Good Friday morning. We have some news for you in a moment, but before we get to that, we have our annual message about graduation tonight.
Tonight is a special night for the Valley, as your community’s high school seniors, from both Mount Si and Cedarcrest High Schools, all celebrate graduation and the beginning of a new chapter in their lives, as they move onto college or other endeavors and become young adults.
The moment for all of these kids, whether they are athletes or not, is one that has been earned through a lot of years of hard work and sacrifice, both by the kids themselves and their families. These young men and women have faced many challenges over the years, namely the COVID-19 pandemic and the resulting shutdowns of school and athletic endeavors, and the aftereffects of that for athletes on their college recruitment processes.
It has been your editor’s honor and privilege these past four years as a local writer to tell the athletic stories of this great group of kids. Whether that is Mount Si’s Trevor Hennig, Breanna Griffith, Blake Forrest, Siri Fauske (boys and girls’ basketball), Zach Ramsey (boys soccer), Addie Craig (softball), Clay Crooks (baseball), Macie Harris (girls’ soccer) or Cedarcrest’s Jake DiMarzio (football, track), Audrey Mattison (girls’ basketball), Cooper Ayers (baseball, boys’ basketball), Cait Hawkins (volleyball), Juuso and Elise Luoto (both track), Brock Warden (football) or Katie Linder (girls’ soccer), or many others from their respective school’s class, the accomplishments of these kids, both on the field and in the classroom, are accomplishments that will forever be etched in history.
Many of these kids will be moving on to college to pursue their goals. Others will head to the military, or perhaps straight into the workforce. There will be some challenges on that trail, but there will also be some opportunities for these kids to chase, opportunities which may see them head elsewhere. But these kids will always have a piece of this Valley in their hearts and will forever bleed that maroon and gray of Cedarcrest or that scarlet and gray of Mount Si.
We congratulate the Class of 2024 at both high schools on their accomplishments and wish them all the best as they move on and chart their new paths to success as young adults.
Ceremonies:
-Cedarcrest is at 7:00pm at Overlake Christian Church in Redmond
-Mount Si is also at 7:00pm at Showare Center in Kent
Webstreams for the two ceremonies are TBA but are likely for both; consult school websites today for more information on streaming availability.
Time for the diamond cuts from last night:
Softball: Mount Si athlete playing in Kansas City tournament this weekend
Many of the Valley’s top high school softball players will be in Portland starting tonight for a major tournament called the Valley Invitational. More on that in a moment. There, however, is another event going on this weekend that also is featuring a Mount Si High School athlete.
That tournament is the Top Gun Maverick Invitational and it started last night in Kansas City. A small delegation of teams from Washington including Kirkland’s Northwest Grapettes Yarwood, a 16U team featuring Wildcat Bella Scappini, are competing. NWG split their opening two games on day one and Scappini saw action in both contests.
The evening did not start well for the Grapettes as they fell 9-2 to the Vision Gold team out of Arkansas, with Scappini going 0-2. NWG rebounded in their nightcap blowing out the Missouri-based Top Gun Softball Southwest Missouri team 11-2. The Mount Si sophomore went 1-3 with a run scored.
The event continues through Sunday. Also there this weekend from western Washington is Voodoo Rhinehart, the Woodinville-based 18U team coached by longtime Eastside softball coaching figure Clint Rhinehart and which features Cedarcrest High School’s Lily Rafferty. Rafferty did not pitch in either of their games last night; they, too, split their opening day games with a win over a Colorado team and a blowout loss to a Minnesota team.
Valley Invitational preview: The remaining teams with Valley girls’ high school players – a total of 13 of them spanning across the 14U through 18U age levels – will be headed down to Portland this morning to get ready for the Triple Crown Sports Valley Invitational, which starts tonight at locations all over the Rose City and surrounding communities.
Among the featured teams of the group of 13 that we will be following this weekend include the Washington Ladyhawks Simpson and Fairbairn teams; the two 18U teams feature Mount Si High School players – Ally Hetzel at Simpson and Avery Bielenberg at Fairbairn. Also we will be watching the Washington Acers 16U McCabe, featuring Cedarcrest player Abby Combs, and Carnation-based Absolute Blast Rafferty, coached by Lily Rafferty’s dad Andy, a Cedarcrest assistant coach, and which features Red Wolve Josie Fiala. The 16U team will be missing a couple of their top players this weekend – Maggie Enich and Vivian Knuckey – as both have been elevated to the Rhinehart crew that is in the Kansas City event. Both teams are aligned with the Woodinville-based AbB program.
This tournament, which has been a staple of the Northwest travel youth softball scene for over 30 years now, is the primary “college exposure” tournament for teams from the Northwest. As such, a lot of Northwest colleges will be in attendance watching players, including representatives from both the University of Washington and Central Washington University.
With the weather that is forecast for this weekend in Portland, which is similar to the Seattle weather forecast, games are likely to be rained out down there, so what action these girls can get in will be very helpful to advancing their college prospects.
Baseball: Wildcat alum Theis gets work in Colorado college summer game
Pitcher Owen Theis, a Mount Si High School alum, held his own in a pitching appearance last night for his Colorado-based college summer team.
Theis allowed an unearned run on a couple of hits in two innings of work as the Greeley Grays beat Diamond Club 5-1 in a Mile High Collegiate Baseball league contest in northern Colorado. Theis, who will be a sophomore this fall at Centralia College and is a 2023 MSHS’er from North Bend, walked one and struck out three with no decision recorded.
The Grays are likely to play this weekend. In other college summer action last night:
Dougherty cleans house: Theis’ fellow Mount Si alum Aidan Dougherty has had a strong start to the season for the West Coast League’s Wenatchee AppleSox, and he again delivered in a big way last night. The Snoqualmie product doubled twice, including one that was the walk-off hit in the 10th, as Wenatchee won a wild one with the Bellingham Bells 8-7 at home on the campus of Wenatchee Valley College over in Wenatchee. Dougherty finished 5-6, his second five-hit game of the season, scoring a run and driving in three more, upping his average back to .378 on the season for the Sox, who moved to 9-3 on the young season in the WCL.
Both teams got on busses after the game and headed north up Highway 97 through the border crossing at Osoyoos, BC, Canada, for games tonight in the British Columbia interior. The Bells are in Kelowna to meet the Falcons while the Sox are in Kamloops to meet the NorthPaws. Both games are 6:30 first pitches tonight north of the border. Speaking of Bellingham, Cedarcrest alum Sheldon Egger did not pitch for that squad in last night’s game. Egger will be attending Wofford College in South Carolina this fall. He is from Duvall and a 2022 CHS’er.
Here is a look at the youth scores from last night. Action from GameChanger and their apps, available on phones and tablets in their app stores:
City Baseball Navy 8, Elevate Northwest 16U Bugge 5: Seattle-based City beat the Woodinville team in a good one last night at Bannerwood Park in Bellevue. Cedarcrest’s Reed Gilmore was 0-1 with a walk for Elevate in this one.
Washington A’s 18U Premier 3, FCA 0: The Sammamish-based A’s blanked the Woodinville-based team at home last night up on the Plateau. On their graduation eve, Mount Si seniors Clay Crooks and Colin Fraser both played in this one for the A’s. The duo went hitless in the game, a combined 0-5 for the two of them in this one.
Boys of Summer 15U 14, Narrows Baseball 10: Mount Si’s Blake Helman powered Bellevue-based BoS to a home slugfest win last night in Bellevue over the Tacoma team. He went 3-3 with three runs scored and three RBI’s. Teammate and fellow Wildcat Kainoa Keith went 0-4. Both guys also pitched with Keith going two innings allowing a run on two hits walking three and Helman going an inning allowing two runs, one earned, on three hits. Neither received the decision.
Lakeside Recovery 16U Elite 6, Kirkland Merchants 16U 1: In Issaquah, Lakeside took care of business at home. Neither of their Mount Si players, Cole Taylor or Scotty Corder, played in this one, but fellow Wildcat J.D. Tenhulzen got the starting pitching call for the Merchants and ran into some trouble, allowing five runs on six hits in three innings of work. He walked three, struck out one and took the loss.
FM Sports 2, Michael’s Toyota 15U Bears 1: Redmond-based FM won the pitcher’s duel over the Preston-based Bears last night at Inglemoor High School in Kenmore. Mount Si’s Austin Catini was 0-2 in this one for Toyota.
Snoqualmie Valley Sports Journal 