Pair returning to play for Indians

First baseman Chris Alexander and shortstop Casey Benjamin will return to the Spokane Indians’ baseball roster this summer, the parent club Texas Rangers announced Tuesday.

Alexander and Benjamin are among the first group of 14 players assigned to Spokane for the 50th anniversary season of the Northwest League. Many of the players have been at the Rangers’ extended spring training facility in Surprise, Ariz.

Texas will assign other players to Spokane in the coming days. Most will be selections from the two-day amateur draft, which ended its 50-round run on Tuesday.

Alexander, a 15th-round selection in last year’s draft, played 55 games for Spokane. He hit .252 with 14 doubles, five home runs and 30 runs batted in.

Benjamin hit .372 in August for the Indians and finished his 32-game season with a .272 average. He was playing in the independent Frontier League when he signed a free-agent contract with Texas.

Two other infielders, three outfielders, two catchers and five right-handed pitchers were also sent to Spokane.

The infielders are third baseman Alex Guerra and second baseman Tobin Swope. Guerra, of Venezuela, has hit .258 during four professional seasons, including .300 in the Arizona Rookie League last year. Swope attended Stanford University and was signed as a free agent last August while playing in the independent Southeastern League.

Kevin Mahar, Brandon Cashman and Brock Jacobsen are the outfielders assigned to Spokane. Mahar, a fifth-year senior at Indiana, signed a free-agent contract after leading the Big Ten Conference with 14 homers. The second-team, all-conference selection hit .359 and had 52 RBIs. Cashman signed as a free agent out of Illinois last year and hit .278 with the Arizona Rangers. Jacobsen played for Dixie State (Utah) College and Brigham Young University and signed as a free agent last year.

Ryan Baldwin and Alex Sanchez are catchers coming to Spokane. Baldwin played his final two years at Kansas State, signed a free-agent contract last June and hit .281 in 18 games with the Arizona Rangers. Texas provided no information on Sanchez.

Right-handers John Bannister, Willy Espinal, Victor Figuereo, Marcos Herrera and Josh Rupe are Spokane-bound. All but Rupe pitched for the Arizona Rangers last season. Rupe was drafted in the third round by the Chicago White Sox in 2001 and is 12-9 during three professional seasons. He started the year with Stockton of the Class A California League.

The Rangers selected 32 players during Tuesday’s second and final day of the draft. Of the group, 21 are pitchers. The Rangers’ first pick of the second day, right-hander Marc Cornell of Ohio University, was a fifth-round selection last year but has been hampered by shoulder problems.

Two players from Oregon were tabbed: right-hander Marlon Melendez of Chemeketa Community Collge in Salem and shortstop Walter Backman of Crook County High School in Prineville.

Spokane begins its eight-day minicamp at 10:30 Thursday morning at Avista Stadium. Minicamp workouts are free and open to the public.

The Indians start the NWL season June 18 at Boise. Spokane’s home opener is June 21 against Salem-Keizer.

• Washington State junior first baseman Grant Richardson (Richland) went to Milwaukee in the draft’s 14th round. Richardson started all 55 Coug games and hit .311 with 13 homers and a club-high 68 RBIs. Also drafted for the Cougars were senior catcher Brandon Reddinger (Kennewick) and senior pitcher Aaron Trolia (Tacoma). Reddinger, who led the Pacific-10 Conference with eight pickoffs, was tabbed by Pittsburgh in the 20th round. Seattle took Trolia with its 27th pick. Trolia finished 6-5 with 66 strikeouts and a 4.25 ERA this season.

• Senior left-hander Ed Clelland and junior outfielder Jeff Culpepper of Gonzaga were selected during the second day of the draft.

Clelland was selected in the 20th round by the Detroit Tigers and is expected to be assigned to Oneonta (N.Y.) of the short-season Class A New York-Penn League. Clelland, of Arcadia, Calif., went 5-6 with a 5.71 ERA for the Bulldogs this year.

Culpepper, who hit .327 this season, was selected in the 24th round by the Chicago Cubs. Boston selected Culpepper in the 39th round last year, but the left-handed hitter returned to the Zags.

• Left-handed reliever Trent Baysinger and second baseman Greg Isaacson of the University of Washington were selected in the 18th round of the draft.

Baysinger, of Moscow, went to Baltimore with the 529th pick. Thirteen choices later, Philadelphia selected Isaacson of Aberdeen, Wash.

Also for the Huskies, reliever Will Fenton (North Kitsap High) was selected in the 21st round by the Chicago Cubs, and catcher/outfielder Ben Johnson went to Anaheim in the 23rd round.

• Matt Oye of North Central, Stewart Davis of Central Valley, Jordan Moore of Lakeside-Nine Mile Falls, Jameson Maj of Colfax, Gavin Mann of Wilbur-Creston and Andrew Czapla of St. Michael’s were selected to play in this weekend’s all-state series at East Wenatchee.

Oye, the Greater Spokane League’s most valuable player, announced that he will play baseball at Seminole (Okla.) State College. The 6-5, 210-pound right-hander went 8-2 for the Indians this season.