Good Monday morning. We have some baseball for you this morning. A Valleyite’s big hit helped push his team into his college summer league’s playoffs last night.
A two-RBI double from North Bend’s Spencer Marenco in the sixth inning sparked a three-run rally in that frame, breaking a 1-1 tie and lifting the Yakima Valley Pippins to a 5-1 win over the Kelowna Falcons in Kelowna, B.C., Canada last night. The win, combined with an 8-7 home loss by the Bend Elks to the Cowlitz Black Bears, pushed Yakima Valley to a final regular season record of 29-25, one game better than Bend for the fourth and final playoff spot out of the WCL’s South Division. The reward is a first-round playoff matchup with the Corvallis Knights that starts tomorrow night over in Yakima.
Marenco, a 2019 Mount Si High School grad who competed this spring at Yakima Valley Community College, finished 1-3 with those three RBI’s and finishes the regular season with a .257 batting average.
Tomorrow night’s game starts at 6:30 and should be available on YouTube.
Also this morning:
Mount Si HS baseball talent on display in select season finale: The 2022 summer youth baseball season came to a close yesterday and it provided Mount Si High School baseball fans one last look at some names they may see next spring on the Wildcat varsity.
The Preston-based Michael’s Toyota 18U Bears and the Bellevue-based Boys of Summer 18U Red squared off at Bellevue College, and Mount Si players were seen on both teams. Wildcat Colin Fraser got the start on the mound for Michael’s, and it didn’t go well, as he allowed five runs on seven hits in six innings of work in a 9-4 loss for Toyota to the BoS squad. Fraser allowed three walks and struck out six as Boys broke a 4-4 tie with five runs in the seventh inning.
Mount Si’s Owen Theis shined for Boys, as he went 1-3 with two runs scored and two RBI’s while teammate – and fellow ‘Cat – Brody Palmer was 0-4.
Boys plays two: After getting done with Toyota, Boys wrapped up the weekend with a 9-3 win over Kirkland-based Atkinson Baseball. Palmer was 0-2 but scored a run. BoS finished the season 19-28.
Golf: Boeing Classic week starts today
Golfers on the PGA Tour Champions senior men’s pro tour will be arriving in Seattle later this morning to start activities at the Boeing Classic, at the Club at Snoqualmie Ridge. The activities begin later this morning with the Seahawks Rumble at the Ridge celebrity pro-am tournament, followed by competitors’ practice rounds this afternoon.
The Classic is back after a COVID-caused two-year hiatus, and it shapes up to be one of the more exciting events of the year on the Champions Tour calendar. But fans perhaps found themselves a little appetizer yesterday, as the Shaw Charity Classic up in Calgary, AB, Canada, came down to the wire with it going to a one-hole playoff following regulation. Competitor Jerry Kelly beat fellow tour pro John Huston in that one-hole playoff to take the top spot at the tournament preceding this week’s Classic. Both golfers finished at nine-under par 201 on the par-70 Canyon Meadows GC layout up in southern Alberta.
The two are both expected to be in this week’s tournament field at the Classic, which tees off on Friday and finishes up on Sunday. All three rounds are televised on the Golf Channel or if you want tickets, go to the Boeing Classic website here for more information or to purchase those.
Basketball: Valley athlete representing his community across the pond
A Mount Si High School grad is participating in a special trip with his college men’s basketball team.
Montana State University’s men’s basketball team is currently across the Atlantic Ocean on an exhibition tour of Europe, and yesterday, they competed against an English team in London, winning the game 88-72. Wildcat alumnus Tyler Patterson, from Snoqualmie, saw action in the contest for MSU. Stats are not available, but the Journal saw the late stages of the contest live on YouTube and saw Patterson compete.
Patterson, who will be a sophomore this fall with the Bobcats, graduated from Mount Si in 2020. His brother, Quin, graduated back in June from MSHS and is now on campus getting ready for fall classes at the University of California-San Diego.
These international exhibition trips are allowed once every four seasons per NCAA rules, and there usually is an academic component to them, although we do not know what that entails in this case for the Bobcats.
MSU is playing again today, against a second English team. You should be able to find this game on YouTube search “Hoopsfix” for more information.