Southridge grad off to hot start with Texas Rangers farm team + Spring sports roundup

Southridge High School graduate Maxton Martin has gotten off to a hot start for the Hickory Crawdads Single-A team, an affiliate of the Texas Rangers.

Martin, an outfielder, is batting .328 (19 for 58), with one home run and 11 RBIs through games of April 20.

Martin, 19, was an 11th-round pick (321 overall) by the Rangers in the 2023 MLB Draft.

He was named the Carolina Player of the Week on April 13.

College softball

Senior Hannah Jablonski (Kamiakin) has a .252 batting average, has three home runs and 19 RBIs so far for the University of Montana softball team. The Grizzlies are 8-37 through games of April 19.

College cross country/track

Kennedy Taylor (Hanford) is a freshman for the Clark College (Vancouver) women’s track and field team, as well as being a member of the Penguins’ women’s cross country team.

On March 8, Taylor signed a letter of intent to run both cross country and track and field for Eastern Oregon University in the fall.

Signings

River View senior Aliyah Malone signed a letter of intent on Feb. 13 to play women’s volleyball and compete in track and field for Bushnell University.

Malone has been a volleyball standout for the Finley school for the last few years. In track, she is currently the No. 3 ranked 100 meters high hurdlers in Class 2B in the state. She clocked in at 16.05 seconds at last Saturday’s Prosser Rotary Invite.

Malone has also cleared 5-foot-2 in the high jump, the second-best mark in the state in Class 2B.

▪ Katelyn Wiseman (Riverside-Boardman, Ore.) signed a letter of intent in February to complete for the Southern Oregon University women’s wrestling team, beginning this fall.

▪ Chiawana senior Alyssa Melendez signed a letter of intent of Feb. 11 to play for the College of Idaho women’s softball team beginning in the fall.

Melendez was a first team, all-Mid-Columbia Conference slowpitch softball outfielder last fall for the state champion Riverhawks.

▪ Chiawana senior Jonas Hudnall will be playing for the Minot State University football team this coming fall as a long snapper.

Hudnall was part of the Riverhawks’ dynamic kicking-punting unit with his quick snaps this past season.

▪ Walla Walla High School senior Sara Bowen signed in February to play for the Northwest University women’s soccer team, starting in the fall.

Prep track and field

Hanford girls pole vaulters Katelyn Wolfert and Landry Allen attended the prestigious Arcadia Invitational track meet April 11-12 in California, rather than the Pasco Invitational.

The two Falcon seniors were competing in the Women’s Pole Vault Invitational, where Wolfert cleared 11 feet, 5 inches to place 17th. Allen cleared 10-11 to finish 22nd.

Sunnyside senior Andrew Garcia was also at Arcadia, where he placed 24th in the Men’s 3200 Meters Run Open 2. Garcia finished with a time of 9 minutes, 40.21 seconds.

Prep basketball

DeSales junior Spencer Green and Sunnyside Christian junior Devan Harrington were named boys and girls basketball players of the year, respectively, by the Southeast 1B Grape League coaches recently.

Green led the boys first team, which also included three other Irish teammates in junior Maddox Finland, senior Billy Holzinger, and sophomore Malachi Raymond; junior Aiden Andringa and sophomore Jake Smeenk of Sunnyside Christian; and senior Hunter Cole, junior Nate Grover, and junior Trevor Haak of Liberty Christian.

DeSales’ Eric Wood was named Coach of the Year.

On the girls’ side, joining Harrington on the first team are teammates Natalie De Boer and Hailey Van Wierengen, both seniors; freshman Teresa Holtzinger and senior Heidi Scott of DeSales; eighth grader Chloe Idler and junior Camas Van Hollebeke of Liberty Christian; and senior Diana Rincon of Touchet.

Yakama Tribal’s Ken Jamison was named the Coach of the Year.

Summer college baseball

Whitworth freshman Rylan Blair (Chiawana) has a 1-1 record this season for the Pirates baseball team. The left-handed pitcher has struck out 8 batters in 9.1 innings of work.

Blair also has his summer planned.

He’ll be pitching for the Clinton Lumber Kings in the summer college Prospects League, which begins May 27.

The Lumber Kings are located in Iowa.

Prep softball

River View has a handle on the lead in the 2B Eastern Washington Athletic Conference East Division softball standings, with a 4-game lead over the next closest competitor. Here are the latest standings:

River View 6-0 EWAC East, 17-1 overall

Columbia-Burbank 2-2, 8-6

Warden 2-2, 6-10

Tri-Cities Prep 2-2, 3-10

Mabton 0-6, 1-13

April 22 — Liberty Christian 8, Columbia-Burbank 4; Liberty Christian 9, Columbia-Burbank 2; River View 23, Cle Elum 1; River View 15, Cle Elum 0; Tri-Cities Prep 17, White Swan 12; White Swan 20, Tri-Cities Prep 12

April 23 — Liberty Christian 10, Warden 7

April 25 — Mabton at Warden (2), 3 p.m.; Tri-Cities Prep at Columbia-Burbank (2), 3 p.m.

April 28 — Sunnyside Christian at Tri-Cities Prep, 4 p.m.