Baseball now and Mount Si High School’s baseball team saw a chance to punch a playoff ticket last night go for naught, but in the process saw their opponents do something the Wildcats will certainly work to shoot for next season – win the Kingco championship.
The Skyline Spartans have been on a tear as of late and that continued last night, as they took home the crown and the top seed to the upcoming Wes-King district playoffs with a 15-3 blowout win over the Wildcats last night at Bannerwood Park in Bellevue. Skyline has outscored opponents including last night 42-9 in the past three, so their offense is primed and ready perhaps for a deep run this postseason.
Andrew Moore led the way for Sparty, going 3-4 with three runs scored and an RBI, while Ryan Escover had two hits and drove in three runs.
Troy Baunsgard doubled as part of a two-hit effort and scored a run leading Mount Si, while Cam Ferreri continued his hot hitting of late, with another hit and two RBI’s to his credit. The loss did not hurt Mount Si as Newport, trailing the Wildcats for the seventh and final playoff spot, was rained out last night at Eastlake.
Mount Si will meet the Knights tonight at 5:00 down at Bob Albo Field on the Newport campus to make up last Friday’s rainout with the playoff situation exactly the same as it was last Friday – win and you’re in.
We’ll keep you posted.
Skyline blasts Wildcat JV: The Spartan junior varsity broke out to a 2-0 lead and rode the arms of pitchers Drew Kamihara and Brian Ahn to a victory over the Wildcats last night. Skyline beat Mount Si 8-1 in the JV game that preceded last night’s varsity game at Bannerwood.
Kamihara pitched 5 1/3 strong innings for Skyline, allowing just two hits and walking four, but striking out four as well for Sparty. Ahn allowed a run on two hits, yielded two walks but struck out three in his 1 2/3 innings of work in relief. Will Baker tripled and drove in three runs for Skyline, and Logan Burek had a pair of doubles, scoring twice.
Kevin Corder, Aiden Dougherty, Tyler Disch and Chris Wilson all had a hit each for Mount Si, who meets Redmond tomorrow.
Red Wolves fall to T-Birds
Cedarcrest High School’s baseball team hit the diamond yesterday for their first game following last week’s campus tragedy involving the passing of fellow student Bryce Hefner, and as one might guess, it proved to be a diffcult task as the Red Wolves fell.
Shorewood scored five runs in the third and took the game 7-1 over Cedarcrest at Meridian Park in Seattle. Trace Crossland led CHS with two hits and a run scored but Bryce Lindberg powered the T-Birds, with a homer and three RBI’s.
Cedarcrest and Shorewood are slated to meet again today at 4:00, with the site unknown as it’s scheduled for Meridian again but in light of yesterday’s game being there could be shifted to CHS.
Red Wolves appear a lock for postseason: The first Northwest District ratings percentage index run is a bit of good news for CHS. It has been a struggle this season in Wesco, but they’ve done enough thus far it appears to get them into the playoffs.
The rankings run, done Sunday, has CHS with a 0.23 rating, seeded 10th but well enough ahead of both Lakewood and Sammamish, the two teams directly behind them, that the Red Wolves look to be in a position to advance to postseason. They are well behind ninth-place Anacortes with a .459 ranking, but if Cedarcrest can score some wins down the stretch they might be able to do some things. But with what the school has been dealing with the past few days, wins might be more important than just for RPI’s sake. It’s all about helping the school heal and return to a sense of some normalcy following last week’s events, which have significantly impacted the larger campus community.
Time for scores and highlights. Powered by Gamechanger and the Gamechanger app, available on Apple IPhones and IPads in their app store.
Kingco 3A: Mercer Island 11, Juanita 1 – It was the Teague Conder show in the rain last night for Mercer as they ten-ran the Rebels at home on Mercer Island. He homered and doubled twice, all part of a 4-4 performance that saw him come a triple short of hitting for the cycle, score three runs and drive in five more. Max Tanzer added two hits, a run scored and two RBI’s for the Islanders. Cole Kennison’s homer accounted for the Juanita offense in the contest.
Wesco 4A: Cascade 10, Mount Vernon 0 – Pitcher Joe McBride fired a complete-game five-hit shutout for the Bruins as they blanked the Bulldogs by run rule in Mount Vernon. McBride struck out six and was paced offensively by Jacob Sesso, who doubled, scored a run and drove in four runs for Cascade. Travis Oord’s double highlighted the Mount Vernon offensive efforts.
College
Top-five Stanford stuns Gonzaga on walk-off: GU scored six runs in the sixth to rally from a 6-1 deficit against the Cardinal down in the Bay Area yesterday and take the lead, but Stanford got the last laugh, scoring five runs over the final two frames to win in a walk-off 11-10 over the Bulldogs. The Cardinal, ranked in the top five nationally, won it on a bases-loaded single in the bottom of that ninth inning. Senior Carson Breshears, he of North Bend and a 2014 Mount Si HS grad, saw action late at second base defensively for GU, but had no official at-bats.
Weekend wrap, Athletes of the Week and another reminder about the Hefner memorial fund…..
Athletes of the Week in a moment but we have a couple of things to get to that we missed from this past Saturday.
We start first on the football field where a Mount Si High School grad stole the show in his college’s spring football game. We’re talking about Oregon State University freshman receiver Jesiah Irish, from North Bend and a 2018 MSHS grad. A lot of people are starting to perhaps think Irish could be among the receivers to watch this fall for the Beavers after his performance during the Beaver spring game on Saturday down in Corvallis, OR.
Irish caught five passes for 81 yards, and among these was a 42-yard reception. He also made what was described by the school as a spectacular catch during the contest (if we find video of it we’ll get it up for you). He spent last season mostly on special teams, but if his spring performance is any indication, you can look to see him in a prominent role on Oregon State’s offense this fall.
OSU opens the season August 30 with a home game against Oklahoma State. That game, along with all other Beaver games this fall, will be televised (network announcements have not been made, but expect this game with the Cowboys with it being on a Friday to be a Fox Sports broadcast).
Baseball
Shoreline 13, Olympic 7 (game two, doubleheader): The Dolphins held on to take the nightcap of two from the Rangers at home in north Seattle and pick up a doubleheader sweep. Sophomore Jake Jewell, he of Carnation and a 2016 CHS’er, worked an inning on the hill for Shoreline and allowed three runs on three hits, walked one and struck out one with no decision. He did not pitch the first game, won by the Dolphins 7-4.
Edmonds, Bellevue split: The Tritons took the opener 7-4 while the Bulldogs won the nightcap 7-1, both at Courter Field on the BCC campus in Bellevue. Skyline HS grad Riley Gill, whose family now lives in Snoqualmie, saw action as an outfielder in the opener and as a pinch-runner in the nightcap. He had no official at-bats in either game for BCC.
To our athletes of the week. Boys this week.
CEDARCREST – We know that these past few days have been tremendously challenging for all of you up at Cedarcrest High School as you try to process the passing of distance track/cross country athlete and basketball player Bryce Hefner. So out of respect for all of you this week, we are going to skip an actual recognition of an athlete and instead offer once again our thoughts to all of you, particularly in the senior class. Bryce was a tremendous athlete and a tremendous person and he will be missed by all. As we told you on Saturday, and we want to thank Chris Busch for letting us know; Chris, we’re sure it was hard for you to reach out with that info for us, but we are very happy you did, a memorial fund has been set up to help Bryce’s family deal with all that needs to be addressed in the wake of this tragedy. As things stand now, they’ve raised over $16,000, and it’s likely the school will be sending out word about this to students and families today as this was started up on Saturday after classes ended last week. So here’s the link again:
Bryce Hefner Memorial Fund
This message is specifically intended for our upper Valley audience. A lot of your fellow residents in the lower Valley have stepped up, many contributing around $20-$25, some more, some less. Those of you here in the upper Valley who are supporters of Mount Si High School, while you may not think this affects you, still please consider helping the family. As we have discussed on Twitter and as well here on this site on Saturday, the Cedarcrest campus community right now is dealing with many of the same emotions many of you here in our part of the Valley had some eight or nine years ago when popular and well-respected Mount Si wrestler Cody Botten suddenly passed away. The tragedy at Cedarcrest has impacted not just students, but many of their parents as well, almost in a similar vein to how Cody’s loss impacted so many at Mount Si, including your editor. We, as a community, need to unite and help support the Hefner’s and the extended Cedarcrest campus community.
So if you can, please chip in some money. Doesn’t have to be a lot, but every dollar will go a long way toward helping the Hefner’s get through this.
We have asked Chris to let the Hefner’s know they are welcome to reach out to us if they need anything, and we will ourselves do that now. We wish you all the best as you try to process what frankly is not processable.
MOUNT SI – Lacrosse this week and we recognize a pair of Mount Si Lacrosse boys, one current the other former.
First the current. Chris Haycock had three goals and three assists Saturday for the Wildcats as they handled Nathan Hale at home 18-6 in Snoqualmie. He leads the team in scoring with 10 goals and five assists as Mount Si moved to .500 with the win at 6-6 on the season. They play Mercer Island tomorrow night at home.
Now the former. The man that was the top scorer for Mount Si before his graduation in 2015 is named Tyler Smith, and he has translated his success on the high school field into success at the college level. Case in point? This past Saturday. The junior, from Snoqualmie, closed out the season for his University of Dallas men’s team with eight goals in a game. Yes, EIGHT goals. We reached out to him on Twitter and asked if that was a career high at the college level and he told us it was. Smith’s team pounded Johnson & Wales University in Denver in the contest, and it was their first and only win of the season. So we recognize Smith as well in this segment. Good stuff you two and we wish you luck the rest of the season.