Good Friday morning. Diamond cuts to start the weekend.
It was a great season this summer for the Wenatchee AppleSox, but the way it ended, well, let’s just say that’s not how it was supposed to be.
Victoria’s Harrison Spohn singled with two runners on base walking it off in the bottom of the ninth as the HarbourCats rallied from a 7-5 deficit coming into their half of that ninth frame to stun the Sox 8-7 last night in the deciding game three of their playoff series and win the North Division Championship of the West Coast League, advancing to the college summer league’s championship series, where they’ll face the Corvallis Knights, who won the South Division title last night beating Walla Walla. Victoria took the series two games to one after Wenatchee opened the series at home Tuesday beating the ‘Cats.
Wenatchee’s trio of Mount Si High School grads all played in this one. We’ll start with pitcher Gavin Gorrell. Gorrell, back in June, had a rough outing in Victoria, allowing four runs in just 2/3 of an inning as the Sox fell 14-5 that night to the HarbourCats. Well, last night was better. He made it through 5 1/3 innings last night, allowing five runs, four earned, on eight hits, striking out nine, so a good showing for sure for the Boise State sophomore-to-be from North Bend. Gorrell, though, ended up with no decision in this one thanks to the ninth inning finish, which actually started with four runs by the Sox to take that 7-5 lead before Victoria got, sadly, the last laugh.
Gorrell’s catcher the past few weeks when he’s pitched has been his friend and fellow 2017 Mount Si HS alum Justin Lutz, and that was the case again last night. Lutz, from Fall City, went 1-4 in his final appearance for the Sox this summer. He is set to head to Billings, MT, and play next spring for Montana State-Billings as a junior. North Bend’s Spencer Marenco, who graduated from Mount Si back in June, started at shortstop last night for Wenatchee and went 0-4, ending his brief stay with the team; he signed with the Sox last week after wrapping up his high school club season with the Bellevue-based Boys of Summer organization. While with Wenatchee, Marenco was coached by team head coach Kyle Krustangel, who will be Marenco’s college coach next spring at Yakima Valley Community College.
The Sox finished the season a strong 33-25 overall (29-25 league) and in second place overall in the North Division. This was the third season in a row Wenatchee has had a Mount Si alum on its roster – last season, Spencer’s brother Mason played with the Sox making the league’s all-star game and in 2017, Evan Johnson had a stellar season hitting over .300 with Wenatchee.
Okotoks shows who’s boss in WCBL title series: The suburban Calgary-based Dawgs traveled all day yesterday to Regina, Saskatechwan, for the first game of the Western Canadian Baseball League’s title series, and left with a 7-2 win over the host Red Sox that puts Okotoks one game away from winning it all. They can do just that with a win tonight – on home soil in Alberta. North Bend’s Tanner Simpson didn’t pitch for the Dawgs in last night’s game, but we’d beg a guess you can look for him perhaps to get the call tonight for this one at 6:00 up north of the border as Okotoks looks to win it all. Simpson, a 2014 Mount Si HS grad, just graduated from Lewis-Clark State College in Idaho.
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Si View Metro Parks offering another opportunity for youth baseball players to improve skills
Your local parks district is once again offering youth baseball players in the community a chance to sharpen their skills as they begin their offseason routines in preparation for the 2020 baseball season.
Si View Metro Parks has once again partnered with Bellevue-based baseball instructor Steve Goucher to provide the opportunity to local kids. The “Fall Baseball Class” is aimed at players ages 7-12 and will provide kids an opportunity to improve in such areas as pitching, hitting, fielding and base running, helping them get ready for more advanced levels of the sport within Little League and other travel ball programs. The class will meet once a week, on Fridays from September 13 to October 18, from 2:30-4:00 p.m., following the end of the shortened Friday class sessions in the Snoqualmie Valley School District.
The class will be held at the field at Si View Park, 400 SE Orchard Dr. in North Bend, located behind the pool and activity center building on the west side of the park. Goucher has worked with Si View for many years providing this instruction to local youth baseball players. He is a former professional player and major league baseball scout who also has coached high school baseball locally, with Sammamish High School in Bellevue.
The fee online to register for the class is $155.10, and this covers all of the Friday sessions. For more information, you can go online to the Si View Metro Parks website and register there or call Aaron Colby at the Si View office at (425) 831-1900.
We hit the pitch to start our 2019-20 college sports coverage featuring athletes from your community!
Also this morning, we are officially kicking off our 2019-20 college sports coverage. The fall sports season is getting underway for colleges, and that means we’ll have plenty of college football, men’s and women’s soccer, golf, cross country, rowing, volleyball and other sports featuring local athletes throughout the fall in addition to our high school coverage, which will begin over the next couple of weeks.
We kick off the college sports action with news from Pocatello, ID, where Idaho State University’s women’s soccer team opened its season earlier this week. They played on Tuesday at home on campus in Pocatello in an exhibition against Utah’s Salt Lake Community College. The game ended in a scoreless draw and will not count in ISU’s standings. Junior Rachel Brownell, from Fall City, started on defense for the Bengals and worked 59 minutes, recording a shot, not on goal. She is a 2017 Mount Si HS grad who did not play soccer for the Wildcat program as a high school player.
Idaho State plays its first counting game tomorrow in Salt Lake City, taking on NCAA Division II Westminster College. Brownell is one of several former Mount Si boys’ or girls’ soccer players playing collegiately this fall; others include Natalie Weidenbach (University of Texas women), Mateo DiDomenico (Cal State East Bay men) and Karli White (Western Washington University women). We’ll have full coverage of all of it for you.
We by the way are still working on finalizing details of who will be playing where this fall so if you know of a Valley high school graduate (public or private) playing college soccer this fall, shoot us a note at snovalleysports@gmail.com with the information. Will need the player’s name, which school they graduated from and which college they are playing for this fall. Also will need your contact info incase we need to reach you further.