Kamiakin grad helps keep baseball team on path to national victory

Northwest Nazarene stayed alive in the NCAA Division II national baseball tournament Monday with a 9-3 over Trevecca Nazarene.

Ryan Dearing (Kamiakin) went 1-for-3 with an RBI triple for NNU, which now plays Tampa at 3 p.m. Wednesday in a loser-out game.

NNU lost its tournament opener to Central Missouri 9-3 on Saturday.

NNU is now 35-9 this season.

▪ Four area ballplayers and their teams played in the NCAA Division I baseball regionals June 4-6.

Gonzaga (33-17) qualified for the Oregon regional. The Bulldogs have two former Kamiakin pitchers on their staff: sophomore pitcher Chase Grillo, and freshman Trystan Vrieling. Grillo is a transfer from Spokane Community College.

Vrieling went 1-3 with a 3.83 earned run average this season, while striking out 56 batters in 40 innings.

Gonzaga beat LSU 3-0 on Friday, then lost to Oregon 7-3, before being eliminated by LSU 9-4.

In the loss against Oregon, Vreiling tossed 7 innings of relief, striking out seven batters and scattering six hits.

Meanwhile, Tri-Cities Prep grad Logan Mercado appeared in two games this spring for the University of Oregon. The freshman pitcher went 1-0 and threw 6 innings. He did not play in this past weekend’s regional tourney.

Finally, infielder Alix Garcia (Othello) and his Oklahoma State teammates were at the Tucson regional, where he was 1 for 2 as a pinch hitter. The Cowboys went 1-2 in the tournament.

Garcia, a senior, hit .230 this spring, with three home runs and 22 RBIs.

▪ Former Richland High standout Bryan Winston has been Spokane Community College’s baseball coach for the past four seasons.

This year, Winston led the Sasquatch to a 29-7 NWAC East record, and his team is ranked 16th in the nation among all junior colleges.

Winston has a four-year record at Spokane of 106-43.

▪ McKlane Elgin (Richland/CBC) hit .253 and had 12 RBIs this spring while playing for Clarke University (33-18) in Iowa.

Track and field

▪ Spokane Community College sophomore Alma Manzo, a Connell High graduate, won the women’s long jump and triple jump titles on May 5 at the Whitworth Twilight meet.

Manzo long jumped 17 feet, 5 inches; and triple jumped 36-7.

Other highlights included Eastern Washington University’s Justin Roosma (Walla Walla Valley Academy) winning the men’s 800 meters in 1:50.31.

EWU’s Katie Petsch (Kamiakin) running a leg in the winning women’s 4x100 relay with a time of 48.08 seconds. Petsch also placed second in the 100 meters (12.14) and third in the 200 (25.68).

EWU’s Braydon Freitag (Kamiakin) placed second in the men’s pole vault with a height of 14-3, while Whitworth’s Monica Kaylor (Kennewick) leaped 5 feet, 3 inches to place second in the women’s high jump.

EWU sophomore Madison Wilson (Hermiston) placed third in the women’s 100 hurdles, with a time of 15.33 seconds. And Lewis-Clark State’s Geraldin Correa (Kennewick) placed fifth among women’s 1500 meters runners with a time of 4:53.84.

▪ Two Tri-Citians on the track team for the Air Force Academy continue to be strong: Freshman Amanda Fraga (Hanford) is No. 2 on the women’s team in the 200 meters, clocking in at 27.41 seconds at the Colorado Invitational on April 10.

Fraga also is No. 3 on the team in the women’s 400 meters, with a time of 1:01.16 in a meet in Boulder, Colo., on March 20.

And, freshman Ryan Childs (Kamiakin) is third on the men’s team in the 10,000 meters. He finished the event at the Fresno State West Coast Relays on April 30 with a time of 29 minutes, 58.78 seconds.

Childs is No. 8 on the team in the 1500 meters, clocking in at 3:53.60 at the Air Force Twilight meet on May 7. He’’s also No. 9 on the team in the 5000 meters, with a 14:17.34 at the West Coast Classic in Eugene on April 17.

Softball

The College of Idaho finished third at the NAIA Softball National Tournament last week in Georgia. The Coyotes went 2-2 in the tournament, finishing 44-19 on the season.

Freshman pitcher Annie Polster (Hanford), who was 11-2 on the mound this season, got to pitch an inning in the team’s final game, a 9-0 elimination loss to Southern Oregon.

The only two teams to finish ahead of College of Idaho were two other Cascade Collegiate Conference teams. Southern Oregon won the title, coming through the losers bracket and beating Oregon Institute of Technology twice in the championship.

Golf

Joe Highsmith of Lakewood, Wash., and Australian Steve Allan earned the two available berths Monday in U.S. Open final qualifying at Meadow Springs Country Club.

Highsmith shot rounds of 69 and 69 for a two-round total of 138, 6 under par.

Over the two rounds, Highsmith had six birdies, an eagle, and two bogeys.

Highsmith, an amateur, just finished helping Pepperdine University win the NCAA men’s tournament last week.

Allan fired rounds of 72 and 68 for a 140 total (4 under par). He had to earn the second U.S. Open berth by beating Lakewood’s RJ Manke in. a one-hole playoff.

Manke becomes the first alternate, while John Caitlin of Gold River, Calif., is the second alternate.

For Allan, a professional, this will be his first U.S. Open since 2010. He has played in five U.S. Open events.

The U.S. Open is June 17-20 at Torrey Pines in California.

Basketball

Richland senior Laura Smith will be playing women’s basketball this fall at San Diego Christian College.