Kennewick team nabs consolation bracket in Cal Ripken World Series

The Kennewick National 12-year-olds won the consolation Iron Man bracket portion of their tournament, which involved 60-foot basepaths, in Palm Beach Gardens, Fla.

KN went 1-3 in its pool-play portion of the tourney. That wasn’t enough to get into the championship bracket.

But the Nationals did enough damage in the Iron Man, blanking Magnolia, Ark., 10-0; stopping Noble, Maine, 8-5; and finally beat host Palm Beach Gardens American 5-1 in the title game.

Owensboro, Ky., ended up winning the tournament title.

Meanwhile, Kennewick American went 1-3 in pool play at the Cal Ripken 12’s (70-foot basepaths) World Series in Branson, Mo.

KA played in the Iron Man bracket, falling to West Fargo, N.D., 5-3 in the second round of the bracket play, ending its week.

Host Branson won the World Series title.

Prep football

Scorebook Live Washington came out with its preseason rankings for high school football last week.

Here are the highlights:

Graham-Kapowsin is pegged No. 1 in Class 4A. Two Eastern Washington teams — both from the Greater Spokane League — are ranked. Gonzaga Prep is No. 3, while Central Valley is 10th.

In 3A, O’Dea is ranked first. But Kennewick gets the nod at No. 5, while the GSL’s Mount Spokane is ninth.

Tumwater, as is no surprise, is the top 2A team. Prosser makes the cut, though, at No. 10.

Royal — which pounded on three Class 4A teams in the spring — is ranked atop the 1A field. The South Central Athletic Conference is expected to be a powerhouse league this fall, as Connell is ranked fourth, Zillah is sixth, and Toppenish is seventh.

Kalama gets the nod at No. 1 in the 2B rankings.

Finally, in 1B, Odessa is the top-ranked team. Richland’s Liberty Christian sits at No. 4, while DeSales of Walla Walla is 10th.

▪ Keep an eye on Elijah Allen this coming football season.

The Kamiakin senior linebacker and wide receiver was all over the field in the abbreviated spring season. But even as a sophomore in 2019, Allen caught some eyes with his play.

Some of those eyes belong to scouts. Allen has offers already to play for Carleton College and Grinnell College.

NWAC

The Northwest Athletic Conference, which is the organization that runs community college sports in the Northwest, has been putting together all-decade teams for each sport in the 2010s.

Some of the region’s athletes have gotten mentions.

In women’s golf, five of the 18 athletes mentioned are from around here.

Walla Walla Community College had Dona Donovan’s and Kelsey Sage; while CBC had three mentions in Brianna Esvelt, Neydeen Martinez and Hope Neidhold.

Track and field

Jill Benson, who graduated from Connell High School in June, has decided to throw the javelin next spring for Lewis-Clark State College.

Benson finished seventh at 1A state in the event in 2019, the last time a state high school meet was held.

LCSC assistant coach Jacob Whittaker saw plenty to like in Benson.

“Jill comes to us from a very good track program at Connell,” said Whittaker in a news release. “Connell puts out some really disciplined athletes year-in and year-out. When I first started recruiting Jill, she was planning on not even doing track, but I’ve convinced her to come throw for us.”

Baseball

▪ Chiawana grad Caden Kaelber got some good work in this summer pitching for the Walla Walla Sweets of the West Coast League.

The big, tall right-handed reliever pitched 47.1 innings in 20 appearances for the Sweets, going 2-1 with 2 saves. He struck out 63 batters and had an earned run average of 3.61.

Add that to the 22 appearances for Washington State University this past spring — with a 4.08 ERA — and the redshirt junior had a very strong year.

▪ David Grewe, who finished his outstanding prep career at Tri-Cities Prep this past spring, was ready to head to Spokane this fall to pitch for the Whitworth University baseball team.

But in late June, Grewe was clocked throwing a 92 mph fastball.

Jorge Reyes, who coaches Grewe’s team for Reign Sports Performance during the summer, sent the video of the fastball to Oregon State University’s coaches.

Reyes, from Warden, had played collegiately for OSU.

Within days, Grewe had an offer from OSU and committed.

So instead of starting college in the fall in Spokane, Grewe will begin the school year in Corvallis.

Notes

▪ Pasco High grad Isaiah Arline will be playing football this fall at Allan Hancock College — a two-year junior college in Southern California.

Arline is listed as a tight end for the team.

▪ DeSales High School grad TJ Conley was recently named the assistant athletic director for athletic performance at Eastern Washington University.

Conley, a former punter in the National Football League for three different teams, has oversight of the entire sports performance department at EWU. He’ll direct the training of all 14 varsity sports at the school, and will have six assistants working under his direction.

▪ The Tri-City Americans recently traded goalie Mason Dunsford to the Portland Winterhawks in exchange for a conditional fifth-round pick in the 2023 WHL prospects draft.

That’s because the Ams have two strong goalies for the coming season.

First, Talyn Boyko was recently drafted by the NHL’s New York Rangers.

And Tri-City also has signed Czech goalie Tomas Suchanek, a player the team draft in the WHL Import Draft.

Suchanek, 18, is a member of his country’s national team for 18s.

So it looks like the Ams will be pretty strong in the net this coming season.

▪ Three baseball players who graduated from Whitman College still have eligibility to play.

So the trio elected to transfer to graduate schools and still play for the 2022 season.

Pitcher Jake Larson is headed to the University of Rochester in Upstate New York; Kevin Nakamura, a catcher and infielder, will play next spring for Loyola Marymount in the West Coast Conference; and infielder Brett Williams is headed to Dayton University in Ohio.