Dilger, Adams go undefeated to win SNHPS championships

The Southern Nevada Horseshoe Pitching Series held their Pow Wow playoffs championship tournament at Petrack Park in Pahrump Sunday, Nov. 13.

The tournament was a doubles, double elimination event with 14 pitchers split into seven teams. Each team consisted of a division one and a division two pitcher.

This was the final event of the 2022 season for the SNHPS league. Lathan Dilger entered the event with the top spot in division one with 75 points. Mike Dedeic came into the tournament as the highest position in division two, sitting in third place with 30 points.

Dilger and Rai Adams took home first place in the event. They finished the tournament with a record of 3-0.

Dilger finished the event with 17 ringers, while Adams finished his day with 37 ringers. The two combined for 146 points in the tournament over their three games.

In their second game of the day, Adams finished the game with 17 ringers, tied for the highest in a single game during the event.

Dilger and Adams scored the highest single-game score in the tournament with 58 points in the second game.

The pair narrowly edged out their win in the championship game by just one point over the runner-up team of Joe Kalache and Christy Russell.

Kalache and Russell finished the tournament with a record of 4-2. After dropping their first game of the tournament, they went on to win four straight games to make it to the championship game.

The two pitchers combined to score 246 points across their six games, including a 55-point outing in their third game of the tournament.

Kalache finished with a tournament-high 59 ringers and Russell finished with 38 ringers, tied for the third most in the event.

In third place of the Pow Wow playoff tournament was the team of Dennis Anderson and Don Brown.

They finished the day with a 2-2 record.

Anderson and Brown had two chances at making it to the championship round, however, they weren’t able to take advantage of either game.

The team dropped their first chance to Dilger and Adams in the final round of the winners’ bracket. Then, they dropped their second game and were knocked out of the tournament by Kalache and Russell.

Anderson and Brown combined to score 150 points in the tournament. Anderson threw 38 ringers and Brown threw 17 of his own.

Each member of the top three teams received a plaque for their finishing positions in the tournament. In addition to plaques being given out to the top teams of the tournament, the top three pitchers of each division were all rewarded with patches.

The top three pitchers in the final standings for division one were Lathan Dilger, who finished in first place with 97 points, Lawrence Workman, who finished in second place with 49 points, and Joe Kalache, who finished in third place with 41 points.

The top three pitchers in division two were Kevin Chael, who finished with 55 points, Jefferson Counts, who finished with 43 points, and Mike Dedeic, who finished in third place with 31 points.

That will do it for the 2022 SNHPS season. The pitchers will take a break for the winter and will return to the pits in early 2023 for the new season.

Following the new year, you’ll be able to find the 2023 SNHPS schedule by going to nshpa.com.

Contact sports writer/editor Danny Smyth at dsmyth@pvtimes.com. Follow @the_dannysmyth on Twitter.