Former Indians shortstop Kinsler piling up stats

Former Spokane Indians shortstop Ian Kinsler has been having a career year by any baseball standards.

In 59 games for the Texas Rangers’ long-season Class A farm team in Clinton, Iowa, he was hitting .402 with league highs in hits (90) and doubles (30). He had scored 52 runs and driven in 52, had an on-base percentage of .465 and slugging percentage of .692. And he had stolen 16 bases.

His play earned Kinsler a promotion to Class AA Frisco, Texas. At Frisco, Kinsler has shown no signs of slowing, with a .333 average (3 for 9), double and homer in his first two games.

Last year, he averaged .277 with 10 doubles, six triples and one home run with 15 RBIs and 11 steals for the Indians in 51 games.

Spokane shortstop Casey Benjamin was moved to Clinton to fill the void left by Kinsler’s promotion.

Players are still coming in for this year’s Indians, including 6-foot-5, 240-pound first baseman Jim Fasano from the University of Richmond, and the Rangers are still waiting to sign players from the draft, including two from Georgia Tech, which recently completed the NCAA regional playoffs.

Spokane begins the season Friday in Boise.

Women’s basketball

Eastern Washington’s women’s basketball coach Wendy Schuller has hired the team’s two assistant coaches.

Former Northwest College (Powell, Wyo.) head coach Tom Webb will be the first assistant and recruiting coordinator while former Jerome High School (Idaho) head coach Michelle Skyles will be the second assistant.

Webb was 94-32 during his four years at the helm of Northwest’s women’s team, posting back-to-back 26-win seasons, the school record for wins in a season.

He also has won two Wyoming Community College Athletic Conference Coach of the Year awards, two WCCAC league championships and a National Junior College Athletic Association academic championship.

Skyles led Jerome to an undefeated season (25-0) and the 2004 4A State title. She was also selected as the 2004 4A coach of the year.

In 10 years at Jerome, she had a record of 190-61 with eight state tournament appearances.

Tennis

Katrina Perlman has been hired as the head men’s and women’s tennis coach at the University of Idaho.

Perlman took the interim men’s position in December 2003 and led the team to a national ranking of 68, the highest it’s ever achieved.

Perlman, a native of Tamworth, Australia, is a former tennis player for the Vandals. During her career, she played at the No. 1 spot in both singles and doubles and was a first-team All–Big West selection her final year. She was the assistant women’s coach at Idaho from 2000-01 before taking the interim men’s position.

Soccer

The Spokane Shadow soccer club signed University of Washington defender William Flanagan for the remainder of the 2004 season.

The 5-foot-11, 170-pound defender is a freshman at UW and should be an added weapon to an already formidable defensive line heading into this weekend’s matches against the Cascade Surge (Friday) and Seattle Sounders (Sunday).

Flanagan helped lead Jesuit High School to three Oregon 4A state championships and four Metro League titles.

Baseball

The Spokane Riverhawks fell behind early to the Langley Blaze and couldn’t catch up, losing 11-9 at Spokane Falls Community College. It was Spokane’s fourth straight loss.

The Blaze (5-0) were up 6-1 after three innings. In the sixth, Jeff St. Pierre hit a grand slam to put Langley up 11-1. St. Pierre finished with six RBIs.

The Riverhawks (2-6) got two back in the bottom of the sixth, one in the eighth and five in the ninth. Nolan Massie had three hits, two runs and five RBIs for Spokane.