Hot bats for Colusa in Legion tourney

American Legion baseball was red-hot last weekend, as all three Tri-County teams competed at Big League Dreams in Redding for the eighth annual Shasta Lake Bass Fourth of July Baseball Classic.

The 16-team field was divided into two brackets, National and American, each sporting a pair of color-coded divisions. Each team played the other three teams in its respective division in pool play, and then was seeded against the same seed from the other division of the bracket. In the end, each bracket crowned a champion.

In a battle of Channel Cats supremacy, the Colusa County squad defeated Pit River, 13-2, Wednesday during pool play of the American Bracket, Blue Division.

Brandon Rader belted a pinch-hit, two-run homer over the Fenway Field fence, and Benji Gil worked a complete game on the mound for the victory.

Gil gave up two earned runs on seven hits with a walk and seven strikeouts.

Colusa had immense production from the top of its batting order, with 1-2 punch Jeremy Hernandez and Steven Perry collectively reaching base in nine out of 10 plate apperances.

Hernandez was 3-for-3 with a walk and a hit by pitch, smacking a double and scoring four runs out of the leadoff spot.

Perry also slugged a two-bagger off the wall and finished 3-for-4 with a walk, two RBIs and two runs scored.

James Bowen added a solo shot over the center-field wall to cap Colusa’s four-run fourth inning, giving the team an 8-1 advantage.

Hernandez singled and scored on an error to put Colusa on the board in the first. Bowen and Tyler Kreditor later scored on Sean Rawlin’s two-run single, a 3-0 lead that in itself would have been enough run support for Gil’s pitching effort.

The extra 10 runs and 10 hits turned out to be an infallible insurance policy.

Davis Walker singled and scored twice, and Tyler Wells was 2-for-3 with a run batted in.

Colusa went on to sweep its division, which also included the Redding Cobras and Red Bluff Junior Bulls, to earn the top seed. They took on Chico Suns Blue, the No. 1 team in the Grey Division, on Friday afternoon.