The Kamloops Sun Devils split a pair of Thursday games to open the 39th annual Kamloops International Baseball Tournament.

Kamloops beat the Red Deer Riggers 7-3 in the tournament-opener yesterday morning, before losing 4-3 to the Bellevue, Wash., Northwest Honkers last night.

The Sun Devils are scheduled to take on the Alaska Goldpanners today, 5:15 p.m., at NorBrock Stadium, where all games are being played.

The Sun Devils started slowly against Red Deer, and trailed 3-2 heading into their half of the fifth. But Kamloops scored a run to tie it up, then scored four in the sixth, thanks to some sloppy Red Deer defence and a two-run single from Ben Bradford.

Alex Reid was the winning pitcher, allowing one earned run, while Brent Lazzarotto came into the game in the fourth inning and took the loss.

Adam Halland and Jeff Paz each had two hits and scored a run in the victory.

Last night, the Sun Devils gave up three runs in the second inning and, despite a late rally, couldn't come all the way back.

Denver Wynn pitched a seven-inning two-hitter in the loss. Jason Salers went the distance for the Honkers.

Halland had a two-run single in the sixth inning, and Kenan Chanin drove in the other Sun Devils run. Martin Lawrence and Cameron Padron drove in runs for Northwest.

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The two finalists at KIBT will play at least six games over a four-day stretch, but they won't be the hardest-working people on the diamond.

The umpires have cleared their schedules, because they will be incredibly busy, especially when you consider there are only six of them.

Each three-man team of umps will work two or three games a day for the four-day tournament.

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Kyle Geason hit the first home run of KIBT this year, swatting a long shot over the left-field wall in the first inning of the Alaska Goldpanners' 10-0 victory over the Riggers in the third game of the opening day.

The Goldpanners were ahead 1-0 when Geason came to the plate, and went on to end the game by mercy rule in the bottom of the sixth inning.

Geason took the early lead for the home-run title, which the Seattle Studs' Mark Rockey won in 2010 with a grand total of two.

Blake Harrison pitched a complete-game two-hitter, striking out six and not allowing a runner to get to third base. Davin Gulbransen took the loss.

The Goldpanners will play Kamloops today and the Honkers on Saturday at 9 a.m.

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The Riggers will finish the round-robin against the Honkers today at 11:45 a.m., and will need a victory and a miracle to make the playoffs.

Red Deer's only hope of making the playoffs is to have three teams in Pool A finish at 1-2, then win the tiebreaker, which comes down to runs for and runs against. Considering Red Deer has allowed 17 runs and scored three, the Riggers need a really big miracle.

The Riggers are the two-time defending Alberta AAA champions.

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In Thursday's other game, the Everett Merchants opened the tournament with a 4-0 victory over the Kelowna Jays.

Tyler Holm and Mike Gange each went 2-for-3 with a run for Everett, which managed six hits. Kelowna ended with four hits.

mhunter@kamloopsnews.ca