of age and under, will open with 18 holes of stroke play at Skagit Golf and Country Club in Burlington, Wash. The lowest 32 scorers will advance to the championship flight, which will be match play. The 36-hole title match will be played Friday.

Fifty-nine golfers will tee off in the 42nd annual girls tournament at Wing Point Golf and Country Club at Bainbridge Island, Wash. After today’s 18 holes of qualifying, the top 16 will move into match play.

The girls championship will be decided Thursday.

Baseball

The Spokane Heat played to a 16-16 tie and the Spokane Ice suffered a pair of defeats in Pride of America tournament pool play.

The Heat and the Vancouver Storm played only four innings at Coeur d’Alene’s McEuen Field before the first game of their doubleheader was halted by the time limit. There had been 32 hits, 13 of them home runs, to go with the 32 runs.

Pat Stiffler, Justin Williams and Brian Miller each had three hits for Spokane and Grant Reeves tied the score with a fourth-inning grand-slam homer.

At Freeman High School, host Grocery Outlet defeated the Ice 6-3 and 15-13.

In the opener, Eric Singer’s two hits included a third-inning home run for Grocery Outlet. Chris Schuchart singled in P.J. Barthelmes with the winning run as Grocery Outlet rallied with nine runs in the fifth inning of the second game.

, DataTimes