Salt Lake trip up for grabs at state tourney

Spencer Patterson

Friday, Aug. 3, 2001 | 9:53 a.m.

AMERICAN LEGION STATE TOURNAMENT

At Durango High School

First-Round Matchups (seeds in parentheses)

Saturday's Games

Durango (6) vs. Cimarron-Memorial (3), 5 p.m.

Bishop Gorman (7) vs. Palo Verde (2), 8 p.m.

Sunday's Games

Bonanza (5) vs. Las Vegas (4), 5 p.m.

Western (8) vs. Basic (1), 8 p.m.

After losing just one conference game during the regular season, the 27-7 Basic Wolves were expected to open the 2001 American Legion State Tournament as the eight-team event's overwhelming favorite.

As it turns out, however, the Wolves will be without the services of their top two players, ace pitcher Matt Elliott and leading hitter Micah Schnurstein, both of whom are headed to California for this year's prestigious Area Code Games.

And that means it's anybody's guess who will emerge from the grueling eight-day tournament at Durango High School and claim the title, along with the coveted trip to this year's Western Regional Tournament in Salt Lake City that comes with it.

"If someone isn't playing, someone else has to pick up the slack," Basic coach Mike Kazek said. "We were without Matt, Micah and (pitcher) Brian Lake for a while earlier this summer, and the team defeated Green Valley and Chaparral without them, so I put a lot of confidence in the kids that show up to play."

The top-seeded Wolves will open Sunday against red-hot Western (18-10), which captured this week's Legion District Tournament title with three wins in as many days. In that event, the Warriors received strong pitching performances from their starting trio of Tommy LaFronz, Shaun Taylor and Paul Reardon.

"I give (Western) credit. That's like coming through the loser's bracket to win a spot in this tournament," Kazek said.

Seventh-seeded Bishop Gorman (16-16) caught a break late last week when Northern Nevada representative Reno High told event organizers it would be unable to attend this year's state tournament due to financial constraints. The Gaels, who would have had to battle in the district event, instead received the extra automatic state berth.

"One of our sponsors didn't come through at the last minute," said Reno coach Pete Savage.

Gorman will face No. 2 seed Palo Verde in round one Saturday. The Panthers (21-7) are coming off their second straight strong Legion campaign, and handed Basic its lone league loss this summer.

"Winning (state) would be a major step for us, to be placed with the upper-echelon teams in the Valley," Panthers coach Mike Besser said.

"In the past, you looked at Durango, Green Valley, Gorman, Silverado, Cimarron and Basic. This program is still trying to establish itself. They want to knock off some of those established schools and get into that championship game."

In other first-round action, No. 3 Cimarron-Memorial (18-15) -- last year's Legion state champion -- will take on No. 6 Durango (47-29), a club that spent much of the summer on the road at tournaments as far away as Oklahoma and South Dakota.

The fourth opening-round contest will pit No. 4 Las Vegas High (18-8) against No. 5 Bonanza (16-11).

The tournament will feature a double-elimination format until next Saturday's championship round -- a single game Aug. 11 at 8 p.m.