By Mark Derewicz

August 23, 2001

Solano Steelheads catcher Victor Sanchez was named the Western League player of the year before the regular season came to a close. Sanchez is batting .329-29-78 with a week remaining in the season. He is seventh in hitting, fifth in RBIs and first in homers. His .684 slugging percentage is tops in the league.

The league also announced Chico Heat manager Charley Kerfeld as manager of the year and Heat hurler Greg Bicknell as pitcher of the year.

The Heat, first-half winners of the North Division with a 31-14 record, is tied for first in the second half with both Sonoma County and Solano. All three clubs are 24-18.

Bicknell is first in the league with 11 wins and second with a 2.38 ERA. He's also first with 121 strikeouts and 140 innings pitched. He has allowed 27 walks and 122 hits.

Sanchez and Bicknell were both named to the WBL post-season all-star team. Here's a complete run-down of the team:

Ray Brown*, 1b (Chico); Eric Martins*, 2b (Long Beach); Bo Durkac, 3b (Sonoma County); Marc Gutfeld, ss (Long Beach); Brad Gennaro, of (Chico); Tim Howard, of (Yuma); Chris Powell, of (Sonoma); Anthony Lewis, dh (St. George); Victor Sanchez, c (Solano); Jason Landreth, util. (Solano); Greg Bicknell, p (Chico); Jason Olsen, p (Solano); Scott Navarro, p (Chico); Gabe Sollecito, p (Chico); Mike Saipe, p (Long Beach).

(*Indicates unanimous vote of all managers.)

The Montgomery Wings drew 8,102 fans in the season finale and averaged a league-best 2,296 fans per game in the All-American Association's inaugural season. The Wings, though, finished fifth with a 34-38 record. The Fort Worth Cats drew 1,483 fans a night despite playing at a stadium with temporary seating. They hope to move into a new stadium next season. The other franchises will have to improve their product or come up with a way to draw fans to the park if the league is to survive. Discounting Tennessee, which drew a league low 345 fans as a late entry into the league, the three other franchises all drew fewer than 800 fans a night.

•Three Lincoln (Northern) pitchers combined for 8 2/3 innings of perfect baseball and left fielder Bryan Britt hit two home runs as the Saltdogs topped Duluth-Superior 3-0 Monday night. Brett Black, a Saltdog reliever, made his first start of the year and responded by pitching six perfect innings. Black struck out eight on the night. Troy Silva relieved Black and proceeded to throw two more perfect innings. Then, Lincoln closer Chris Weidert retired the first two batters of the ninth before pinch hitter Brent Bowers broke up the bid for the perfect game. Offensively, Britt hit a solo homer in the second and a two-run shot in the seventh.

• St. Paul (Northern) scored two runs in the bottom of the ninth to overtake Winnipeg 9-8 earlier this week. Center fielder Derrick White doubled home catcher Reagan Buckley to tie the score at eight. After White moved to third on a Ryan Ruiz groundout, Keith Williams grounded to first base, but beat Winnipeg reliever Steve Thomas to the bag to secure the win. St. Paul first baseman Tony Chance went 2-for-4 on the night with five RBIs and two runs scored. Both of Chance's hits were home runs, one of which came in the eighth to tie the score at 7-7. Winnipeg shortstop Brent Sachs hit a solo homer in the top of the ninth to give the Goldeyes the lead. St. Paul and Winnipeg are battling it out for the second half Central Division-North title. It might not be the biggest of deals for the Goldeyes because they won the first half, securing a playoff spot in the process. But the Saints (15-19) need to win the second half in order to extend their season. They dropped the next two games with the Goldeyes (16-18) to fall a game behind with 10 games left in the season.

• Schaumburg has been playing well as of late behind former major leaguer Matt Nokes, who is leading the league in hitting at .369-16-66. Fellow Flyer Eddie Lara is fourth in the league at .339-7-46. The Flyers (16-18) are one half-game behind Winnipeg after sweeping the fading Sioux City Explorers. They took two of three games from the X's last week, as well.

• The Camden Riversharks (14-22) have won five straight games, including a three-game sweep of Long Island this week. They still trailed first place and first-half winner Somerset by six games in the South Division of the Atlantic League. The Riversharks lost three of four to Nashua, a team on the rise in the North. They were 23-13, two games behind resurgent Bridgeport. First half winner Newark wasn't too far behind at 21-15. If both Newark and Somerset win both halves, they would meet in a best-of-five championship series starting Sept. 21.

• Somerset's Michael Warner is making a push to be the indy league player of the year. He has led the Atlantic League in hitting all year and is still 30 points ahead of the closest competitor. He was also putting up decent power numbers for a journeyman no one seemed to want last year. He is batting .361-14-91 and his RBI total far in front of Nashua's Jose Malave (72). Warner is also leading the league with a .491 on-base percentage and a .590 slugging percentage.

Camden's Ryan Schurman pitched a three-hitter Tuesday and Guillermo Garcia, Jesus Azuaje and Dwight Maness all homered as the Riversharks downed the Ducks 6-1. Schurman improved to 7-9, 3.04 with 100 hits allowed in 112 innings this year. He allowed one run on three hits through nine innings.

• New Jersey righthander Steve Fish improved to 3-0 since joining the Jackals with a complete-game one-hitter in a 3-1 win over Elmira. It was his third complete game in a row. He retired the first 20 batters he faced before Tarrick Brock doubled down the right field line in the seventh inning to break up the perfect game. Fish fanned eight and issued no walks. Craig Conway had a pair of RBI doubles for the Jackals, who are now 19-13, a game and a half ahead of first-half winner Elmira in the Northern League-East Division (South). Fish won East Division pitcher of the week honors for his dominance. He is 8-4, 3.91 on the season and is 3-0, 0.33 with 12 hits allowed, 22 strikeouts and one walk in 27 innings since joining the Jackals. He went 5-4, 5.30 with Quebec before getting traded.

• Lincoln's Clay Eason had an amazing week on the mound, earning him the Northern League-Central pitcher of the week award. Eason went 2-0 on the week and allowed only one earned run in 17 innings. The right hander's 19 strikeouts raised his Northern League leading total to 119. He is 9-3, 1.25 with 71 hits allowed in 108 innings this year. His league leading ERA is over an entire point lower than the second best mark in the Central--Winnipeg's Rafael Gross is 12-2, 2.43.

Duluth Superior outfielder Brandon Pernell had 11 hits, including three doubles to earn the Central player of the week award. He batted .440-1-2 last week. He is batting .315-8-39 and has grounded into only double play all season.

Quebec's Eric Kofler's 1.188 slugging percentage last week helped him earn the player of the week award for the East. Kofler had eight hits (in 16 at-bats), three of which were home runs, in only four games for Les Capitales. He had six RBIs and scored seven runs during the span. He is batting .292-14-39 this year.

• Sonoma County outfielder Chris Powell was named Western League batter of the week after going 15-for-28 with four doubles, one homer, three RBIs and eight runs scored. His slugging percentage for the week was .786 and his on-base percentage was .581. On the season, Powell is batting .362-5-40 and his average is third in the league behind Chico's Ray Brown (.384) and Brad Gennaro (.365).

Chico Heat righthander Reece Borges didn't allow a run over 10 innings last week to earn pitcher of the week honors. He fanned six, walked three and allowed five hits in three appearances. He is 7-6, 4.31 on the season.

• Rio Grande Valley switch-hitter Tyrone Pendergrass is batting .339-11-46 to lead the WhiteWings in average and home runs. He also has 51 stolen bases, four triples and 19 doubles. He's grounded into one double play all season.

• Baton Rouge designated hitter Chris Cassells was named the All-American Association's player of the week after going 4-for-6 with two runs, four RBIs and a home run in a two-game sweep of Fort Worth last week. Cassells is batting .300-5-32 in 140 at-bats this year.

Albany righthander Rick Powalski earned pitcher of the week honors for the second straight week (third time this season). He pitched three scoreless innings in a loss to Montgomery and came back three nights later to toss a complete-game shutout against Tyler in the playoffs. He fanned 11 while allowing five hits. On one day's rest, Powalski entered another playoff game in the fifth inning, allowing no runs in seven innings of work to push the Alligators into the championship series. He went 8-4, 1.81 in the regular season to help Albany make the post-season. He had the second lowest ERA in the league and was third with 10 saves.

• Sioux Falls (Northern) righthander Scott Martin set a franchise record for most wins when he picked up his 11th of the season against Fargo-Moorhead Tuesday. Jamie Ybarra set the record in 1994. Martin is 11-3, 3.46 with 131 hits allowed in 114 innings.