Area roundup: Community Colleges of Spokane baseball draws tough assignment at conference championships
Community Colleges of Spokane’s baseball team received a daunting task once it qualified for its first Northwest Athletic Conference Championship in 13 years.
The Sasquatch (35-14) will open play in Longview, Washington, at 4:35 p.m. Thursday against Linn-Benton (42-2), which has won 30 consecutive games and hasn’t lost since March 30.
But the Sasquatch have the advantage of playing in the East Region, which earned three of the eight berths to the five-day tournament.
The other openers are Lane (24-25) vs. Yakima Valley (41-9) at 9:35 a.m.; Big Bend (31-18) vs. Edmonds (38-7) at 12:35 p.m.; and Everett (31-16) vs. Lower Columbia (31-7) at 7:35.
Among CCS’ leaders are: Brayden Olson, .331 batting average; Isaac Wersland, nine homers and 32 runs batted in; Christian Padilla, eight homers and 31 RBIs; Marcus Cain, 6-2 record; and Nick Flesher, 6-3 with 72 strikeouts.
Women’s tennis
Washington State’s Michaela Bayerlova and Idaho’s Marianna Petrei made school history by winning their opening-day matches at the NCAA Women’s Singles Championship in Winston-Salem, North Carolina.
Neither school had won a singles match at the NCAA event.
Bayerlova, ranked 23rd nationally, defeated Virginia Tech’s 49th-ranked Natalie Novotna 7-5, 6-1 after trailing 3-0 in the first set. She will meet Pepperdine’s Ashley Lahey in the round of 32 on Thursday.
Petrei, ranked 31st, topped 37th-ranked Laura Proctor of Winthrop 6-4, 0-6, 6-2. She moves on to meet No. 7 seed Ena Shibahara of UCLA.