Grose and Sanchez win SNHPS Amargosa Days tournament
The Southern Nevada Horseshoe Pitching Series hit the road for Amargosa Valley for their doubles tournament during the Amargosa Days festival.
The double-elimination style event featured 20 pitchers with 10 A-class pitchers and 10 B-class pitchers.
Pitchers were slotted into their specific classes based on their ringer percentages with the higher pitchers in the A class and the lower pitchers in the B class.
A-class pitcher Tom Grose of Henderson, and B-class pitcher Benny Sanchez of Amargosa Valley took home first place in the tournament.
Grose and Sanchez finished the event with a perfect 5-0 record.
They started the tournament in one of the two play-in games and got the opening round victory over the team of A-class player Lawrence Workman and B-class player Tonya Paynter.
Grose and Sanchez defeated the team of A-class player Kevin Chael and B-class pitcher Josh Russell in the championship match, giving the team of Chael and Russell the runner-up spot.
They finished the tournament with a 3-2 loss.
These two teams met previously in the final round of the championship bracket when Grose and Sanchez defeated Chael and Russell, knocking them into the losers’ bracket.
To reach the championship match, Chael and Russell defeated the team of A-class pitcher Heath Russell and B-class pitcher Johnny Alger in the losers’ bracket championship game.
With their loss, Russell and Alger ended their day with a 3-2 record and received the third-place finish.
After starting their tournament with a win, Russell and Alger were knocked out of the main bracket by the champions, Grose and Sanchez.
They then won two games in a row in the losers’ bracket before running into Chael and Russell.
The next SNHPS tournament will be a doubles event on Saturday, May 14. The Pahrump Wild West Extravaganza event will begin at 10 a.m. at Petrack Park.
All pitchers are asked to sign in at least 30 minutes prior to the start of the tournament.
Contact sports writer/editor Danny Smyth at dsmyth@pvtimes.com. Follow @_dannysmyth on Twitter.
