To some baseball followers, the true beauty of the game of baseball is the pitcher vs. batter confrontation.
    The Sierra vs. Yosemite game played Tuesday was full of dramatic pitcher vs. batter duels before ending in a 5-4 victory for the hosting Badgers at Yosemite High School.
    In the third inning, Dayton Buller and Makela Olson both out-dueled Sierra's star pitcher, Quinn McGinnis, for two doubles and two runs.
    McGinnis won the battle with Travis Trettin in the fifth inning, forcing Travis to hit into a 4-6-3 double play.
    Again in the seventh, with the bags full and the winning run on third base, McGinnis got Trettin to ground out to second base to put the game into extra innings.
    In the top of the fourth inning, Nathan Lawson, Mitch Osborn and David Holeman won the battle with Yosemite's star pitcher, Jason Martina, to score three runs and take the lead 4-3.
    Sierra's first run came as a result of a "lefty vs. lefty confrontation. David Holeman won the duel by hitting an opposite field homer off a fast ball from Martina.
    Martina won the duels in the sixth and seventh and got help from Buller as he threw out the speedy Mitch Osborn trying to steal second.

    A Coarsegold man and a Coarsegold teen-ager were arrested this week for a "home-invasion robbery.
    Before going any further, the difference between a "burglary and "home-invasion is that in a burglary, no one is home, the thief sneaks in, steals and leaves. During a home -invasion, the thieves come in with weapons and tell the victims to give them what they want. "It's similar to a bank robbery, say sheriff's deputies.
    An Oakhurst family was victim of the home-invasion on Tuesday of last week, but was not immediately reported.
    Last Friday, Madera County sheriff's deputies received a call from a Yosemite High employee, telling of a campus rumor of a home-invasion.
    Still, nothing was reported by the victims.

    In the partial use of $25,000 in trusts left to two Mountain Area libraries, 800 books have been purchased to be used for circulation to library patrons.
    The books, as well as audio and video tapes, were purchased through money bequeathed to both the Oakhurst and North Fork branches of the Madera County Library.
    The money was left in the will of Marian Swortzel, a Bass Lake resident for 30 years, before her death two years ago.
     Besides the $25,000 trusts to each library, Mrs. Swortzel's will provided funds for numerous scholarships, the Sierra Mono Museum and Little Church in the Pines.
    The libraries got permission from Mrs. Swortzel's family to spread the purchase of library materials over three years with each spending $8,000 this year, $8,000 next year, and $9,000 the third year, says Joan Wandell, Oakhurst Branch manager.