Austin Sturgis has been a pitcher who University can hang its hat on. In a Greater Spokane League makeup baseball game on Monday at U-Hi, Sturgis was at his best. Until a seventh-inning glitch, the Titans senior shut down Mt. Spokane on three hits for a 4-0 triumph that salvaged a split of their season series.
Wyatt Mills was a not-so-unlikely hero when Gonzaga Prep won the second game to sweep Ferris this week in a pivotal Greater Spokane League baseball doubleheader. He was batting .400 after his game-winning, two-run single Tuesday to beat the Saxons.
If size alone mattered in athletics, Ben Goodwin would neither be in his fourth year starting at third base for the Ferris Saxons nor, as a junior, have quarterbacked the Saxons to their first State 4A football championship. Grit, intelligence and leadership have, in this instance, rendered size irrelevant.
If size alone mattered in athletics, Ben Goodwin would neither be in his fourth year starting at third base for the Ferris Saxons nor, as a junior, have quarterbacked the Saxons to their first State 4A football championship.
If the weather is good, why tempt fate? Some Greater Spokane League teams, Gonzaga Prep and Ferris included, decided to play baseball doubleheaders Tuesday instead of single games on back-to-back days. At G-Prep, the sunny skies and warm temperatures produced pitching brilliance.
If the weather is good, why tempt fate? Some Greater Spokane League teams, Gonzaga Prep and Ferris included, decided to play baseball doubleheaders Tuesday instead of single games on back-to-back days.
Sunday was a perfect day for a round of golf: Shorts and T-shirts were appropriate attire under a blue sky with temperatures in the 60s. Naturally, it is the day when no high school sports are played. By Monday it was the same old stuff, a Noah-like rainfall necessitating an ark to navigate area baseball fields during the wettest March in Spokane history.
Despite a 3-1 record entering this week in Greater Spokane League baseball, Gonzaga Prep coach Brian Munhall said that the Bullpups’ hitting has been anemic. “Our pitching has been great all year, but our bats have been slow going,” he said at Gonzaga Prep’s Higgins Field on Tuesday.
Despite a 3-1 record entering this week in Greater Spokane League baseball, Gonzaga Prep coach Brian Munhall said that the Bullpups’ hitting has been anemic.
The Greater Spokane League baseball season finally opened Monday and it was a case of too much Nick Sagendorf and judicious use of small ball that propelled Mead past Ferris in a makeup game pitting title aspirant against defending champ. Sagendorf, a 6-foot-5, 212-pound pitcher who seemed to get stronger as the game progressed, struck out nine and scattered four hits in six innings of the Panthers’ 9-2 triumph.
For as long as Kelly Fitzpatrick can remember, he’s always loved baseball. “I always felt comfortable,” Fitzpatrick said. “It may seem weird, but whenever I played football I liked it, but didn’t enjoy it. Basketball and hockey were the same way. When I had a bad (baseball) game, I’d get mad, but still loved it and kept wanting to play.”
Derek Isaak carried his team to the State 1B boys basketball championship. They reciprocated by hoisting him onto their shoulders for a ride to the locker room. Isaak scored a tournament record 44 points and willed Almira/Coulee-Hartline to the State 1B championship with a comeback 62-58 win over Bi-County League foe Valley Christian.
The 1B boys basketball season comes down to this: a rubber match between two Bi-County League powers for the state championship. Valley Christian’s Houdinis for the second straight day snatched victory from the jaws of defeat, and Almira/Coulee-Hartline won another battle of wills, sending both to today’s 7 p.m. title game in the Arena. They split two earlier meetings.
Somehow, someway, Valley Christian dethroned returning State 1B champion Sunnyside Christian on its way to the semifinals. Fellow Bi-County League team Almira/Coulee-Hartline joined them.
During a period in the late 1990s and early 2000s, Valley Christian School was an annual State B basketball tourney staple, finishing as high as second place. Since 2003, the pickings have been slim.
Scott Isaak, Almira/Coulee- Hartline basketball coach, third-generation farmer and raconteur, likes to tell this story about his then-fourth-grade son, Derek. “He eventually wandered up to this thing called Hoopfest,” Scott said. “He was playing in a coed league with his niece. It was 98 and 96 degrees with no shade. They get to the semifinals and lo and behold we look at this team with the local name, ‘Stockton.’ ”
All four teams at Friday night’s 1B boys basketball regional at University were state placers a year ago, but only two would advance to next week’s tournament in the Spokane Arena. Defending champion Sunnyside Christian turned back Rosalia, fourth in state last year, 53-44 in the 6 p.m. opener.
The common thread defining University’s boys basketball season has been the variety of ways the Titans can beat you. Jared Miller exemplified one of those ways perfectly Tuesday night in a regional play-in game against West Valley (Yakima). Miller said he remembered missing a shot. If so, it was the only one. He scored eight baskets, five of them 3-pointers, and was perfect in four free-throw attempts to finish with 25 points during the Titans’ 66-47 victory over the visiting Rams.
Greater Spokane League regular-season girls basketball champion Central Valley discovered there’s no defense against a team playing with superior quickness and execution. League runner-up Gonzaga Prep sliced and diced its way to an impressive 73-61 victory in the District 8 4A championship game Friday night at University and a spot in next week’s Washington sub-state tournament.
Randy Cloke calls Colville the “northern star” at the tip of the corridor of wrestling’s elite. On a straight line moving northward, Mead is chasing a State 4A title and Deer Park is after its fifth successive 2A championship.
Shadle Park took a tip from University and parlayed it into a 41-35 victory and the District 8 3A girls basketball championship Thursday evening at U-Hi. As a result, the Highlanders stay home against the Columbia Basin Big Nine’s No. 3 team for regional play, and the Titans must travel to play the CBBN No. 2 team.
Shadle Park took a tip from University and parlayed it into a 41-35 victory and the District 8 3A girls basketball championship Thursday evening at U-Hi.
