Today (6/4): PSCL doubleheader
Puget Sound Collegiate League baseball
Hawks Prairie Cardinals vs. Nisqually Silvers – The RAC – 5:00 PM
Olympia A’s vs. West Olympia Linx – The RAC – 7:30 PM
Sunday scoreboard: Linx, Brewers and Silvers pick up PSCL wins
Puget Sound Collegiate League baseball
West Olympia Linx 6, Hawks Prairie Cardinals 3
Tumwater Brewers 6, Olympia Athletics 0
Nisqually Silvers 6, Lacey Saints 4
The West Olympia Linx rode a four run third inning to a 6-3 win over the Hawks Prairie Cardinals in the first game of a PSCL triple header today at The RAC. Danny Flahie (Dakota State) went 2-for-4 with a run and an RBI for the Linx. Zach Scott (Whitworth) collected three hits and drove in a run for the Cardinals in the loss.
Robby Campos (Olympic College), Josh Sontag (Saint Martin’s) and Brandon Santos (Lower Columbia) combined to give up just three hits in the Tumwater Brewers 6-0 win over the Olympia Athletics, the Brewers’ second straight shutout to open the season. Robert Ortiz (Oxnard College, Timberline HS) drove in a pair of runs and Jeff Walton (University of Puget Sound) had three hits and scored twice for the Brewers.
Travis Shaw (Saint Martin’s), Colby Fitzgerald (Bellevue University) and Cody Apilado (Olympic College) each had three hits in the Nisqually Silvers‘ 6-4 win over the Lacey Saints in the nightcap.
Today (6/2): Capital Stage Race, PSCL baseball; Underground Derby
Cycling
Capital Stage Race, Queen Stage – Rochester Primary School – 9:30 AM
Stage three of the Capital Stage Race is a 90 mile race for category 1, 2 and 3 men riders, a 67 mile race for category 1, 2 and 3 women and a 47 1/2 mile race for every other class that begins at Rochester Primary School at 9:30 AM. The 90 mile race goes all the way to Satsop and back. The men’s and women’s long loops get started at 1:20 PM.
Puget Sound Collegiate League baseball
Olympia Athletics vs. Tumwater Brewers – The RAC – 1:00 PM
Hawks Prairie Cardinals vs. West Olympia Linx – The RAC – 3:30 PM
Lacey Saints vs. Nisqually Silvers – The RAC – 6:00 PM
Roller Derby
Underground Derby – Skateland! – 6:00 PM
Saturday scoreboard: A’s, Brewers, Linx pick up opening day wins
Puget Sound Collegiate League baseball
Olympia Athletics 6, Hawks Prairie Cardinals 5
Tumwater Brewers 5, Lacey Saints 0
West Olympia Linx 10, Nisqually Silvers 5
In game one of the PSCL season, the Olympia Athletics scored a run in the seventh to tie the game and JJ Nazzaro (Gardner-Webb University) drove in the game winning run in the eighth to lead the A’s to a 6-5 win over the Hawks Prairie Cardinals. Tyler Watkins (Spokane Falls CC) went 2-for-2, scored twice and drove in two runs including the game tying run on a bases loaded walk in the seventh inning. Jeffrey Apigo (Skagit Valley College) went 1-for-3 with a run and two RBIs in the loss for the Cardinals.
Drew Fosnes (MSU-Billings) had the Tumwater Brewers only hit of the day in the first inning but scored what turned out to be the game winning run in fourth when he stole home and the Brewers would capitalize on walks, wild pitches and errors to knock off the Lacey Saints 5-0. Joe Hanley, Nick Mailhot (Saint Martin’s, Northwest Christian), Kevin Afflerbach (Edmonds CC) and Tony LaDue (Saint Martin’s) combined on a five hit shutout for the Brewers. David Tillotson (Centralia College) went 2-for-3 for the Saints.
In the nightcap, the Nisqually Silvers scored four runs in the top of the eighth to take a 5-4 lead but the West Olympia Linx answered back with six runs of their own in the bottom half of the inning to take a 10-5 win. Austin Baker (Arkansas State), Ben Krueger (Oregon Tech) and Cody Evans (Oregon Tech) each had two hits for the Linx while Colby Fitzgerald (Bellevue University) and Travis Shaw (Saint Martin’s) each had a pair of hits for the Silvers.
Today (6/1): PSCL season kicks off; Capital Stage Race; Speedway Saturday
Puget Sound Collegiate League baseball
Olympia Athletics vs. Hawks Prairie Cardinals – The RAC – 11:00 AM
Tumwater Brewers vs. Lacey Saints – The RAC – 3:00 PM
West Olympia Linx vs. Nisqually Silvers – The RAC – 6:00 PM
The Puget Sound Collegiate League returns for another season kicking off with a triple header at The RAC beginning at 11:00 AM.
The PSCL is a developmental summer wood bat league featuring players primarily from Northwest community colleges and other local four year schools. The season runs most days for the next two months from today, June 1st, until the championship game on July 31st.
I hope to publish a PSCL preview sometime in the next week.
Cycling
Capital Stage Race, time trials – Heritage Park – 7:00 AM
Capital Stage Race, Capital Criterium – State Capitol Campus – 1:40 PM
As I type, the Capital Stage Race has taken over Deschutes Parkway from Heritage Park for the time trial stage of the two day, three stage event.
The race continues this afternoon with the Capital Criterium, a timed race around a circuit at the State Capitol Campus and Capitol Way. Racing at the Capitol begins at 1:40 PM continuing until at least 7:00 PM.
Auto racing
The season at South Sound Speedway is underway despite the weather and it looks like racing should be on tonight. Tickets are $16 for adults, $14 for teenagers, seniors and military, $5 for kids 6-12 and free for the little ones.
Baseball alumni: Smith wins NAIA title; Boyle and Weiks open NCAAs; Calhoun’s squad in NJCAA title
Black Hills alum Ryan Smith and his Faulkner University Eagles won the NAIA championship on Thursday night with an 11-4 win over Lewis & Clark State on LCSC’s home field in Lewiston, Idaho. Faulkner went 56-11 this season and was the #1 ranked team in the nation. Smith, a junior that pitched two years at Chemeketa Community College before transferring to the Montgomery, Alabama school, appeared in nine games for the Eagles posting a 2-0 record with a 2.52 ERA in five starts.
In other college baseball post-season news, two area high school baseball players open the NCAA Division I regionals tomorrow. River Ridge alum Brandon Boyle and South Alabama will take on Mercer in Starkville, Mississippi at noon while Capital grad Jourdan Weiks and the University of San Francisco will face Rice at 2:00 PM in Eugene, Oregon. Both games can be seen on ESPN3.
Boyle, a junior transfer from Lower Columbia Community College, has made 19 appearances and four starts for the Jaguars posting a 2-2 record striking out 36 batters over 45 2/3 innings of work. South Alabama is 42-18 so far this season and is the #2 seed in the Starkville regional, hosted by Mississippi State, the #1 seed. Mercer is the #3 seed while Central Arkansas is the #4.
Weiks had his struggles for the Dons in his sophomore season hitting just .159 in just 44 at-bats. He started 10 times and appeared in 34 games scoring 13 runs for the Dons. USF went 34-22 this season and are the #3 seed in the Eugene regional where they will face the #2 seed Owls. Oregon is the #1 seed and will face #4 South Dakota State on Friday.
One last local post-season note: Nick Calhoun, the incoming head coach for the Hawks Prairie Cardinals of the Puget Sound Collegiate League, is an assistant coach for Murray State College in Tishomingo, Oklahoma. With a 6-0 win over Heartland on Thursday night, the Aggies moved into the National Junior College Athletic Association championship game on Saturday. Calhoun’s squad is 45-22 this season and will take on either Madison College or LSU-Eunice for the title.
Clippers basketball, Geoducks volleyball make head coaching hires
Two days, two new coaches for Olympia area college teams.
On Tuesday, South Puget Sound announced the hiring of Aaron Landon as the Clippers’ head men’s basketball coach. And on Wednesday, Evergreen announced that Angela Spoja was hired to the long vacant position of head volleyball coach.
Aaron Landon comes to the SPSCC from Concordia University in Portland, where he has been an assistant for the past two seasons. The native of Davis, California was responsible for recruiting in California, where he was an assistant coach at Marina High School and assistant at Santa Monica College before moving to Portland. In his time at Concordia, the Cavaliers went 29-30. Landon played basketball at the University of La Verne and Monterey Peninsula College.
Landon’s head coaching duties are combined with a full-time position as an educational planner for SPSCC. He takes over for Curtis Norwood, who resigned after the season, and will have to replace 56 points from departing sophomores on a team that went just 4-21 last season and given the fluid nature of community college rosters from year to year, he will probably have to bring in a whole new team.
This is Landon’s first head coaching job, but he is a young guy that has some experience recruiting in the Northwest in his time at Concordia and has contacts in California that could help him land some out of state talent that seems to be the key to success in the NWAACC these days.
Meanwhile, at Evergreen, Angela Spoja is one of the most accomplished coaches the Geoducks have hired in a very long time. Spoja spent eight seasons at Tacoma Community College where she was named NWAACC coach of the year three times and went undefeated in 2007 and 2010. She also oversees operations for the South Sound Volleyball Club in Tacoma.
Spoja has a tough job ahead of her trying to turn around a moribund program that went 0-46 over the last two seasons under Greg Spector and Geoduck volleyball has gone just 44-203 since 2001. Can Spoja make Evergreen attractive to volleyball players? For a variety of reasons, volleyball just isn’t a good fit as a sport for Evergreen but I think her experience in the community college ranks will help her draw more local transfers to the program and could yield some good players from the NWAACC. She also has strong roots in the local volleyball scene and will have better success recruiting in local high schools.
The Geoducks’ volleyball season starts in just a few months on September 6th.
Today (5/26): T-Birds face Bearcats for state championship
High school baseball
2A WIAA state championship game
Tumwater vs. WF West – Yakima County Stadium – 1:00 PM
How hot are the T-Birds? Since losing three straight games on April 15th, 16th and 17th to fall to 7-6 on the season, Tumwater has gone 10-1 including wins over Fife, North Kitsap and defending state champion Archbishop Murphy in the state tournament.
Today in the 2A state championship game at Yakima County Stadium, they get the one team that has handed them a loss over their streak, WF West. In fact, the Bearcats have dropped Tumwater four times this season by a combined score of 21-5. Two games were close, a 1-0 decision on March 22nd and a 7-4 game on April 17th.
WF West comes into the game at 22-3, their only losses came to Aberdeen on March 18th, Olympia on March 23rd and a big surprise loss to River Ridge on April 18th. Since dropping Tumwater 5-1 in the district title game, the Bearcats have knocked off Olympic, Centralia and Clarkston to get to the title game.
The game can be heard on both the Eli Sports Network and KELA at 1:00 PM.
Saturday scoreboard: T-Birds advance to state championship game with 3-2 win in semis
High school baseball
2A WIAA state tournament semifinals
Tumwater 3, Archbishop Murphy 2
Archbishop Murphy had runners on second and third with two outs in the bottom of the seventh inning but Garrett Terrell struck out the Wildcat batter and Tumwater held on to a 3-2 win to advance to their first state championship game. Terrell went the distance for the T-Birds to pick up his seventh victory of the season.
The T-Birds fell behind 2-1 in the fourth inning but answered right back in the fifth when Justin Graham walked and worked his way all the way home on a three wild pitches. Clayton Boze doubled and scored the eventual game winning run on a single by Riley Owen.
The T-Birds will take on either Clarkston or WF West in the title game tomorrow at Yakima County Stadium at 1:00 PM.
Today (5/25): T-Birds get underway after delay; 3A softball championship
strong>High school baseball
2A WIAA semifinals
Tumwater vs. Archbishop Murphy – County Stadium, Yakima – 4:00 PM
Tumwater comes into the semifinals as the clear underdog, advancing to the final four for the first time in school history. The T-Birds have lost just one game in their last ten, finishing second in the 2A EvCo behind WF West, losing to WF West in the District IV championship game and knocking off Fife and North Kitsap last Saturday to advance to the semis.
The T-Birds will face 23 win Archbishop Murphy. The Wildcats have lost just two games this season, one in their opener to Burlington-Edison and another to Cedarcrest on April 22nd. They have won seven straight since that game including a pair of two run wins over White River and Lynden in the first two rounds on Monday. The Wildcats are led by four seniors, pitcher Derrick Mahlum (11-0, 0.65 ERA), pitcher and first baseman Zander Clouse (8-2, 1.21 ERA, .451 BA, 37 RBI) and shortstop Trever Morrison (.550 BA, 5 HRs, 46 runs).
The winner moves on to face either Clarkston or WF West in the championship game at 7:00 PM on Saturday night while the loser plays in the third/fourth place game on Saturday at 1:00 PM.
The game can be heard on the Eli Sports Network.
High school softball
3A WIAA state tournament – The RAC – 9:00 AM
Day two of the 3A state tourney is already well underway with the championship game coming up at 1:30 PM between either Prairie or University High and Kamiakin of Meadowdale.
Oly Sports 