Good Saturday morning. We are a little late this morning with this thanks to your editor being under the weather this morning but we are going to attempt to get you some news this morning.
We start with softball and it was a busy night last night down in the Portland area, as a number of teams with players from the Valley opened play at the Triple Crown Sports Valley Invitational.
Our headliner comes from the 14U event which is happening outside of downtown Portland in the suburb of Milwaukie. Woodinville-based Absolute Blast Pettit welcomed back one of their top players, Mount Si High School freshman Jenna Nowak, following her being out for the past several weeks following an injury to her finger during the Wildcat high school season. Nowak was 1-3 with two runs scored and also worked two innings in the circle, allowing three runs on two hits walking one and striking out three as Pettit cruised to a 9-3 win over the Lady Rebels team from Redmond. In other 14U games, a pair of other Eastside teams also with Wildcat freshmen fell to squads from the Maniacs program based in the Tri-Cities.
Maniacs Stevens handed the Bellevue-based Flame Fastpitch Dill an 11-1 loss while Maniacs Lemmons took care of Woodinville-based Elevate Bowman 8-5. Mount Si’s Westyn Haigh was 0-2 for the Flame in her game while fellow ‘Cat Madi Brand was 0-1 with a walk and run scored for Elevate in hers. Rounding out the 14U’s, Snohomish’s Shock Campbell rolled to a 5-3 win over the Seattle-based Sundodgers. Soon-to-be CHS’er Olivia Lowell in this one was 0-3 with an RBI for the Shock.
16U action saw two Eastside teams featuring players with ties to Cedarcrest High School dispose of the same Roseburg, OR,-based squad. The Giants Pinder beat the PNW Shamrocks 9-6, and that was followed by an 8-3 blowout of that same Shamrock crew by the Auburn-based Washington Acers McCabe. Red Wolve Abby Combs was 1-2 with a run scored for the Acers in her game while Redmond High School’s Ella Carter was 2-3 with two runs scored in her game for the Giants. Ella’s older sister, Michaela, is a Cedarcrest alum and recently graduated from college at Fordham University in New York. Also, Ella’s RHS teammate Kati Cygan homered powering her squad, the Redmond-based AI Bandits Ruess, to a 5-3 win over the Wilsonville Wildcats from Portland’s south suburbs. And the AI Bandits Purle took a 9-0 win over the Seattle Sundodgers with Mount Si’s Abby Rowland going 0-2.
In 18U action, Washington Ladyhawks Fairbain, based in Puyallup, handled the Oregon Thunder 9-0. Mount Si’s Avery Bielenberg was 0-2 in this one for the ‘Hawks.
Action is underway this morning but with the weather expected to get bad this afternoon, games later today are likely to get rained out down there.
Elsewhere:
Split in KC for Grapettes: The Northwest Grapettes’ 16U Yarwood squad found themselves on the opposite ends of a pair of one-sided results last night at the Top Gun Invitational in Kansas City. NWG, based in Kirkland, fell 10-1 to the North Carolina Gaddis team, then nightcapped with a nice 8-3 win over the Ohio Thunderbolts. Mount Si sophomore Bella Scappini went 2-2 with a run scored in that win for the Grapettes, after going hitless in the loss to the North Carolina team.
Also, the Voodoo Rhinehart team played twice yesterday in the KC event also splitting their two games. Cedarcrest High School’s Lilly Rafferty did not play in either of the games for Voodoo, based in Woodinville; she, as we told you yesterday, appears to be a late add for the team and could see action at some point during the remainder of this weekend.
Baseball: Mount Si players loom large in blowout select win
While Mount Si High School’s senior class was graduating last night at ShoWare Center in Kent, the core of next year’s Mount Si baseball squad made their presence felt in a big way over at a tournament in Idaho, scoring a win over an Idaho team as a result.
Tate Swanson dominated on the hill for the Bellevue Dragons Elite, scattering a run on just two hits in a 4 2/3 inning effort as the Dragons, an 18U team, blasted the Moscow Mojo 9-1. Swanson helped his cause at the plate with a triple headlining a two-hit effort, scoring a run and driving in three more. Swanson walked five and struck out six to take the win on the hill for BDE, and he had plenty of help from Wildcat teammates. Tucker Koval had a hit and drove in two runs, Jones Kasperson had a hit and RBI, Drew Hossfeld had a hit and run scored, Will Gregory had two hits, two runs scored and an RBI, and they even had an assist from a friend of theirs playing for another high school. Eastside Catholic’s Connor Cunningham doubled and drove in a run; he and his family recently moved from the Valley to Sammamish, and they still have extended family here locally.
Rounding things out, Mount Si’s Patrick Rein played in the game and went 0-2. The team was scheduled to play a game later last night, but there was no report. Their event is expected to continue through this weekend.
Also last night:
Dirtbags fall: Missing several of their Cedarcrest High School players with them also graduating last night, the Duvall-based Washington Dirtbags 18U squad were blown out on the road.
The Dirtbags dropped an 11-3 decision at North Creek High School in Bothell to the Narrows team from Tacoma. Red Wolve Quinn Larson led the Cedarcrest delegation going 1-4 with two runs. Also repping CHS last night were Luke Thompson, Tyler Questad and Jake Polacek; the first two both went 0-3 while Polacek pitched four innings allowing three runs on six hits walking four and striking out two with no decision. They play again today.
Snoqualmie Valley Sports Journal 