RR wins first two playoff games

Ken Johnston
Editor

The Rainy River Legion Royals continued their stellar season last week winning the first two games of the Rainy River District League Playoffs.
Last Tuesday they met Big Grassy in Rainy River. Big Grassy was late getting here and was penalized one run and one inning.
In the second inning Big Grassy went out in order. Rainy’s Rick Tymkin, Don Gall and Murray Armstrong all scored to make it a 4-0 ball game.
Hurler Murray Armstrong downed BG in order again. His counterpart, Leland Indian also pitched a decent inning only allowing one hit by Al Pratt who was stranded on second.
In the fourth Armstrong allowed one hit and then retired three in a row. Rainy picked up two more runs with Jim Chorney and Murray Armstrong rounding the bags. It was now 6-0.
It was more of the same for BG in the fifth. Three up, three down. Rainy again scored two with Rick Tymkin and Wes Blight scoring.
In the sixth it was the same as the fifth for BG. Rainy had one player stranded to end the inning still ahead 8-0.
In the top of the 7th one BG batter reached first but that was it and Rainy won 8-0.
On Thursday Rainy faced the Pinewood Bears in a rematch from the tournament in Rainy the weekend before.
Clint Armstrong reached third after an overthrow at first. He was belted home by Tom Armstrong two batters later and the Bears lead 1-0 after one.
Pinewood’s pitcher, Kyle Langlais allowed only one hit that inning from Don Gall who was stranded at first.
Joel Ashworth walked to start the second inning. However that would be as far as he would get as RR pitcher Murray Armstrong struck out two and a fly was caught to end the inning.
Rainy River then tied things up with Marty Armstrong walking, then being advanced by a sacrifice hit by Darren Davidson and then a single by Murray Armstrong to score Marty.
It stayed 1-1 through to the bottom of the fourth when Rainy rallied to score five runs. Marty Armstrong lead off with a walk. Again he was advanced by Davidson who hit a sacrifice grounder and was thrown out at first. Murray Armstrong was then walked. He was followed by Walter Wagner who hit a single. Then Guy Arpin hit a triple to score three runs. Don Gall was then intentionally walked and eventually scored. It was now a 6-1 game with the weather starting to look like rain.
Unlike league play though, the game has be a complete seven innings where as in league if five innings are completed and the game called for weather or darkness it is considered a game.
As the rain started Rainy became antsy and tried to speed the game up. A combination of anxiousness and the wet ball may have effected Murray’s concentration as he allowed two homeruns in a row by Kyle Langlais and Tom Armstrong to close the gap at 6-3.
But that would be as close as Pinewood would get. The game ended with Rainy River advancing to meet Barwick tonight in Rainy River. Pinewood went to the B side of the draw where they will meet the Emo Bulldogs tonight.
Also playing tonight is Sight and Sound against Big Grassy. Once a team has two losses they are out of the playoffs.
Other first round games saw Pinewood defeat the Bulldogs 5-4, Barwick defeat Big Island 9-3, Sight and Sound defeat Hyatt’s 13-12.
In round two Barwick beat Sight and Sound 7-2, Big Grassy beat Big Island 12-7 and the Bulldogs beat Hyatt’s 18-3. Hyatt’s and Big Island are both out of the playoffs now. After tonight two more teams will be eliminated.