Kennewick hammers Pioneers

The Kennewick, Wash., Bandits stole Powell's hopes for an undefeated run through the Northwest regional Legion baseball tournament in Salt Lake City on Saturday evening with a lopsided 24-7 decision that ended the game in the seventh inning.

Tyler Dahlgren knocked home a trio of runs for the Pioneers who fell behind 6-1 after two innings, but fought back to within 6-5 before the game got out of control. Kennewick plated 15 runs over the span of two innings as the Pioneers' pitching staff was roughed up.

The Pioneers remain alive in the tournament, however, and will play again at noon on Sunday against the winner of tonight's game between host Bear Creek, Utah, and Roseburg, Ore. In the day's other early action, Bonneville, Idaho, was unable to recover from its emotional loss to Powell the night before and became the first team eliminated from play with a 22-3 loss to Box Elder, Utah. The other late game features Fairbanks, Alaska, a 10-3 winner over Bear Creek last night, playing Laurel, Mont., in a winner's bracket game.

Diamond Notes:
* The venue for today's games shifted from Gates Field to a city park in the shadows of the Olympic skating oval. The shift was prompted by a state law regulating how close the public can be to the launch point of a fireworks display. The display was planned as part of a community festival in the area of the stadium and was originating from a practice football field immediately adjoining the ball field.

* Forgotten in yeserday's diamond notes was the fact the Powell Pioneers were omitted from this year's Salt Lake tournament program. The program instead features the Alaska AAA champion Anchorage South team, which is playing in Medford, Ore., this weekend instead. No word on whether the Pioneers' team photo is on display in Medford, but pictures of the Pioneers were circulated at tonight's game and an apology for the oversight appears on the program publisher's webpage.

* Fans attempting to locate the site of today's baseball games may have been taken on an inadvertant sightseeing trip in Salt Lake City depending on which version of the tournament bracket they viewed. Early copies of the bracket switched the South and West street addresses, directing fans to an area roughly 14 blocks from the actual ball field. Fans attempting to locate the erroneous address instead found themselves in the vicinity of a Salt Lake newspaper printing center. The fact that I know this should tip readers off to which address I drove to first tonight...