Diamond cuts, and a little golf and volleyball, too…..

Good Thursday morning. We start our diamond cuts on a Thursday this morning talking softball. Most of the teams with local players competing at the big Colorado club tournaments had the day off yesterday and likely were involved in team activities off the field; one team with a Cedarcrest HS player competing in the event we were told spent the day on the water rafting down a local river in the Denver area. But one other local team was busy yesterday, and the day proved very fruitful for that squad.

The Issaquah Flame 16U Black, with the Mount Si High School duo of Makayla Malan and Emery Kreidel-Reimer, is competing at the Triple Crown’s Fireworks/Sparkler tournament, and one of the big storylines we are paying attention to this week among the local teams down there at the tournament is how well this squad fares against the national-level competition. The Flame has had a good season but doesn’t carry the same high name recognition as more established clubs in our region do locally such as the Washington Acers or Ladyhawks, and came into this tournament off a blowout loss in the final game of their last tournament in Portland. Well, things got off to a very good start yesterday.

The Flame showed they were going to be very competitive out of the gate in their opener against the Athletics Mercado from Phoenix, and punctuated that with a four-run third inning on the way to a 6-4 win at Clement Park in Littleton, one of several sites the Triple Crown folks are using for this week’s tournament. Malan paced the efforts, too, going 2-2 with a walk and two runs scored, and Kriedel-Reimer added a hit to the cause for the Flame also. But the big blows were provided by their teammates Jill Parrish and Reagan Ovechka, who both homered to lift the Eastside team to the victory.

The Flame then had a quick break and then got back to work in their nightcap against the Slammers Untouchables from across town over in Aurora, on the east side of Denver. This one was a pitcher’s duel, but Flame hurler Corina Foster was up to the task, going the distance in a 2-1 Flame win. She allowed a run on only five hits in an efficient 96-pitch effort, walking two and striking out two. The Mount Si duo of Malan and Kreidel-Reimer went a combined 0-3 in the game.

The Flame move to another venue – the Schaefer complex in Lakewood, north of Denver, for a pair of games this afternoon.

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There will be plenty of other action involving local teams at the tournament today, and we will have live coverage on Twitter for you at our Twitter handle @snovalleysports, so look for it there a little after 7:00 this morning. We will be live-tweeting remotely using coverage powered by GameChanger and their apps, which are available on Apple IPhones and IPads in their app store, and which provide us other scores and highlights from last night:

Orange County Batbusters 9, Absolute Blast 18U 8: A wild one at the Boulder IDT event saw the southern California-based Batbusters stun the Woodinville-based Blast on a walkoff in the final inning. Mount Si’s Madison Bonham was 0-2 for AbB.

Rijo Athletics 14U 6, Florida Dirt Dogs 2: At the USSSA’s Space Coast World Series down in Florida last night, the Redmond-based Rijo got the bats going early and posted a win over the Florida team. Cedarcrest’s Jo Krivanek was 0-1 with a walk and run scored for Rijo in the game.

Absolute Blast 18U 5, L’il Saints 4: The Blast stormed back from a 4-0 hole with a five-run final frame headlined by a grand slam from pitcher/first baseman Julianne Rose, from Bothell HS, to stun the Arizona team and grab their first win of the weekend in Colorado last night. Bonham was 1-2 with a run scored and stolen base for AbB.

Baseball: Valley team advances to Little League district title game
The Sno-Valley North Little League’s “Wolfpack” Senior League baseball team will be competing for the District 9 championship this weekend. SVNLL punched their ticket last night with a dominating 16-1 win over Redmond North down at the district tournament in Redmond.

Brady McKelheer homered to power the offensive efforts for the ‘Pack, comprised of students from Cedarcrest High School in Duvall, and the Polacek’s – J.J. and Jake – combined on a two-hitter on the hill, with Jake striking out 10 in 3 1/3 innings of work. Cooper Ayers went 2-2 with a double, two runs scored and three RBI’s for SVNLL, who plays for the district title tomorrow night against an opponent to be determined. The game is at 5:00 p.m. down at Hartman Park in Redmond.

Other action from around youth baseball last night, with scores and stats powered by GC:

Wildcats Baseball Club 15U 8, Redmond Dudes 4: The Wildcat select crew exploded offensively, scoring six runs over the final two innings to rally from a late deficit and put away the Redmond-based team at Interlake High School in Bellevue. Caleb Geib and Cody Morse both went 2-4 with two RBI’s each for the ‘Cats, comprised of current and future Mount Si HS players.

Wildcats Baseball Club 13U Red 20, Prime Athletics Oster 1: The WBCR provided a lot of home cooking last night at Si View Park in North Bend as they brought out the bats in a blowout home win over the Redmond-based Prime squad. Jimmy Pratapas led the way for the ‘Cats going 3-3 with a walk, four runs scored and three RBI’s, and all the offense was good news for their pitching, and the pitching delivered. Four hurlers – Milo Tolbert, J.D. Tenhulzen, Lorinc Heutchy and Pratapas – combined on a two-hitter striking out a total of three.

Golf: Good day for local high school golfers at junior qualifier
Three Valley high school golfers, all from the upper Valley, earned berths in the upcoming Washington Junior Golf Association’s district 6 tournament after solid performances in the season opening qualifying tournament yesterday in Kent.

Mount Si’s Hogan Warford fired a two-under par round of 70 on the par-72 layout at Riverbend Golf Course in Kent to take second among the high-school age boys competing in the tournament. Teammate Buddy Dann fired a 74 and finished in a tie for seventh, and the two were followed by another local player, Kelton McGinnis, who fired a 77 and finished in a tie for ninth. 13 golfers in the high school age group qualified for the event.

Several other Valley golfers, all competing in younger age groups, missed the cut and will have to wait to qualify. These included Hogan’s sister Karly also with the Roberts siblings from Snoqualmie, Blake and Stella. The next district 6 qualifier is in Tacoma on July 8, and the entire delegation of Valley golfers that competed in yesterday’s tournament with the exception of Blake Roberts will be in attendance competing at that event.

Volleyball: Season over for Bellevue team with MSHS duo at nationals
The Northwest Juniors 15U Blue girls’ volleyball team based in Bellevue and which features Mount Si’s Maggie Kamp and Sophie Lobet, dropped their finale at the USA Volleyball junior national tournament in Las Vegas yesterday, falling to the Forza1West team from California in a tight three-set affair, 21-25, 25-21, 15-13 at the Las Vegas Convention Center. Select club matches are best of three sets as opposed to Mount Si High School varsity matches, which are best-of-five. Stats are not available for Kamp and Lobet’s efforts in the contest.

The team finished 3-7 in the tournament and in 61st place out of 71 teams in the 15U Patriot open division at the event. They were one of two teams with Mount Si ties that competed at this week’s tournament; the North Pacific Juniors’ 14U team from Seattle, with Wildcat coach Bonnie Foote’s daughter Isabelle, took 21st in their 14U Patriot division, which wrapped up on Tuesday.

The tournament continues through this weekend in Sin City for other teams.