Good Thursday morning everyone. We lead it off on the links this morning and the Washington Junior Golf Association’s season-opening youth golf tournaments yesterday in Carnation and on Whidbey Island saw Valley youngsters take the next step towards a trip to the association’s state tournament this summer, scoring district tournament qualification with solid performances in the first opportunity to make it to districts this season.
A total of six Valley athletes earned trips to district events. Five of those were out of District 2 and the event at Blue Heron Golf Course in Carnation. The Gaffney brothers from Snoqualmie, Mount Si High School boys’ golfers Charlie and Cooper Gaffney, both punched tickets with top-five showings in their age divisions. Charlie took second in the boys’ high school (16-18 years old) division carding a two-over par 73 on the par-71 Blue Heron layout, while Cooper finished fourth in the junior high (14-15 years old) division, firing a four-over 75. Soon-to-be Mount Si girls’ star Ava Jensen won the girls’ 14-15 division carding a 10-over par 81 also earning a trip to districts.
Rounding out the qualifiers was the Gaffney’s Wildcat teammate, Jacoby Schmidlapp, who finished tied for 11th in the 16-18 age group carding a six-over 77. Also, in the boys’ elementary age division (8-11 years old), North Bend’s Michael Beck finished fifth carding a 43 over nine holes (older age groups played the full 18 holes) to earn a spot.
Two others narrowly missed qualification. In the boys’ 14-15 division, Mount Si’s Jackson Barter fired a nine-over 80 and finished 14th missing the cut by two shots and in the boys’ 16-18 division, Wildcat Ethan Miles fired a seven-over 78 to finish 14th in that division and miss the cut by one shot. Several others from the upper Valley who also competed in the tournament missed the cut as well, including two other Mount Si boys’ golfers, A.J. Spence and Hudson Moscrip.
Wildcat girls’ golfer Maia Miller carded a 75 at the District 1 event up on Whidbey Island and won the girls’ 14-15 age division with a three-over par result on the par-72 Gallery Golf Club layout. She was the only one of the smaller local delegation up there that made it. Two others from Duvall finished well back in the boys’ high school (16-18) division and did not earn district berths.
The next opportunity for local youth golfers to earn district berths will be next week. Districts 1 and 2 will have events on Monday – District 2 is at Mount Si Golf Course in Snoqualmie – while District 6, which also features several Valley competitors, opens its season next Tuesday.
Trio of top Valley competitors head east: Jensen, Miller and Schmidlapp will be representing the Valley this weekend at the WJGA’s Joel Dahmen Invitational youth tournament. This event is one of several statewide events the association holds throughout the year and is this year being held at Lakeview Golf and Country Club along Highway 28 between Ephrata and Soap Lake over in central Washington’s Grant County. The event, which runs Saturday and Sunday, is a fundraising event sponsored by the foundation run by Seattle-area PGA Tour men’s golf pro Joel Dahmen, helping raise money to aid cancer patients and their families and also improve access to the sport for youngsters in smaller communities all over Washington state. The trio of locals will be competing against a field of competitors from both Washington and Idaho.
Baseball: Rough go for Davenport
We missed this from Tuesday. The night on the farm for Duvall’s Aaron Davenport did not go well as he had one of his more challenging outings of the season in the minor leagues of professional baseball.
The pitcher, a Cedarcrest High School alum, allowed five runs on 10 hits, walking two and striking out three, in 5 2/3 innings, taking the loss as his Akron RubberDucks fell at home in Ohio 8-7 to the visiting Binghamton Rumble Ponies from New York. The performance saw Davenport’s earned run average rise a bit, to 2.27 as he dropped to 5-2 on the season.
The season thus far for the 2018 Red Wolve grad has been stellar, to the point that there appears to be a reasonable chance of a promotion for him later in the season, but this performance might throw cold water temporarily on that. That all said, he’ll look to get back out there this weekend and learn from the mistakes he made in this outing. He’ll see the Binghamton bats again on Sunday for a 10am our time first pitch, and will look to have a better result.
College summer action from last night:
Wenatchee rebounds: Following their blowout loss Tuesday, the Wenatchee AppleSox rebounded last night for a 6-3 West Coast League win over their Highway 97 rivals, the Yakima Valley Pippins, in Yakima. Snoqualmie’s Aidan Dougherty, a Mount Si HS grad, was 0-4 in this one for Wenatchee. The teams wrap up the series this evening at 6:30 over in Yakima.
Time for youth action. Scores and highlights from GameChanger and the GameChanger app, available on phones and tablets in their app stores.
Lakeside Gray 8, Elevate Northwest 18U Edwards 7: At Bothell High School, the visitors from Issaquah held off the Woodinville-based Elevate crew. Mount Si’s Eddie Coons was 0-2 with an RBI in this one for Elevate.
Lakeside Recovery 5, Washington A’s 18U Premier 4: The Issaquah-based Lakeside handled the Sammamish-based A’s at Bannerwood Park in Bellevue. Recent Wildcat alum Clay Crooks was 0-2 with a walk for the A’s in this one.
Woodbury Kaczrowski 14, Woodbury 15U White 1: Just like last week, the Woodbury teams played in intrasquad action at home in Minnesota with a one-sided result in favor of the Kaczrowski side. The Getchell’s – Mason and Cam – both went hitless for White; their mom, Corianne, is originally from North Bend and is, like your editor, a Mount Si Class of 1997 alum. The stars last night for Kaczrowski’s crew were Theo Ackley and Jack Sullivan; both guys had two hits each, with Sullivan getting a double, and the two combined to drive in six runs for their winning side in the contest.
Soccer: Mount Si boys’ soccer set to be honored by the Seattle Sounders at upcoming game
Mount Si High School’s boys’ soccer program will be recognized for winning the Washington 4A high school soccer title by Seattle’s professional men’s soccer team.
The Seattle Sounders FC will be honoring Mount Si’s achievements in a halftime ceremony during the Sounders’ home contest June 29 at Lumen Field in downtown Seattle. The game kicks off at 7:30 p.m. and is available as part of the subscription Major League Soccer streaming package on Apple TV+. Tickets for the game are also available, and the program’s booster club is selling them here. Tickets are $38 per person and a portion of those ticket costs will be donated back to the boosters helping support sustained success for these young men in the Wildcat program.
For more information, contact Michele Brown at the Sounders FC ticket office at (425) 548-2453 or by email at micheleb@soundersfc.com.
Snoqualmie Valley Sports Journal 