Local teams vie for Legion series

Spencer Patterson

Friday, July 31, 1998 | 10:29 a.m.

The race to see which local team, if any, will represent host city Las Vegas in the upcoming American Legion World Series officially begins Saturday at the Nevada State Tournament.

Seven area squads and the Reno Knights will do battle at UNLV's Wilson Stadium until Wednesday to determine the state's single entry in the Western Region Tournament in Las Cruces, N.M.

From there, the Nevada representative will have its work cut out for it. Only one club will emerge from the eight-team regional field to play in the World Series, set for Cashman Field Aug. 21-25.

For now, though, the seven area coaches are trying to keep their players' attention focused on the task at hand.

"The World Series seems so far away right now," said Durango coach Tom Appleyard, whose squad will be the top seed in the state tournament.

"It's a great opportunity for Las Vegas to host an event that big in stature, but we're not looking at that right now."

Instead, Durango (59-22, 24-4 league) will spend the first three days of the tournament worrying about the other teams in its pool: No. 4 Cimarron-Memorial (24-12-1, 17-10-1) No. 5 Reno (38-14) and No. 8 Las Vegas (19-16-1, 15-12-1).

"I'm not sure that No. 1 seed means a heck of a lot with the new format," said Appleyard, referring to the switch from double-elimination to pool play this year. "Everybody's on equal terms going into this thing. I don't think there are any clear-cut favorites."

Defending champion Bishop Gorman (41-11, 22-6) comes into the event as the No. 2 seed and winners of two of the last three state tournaments. But coach Tim Chambers knows his club has a difficult assignment in this year's event.

"I think the brackets are pretty equal," Chambers said. "Las Vegas is the eighth seed, and they swing it as well as anyone in town. We respect all the teams in the tournament."

Joining Gorman in Pool B are No. 3 Silverado (33-15-2, 19-7-2), No. 6 Green Valley (29-13-1, 16-11-1) and No. 7 Western (22-20, 15-13).

With nine-inning contests and a five-games-in-five-days schedule, the tournament clearly favors squads with deep pitching staffs. On paper, that would seem to point to one of the event's top two seeds.

Durango can count on seven pitchers (Scott Yahraus, Chris Bannister, J.T. Sherman, E.J. Shanks, Richard Kilby, Nate Bumstead and Bryan Bryant) to eat up a majority of the innings. Gorman can turn to any of six potential starting pitchers (Nate Fouts, Jason Van Meetren, Ben Fox, Brandon Boesch, Paul Wurts and Pat McBride).