Spokane jumps right in

As the Spokane RiverHawks begin their sixth season, the West Coast Collegiate Baseball League team’s members are going to get to know each other.

Quickly.

The RiverHawks, who play a 42-game schedule during June, July and early August, open with three games in Moses Lake starting today, then follow that with three more in Corvallis and three in Bend, finishing the Oregon portion of their schedule in one trip.

“It will give the guys a good chance to really get to know each other,” said head coach Barry Matthews, the former Gonzaga University star who is an assistant coach at Spokane Falls Community College. “They will be in hotels together and on the bus all those hours. It’s a good way to get everybody used to being around everybody else who is on the club.”

Spokane is one of eight teams in the WCCBL, a summer league for players with college eligibility remaining.

But none plays in finer facilities, with the RiverHawks splitting their home games between Avista Stadium – where they start their home schedule June 23 by hosting Corvallis – and Gonzaga University’s Patterson Baseball Complex.

“You couldn’t ask for anything better than Avista,” Matthews said. “Then all of sudden Gonzaga builds one of the premier stadiums on the West Coast and we get to play there. … When kids find out they get to play there, it’s exciting.”

Many of the RiverHawks players are well aware of Avista and Gonzaga, with nine players either having played high school baseball in the Spokane area or currently playing at Gonzaga, Whitworth or SFCC.

“We want to give the local kids, here in town, that maybe go away to school, a chance to have a place to play during the summer, first and foremost,” said Matthews, who played at GU for RiverHawks general manager Steve Hertz. “And obviously, we want to stay loyal to the Northwest, the universities like Gonzaga, Wazzu, the University of Washington and Oregon State, those places.

“We base it off that, then go out and get other guys to fill the other spots.”

One of the local players is Beau Brett, recently graduated from Ferris High and headed for USC in the fall after being selected in the 29th round of this month’s draft.

“He’s an example of a very talented high school kid who is going to a big-time baseball college, who wants to better himself during the summer facing college pitching,” said Matthews, who coached Brett earlier on a local high school summer select team.

Beau’s father Bobby heads Brett Sports, which purchased the WCCBL franchise in Bellingham during the off-season and picked up a high-profile UW athlete: quarterback Jake Locker, spending part of the summer near home playing baseball.

“Anytime you get Bobby Brett involved with our league, it’s going to help our league tremendously,” Matthews said. “As far as Jake Locker goes, I just think that’s great. It’s good for the league. Fans will come out just to watch him, to see this kid who is a good college quarterback and possibly an NFL quarterback.”

Beau Brett, whose uncle George is in the baseball Hall of Fame, isn’t the only RiverHawk with a strong baseball pedigree.

Pitcher Cory Bannister, son of Floyd, who pitched with the Mariners among his six major league teams and is part of the 2008 class of college baseball’s hall of fame – and brother of the Kansas City Royals’ Brian – will be one of the anchors of the Spokane staff.

“We’re excited to have him,” Matthews said of the right-hander who pitched sparingly this year for Stanford and didn’t make the Cardinal’s postseason roster. I think he’s going to do real well in this league.”

Putting together a summer college team has become harder since the RiverHawks began operation in 2003, as changes in college scheduling – less time to play the same amount of games – have forced more players to attend summer school, making up classes they missed during the intense college schedule.

“Everybody is getting hit by it,” Matthews said. “We lost four players a month before the season was supposed to start.”

The RiverHawks’ catching will be handled by two local products, Gonzaga’s Tyson VanWinkle, recently drafted in the 39th round, and Washington State’s Greg Lagreid. The juniors each caught more than 40 games and are considered standouts behind the plate.

Besides Bannister, the 13-man pitching staff will feature players from Oregon State (Kraig Sitton), Oklahoma State (Joe Kent), Gonzaga (A.J. Proszek) and NAIA champion Lewis-Clark State (Dustin Willis and Nick Masters).