Patriots head to MT after finishing series at 2-2

Pullman Patriots are booked to play four games this week in the American Legion AAA division at Whitefish, Mont. The Patriots will make the trip after closing out their Palouse Summer Series run with a 2-2 mark Saturday.

Now 8-14 overall, the Patriots are in the last third of their season schedule.

Their slate at the Montana tournament starts today with games against teams from Butte and Glacier, Mont. Friday afternoon they will face the same Kalispell Lakers team which defeated them at McDonald Park last Friday in Colfax.

Saturday they will add a Canadian chapter to the season when they play a team from Lethbridge, Alberta.

The two top finishers after the first three days at Whitefish will play Sunday in the tournament's championship game.

After they return from Montana, the Patriots will play in the Lewiston Legion tournament next week. The Lewiston run is the last action booked on the Patriots' schedule for the season.

Next series will be playoffs for Spokane American Legion League to with entry slots in the state finals on the line.

The Patriots have already finished their league run with a 4-4 record and figure to be in the middle of the standings after the five-team Spokane league plays out its schedule.

Shadle Park and Gonzaga Prep are now believed to be on top of the standings with one known league defeat to date.

Depending on the overall count of Legion rosters around the state, the Spokane district could get three or four slots in the state finals. The Spokane playoff will feature a double elimination format.

The Patriots Saturday defeated Washington Rush of Edmonds on the WSU field to finish out their run in the series with a 2-2 record.

They took the Saturday win after they posted a split at McDonald Park in Colfax Friday when they played two different teams in back-to-back games.

Against the Rush team Saturday, the Patriots rolled out a six-run charge in the second inning to take the lead, and they kept it through the rest of the game for a 9-5 win.

Parker Huber pitched the first three innings and allowed four hits and walked one. Connor Parrish came to the mound in the fourth and stopped the Rush scoring. The Edmonds team added just one more run, unearned, in the top of the sixth.

The Patriots lashed nine hits against the coast team with Konner Kinkade hitting a two-run triple and a single.

Friday at McDonald Park in Colfax, the Patriots took a 6-2 win over the River City Athletics in the morning game and then bowed 3-9 to the Lakers.

Payton Kallaher pitched the distance in the first game and held the Athletics to three hits. He struck out three, walked zero and allowed three hits.

The Pats tagged 11 hits in the first game. Kinkade led the bats with three singles, two of them for RBIs. Cal Gregory and Parker Huber each had two hits.

In the Friday afternoon game at McDonald, the Lakers stacked a 7-0 lead after scoring five runs in the top of the third inning. They totaled eight hits for the game.

Lakers' pitcher Wes Palmer held the Patriots to just two hits. He struck out just two and walked three in taking the win.

Kelan Becker started for the Patriots and was followed by Grady Benton and Jackson Horner. Kinkade rapped an RBI single and Chase Hayton had the other single for the Patriots against the tough Kalispell hurler.

Patriots were stopped 6-3 Thursday at Bailey-Brayton field by the Bellevue Boys of Summer in a summer series game. The Patriots scored all three of their runs in the sixth inning.

Each team logged seven hits. Kyle Appel singled and doubled for the Patriots.

Bellevue pitcher A.J. Baldwin walked just one Patriot batter and had a shutout game going until the bottom of the sixth inning.

Reece Chadwick of Colton took the loss for the Patriots. He also allowed just one walk. Kinkade pitched the seventh inning to close out the game for the Patriots.