Valley Eagles Third In Tourney

Thu., Aug. 12, 1999

By Mike Vlahovich mikev@spokesman.com (509) 927-2180

It’s been a good year for Valley baseball players competing in the Spokane Youth Sports program.

Like their 13-year-old counterparts, a team of 12-year-old Valley and South Side athletes finished third in a Babe Ruth-affiliated state tournament.

They also placed second in a tournament in Helena.

As members of the Valley Eagles, coached by Ray Riggin and Mike Raynor, they finished unbeaten in league with a 14-0 record and finished third in the league tournament last weekend.

“Between Dick Jones and us,” said Riggin, “we represented the Valley well.”

The Eagles compiled an overall record of 19-3, losing only in a preseason tournament in Canada and twice in the SYSA tournament.

Six of the team members, Brett Riggin, Luke Raynor, Jay Dee Edlund, Scott Soderberg, Corey Fish and Brady Brunelle, plus Valleyite Jye Lanphere, made the South Side All-Star team that finished second in the Helena tournament with a 5-1 record, and went 3-2 at state, losing to eventual champion Okanogan and runner-up Othello.

They won their pool in Helena and beat the Spokane North All Stars in the semifinals before losing to Bozeman for the championship.

Riggin pitched a one-hitter in the semifinals, hit a grand slam home run and drove in the other run during the 5-1 victory.

Raynor hit three home runs and Soderberg two at the fenced field complex.

At state, the team won three straight times, including over Othello, before losing to Okanogan in a game between the remaining two unbeatens. Othello came back to beat them for a finals berth.

Other members of the Valley’s league unbeaten and third-place tournament team are Chase Fish, Josh Soltan, Dylan Sattin, Buddy Sorensen, Kenny Youngren and Justin Tognacchi.

The team averaged nearly 19 runs per game in going unbeaten in league.

The trio of Raynor, Edlund and Riggin - “fast, faster and fastest,” says Riggin - have been together as his teams’ pitchers for five years.

Horizon Junior High students Chase Earling, R.J. Miller and Brian Offield helped the South All-Stars, a 13-14-year-old Pony League baseball team, to a fourth-place finish at the Northwest Regional from July 27-Aug. 1 in Kirkland.

The team, which won the District 3 tournament in Spokane, lost to eventual champion Southwest Seattle and runner-up Stanwood.

Offield hit .364 for the tournaments and was 2-0 as a pitcher.

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