Richland baseball qualifies for 4A regionals with win over Gonzaga Prep

Richland pulled off the big win Monday, beating Gonzaga Prep 9-5 on the road in the District 8 4A baseball tournament.

The Bombers now qualify for the state regionals, set for May 21. They’ll also play Kamiakin — who has also qualified for state regionals — at 1 p.m., Saturday at LaPierre Field for the district tournament title.

Boys soccer

Grandview boys soccer co-coaches Adrian Morales and Sam Villa have been named the 2A Central Washington Athletic Conference’s boys soccer co-coaches of the year by the CWAC coaches.

Four Grandview players were also named first-team all-conference: junior defender Ethan Fajardo, senior defender Justin Jacobo, junior midfielder Eric Martinez, and junior forward Jorge Perez.

Othello had two players named to the first team: freshman forward Jose Cabrera and senior midfielder Anthony Ontiveros.

College update

Camryn Dezember (Hanford) ran the second leg of the Montana women’s 4x100 relay team on April 30 at Idaho State University.

The Grizzlies finished second in the race with a time of 47.17 seconds.

▪ McKenna Kaelber (Chiawana) was recently named to the Frontier Conference all-academic volleyball team.

The Occupational Safety and Health Services major was also a first-team all-conference player on the court for Montana Tech, which was 23-10 last fall.

Kaelber, a junior setter, was tops on the team with 1,233 assists. She was also third for Montana Tech in digs with 205.

▪ McKenzie Lowry (Kamiakin) had the big bat Sunday for Columbia Basin College’s softball team, which swept Spokane 10-6 and 9-1 in NWAC East play.

The wins put the Hawks solidly in third place of the East and likely into an NWAC Championship tournament berth with six regular-season games remaining.

CBC sits at 18-8 in NWAC East play, and 27-14 overall.

In Sunday’s opener, Lowry had two home runs and five RBIs to lead CBC to the win.

In the nightcap, Lowry — along with teammate Kendra Hart (Stanfield) — had three hits.

The Hawks’ top player is Ashlynn Nixon (Corvallis, Mont.), who leads the team in home runs (20), RBIs (63), batting average (.539) and stolen bases (20).

▪ Caden Kaelber (Chiawana) has a 1-1 record and four saves for WSU’s baseball team through games of May 1.

Kaelber has made 23 appearances for this season for WSU, which has a 9-15 Pac-12 record and is 19-23 overall. Opponents have a .257 batting average against him, and his earned run average is 4.45.

Teammate Chase Grillo (Kamiakin) is also a relief pitcher. Grillo has played in 25 games and has a 5.79 ERA. He is 1-2 with three saves, and has struck out 37 batters in 23.1 innings of work.

▪ Freshman Jayda Clark (Richland) played in 23 games this past season for the 8-21 Boise State University women’s basketball team.

Clark came off of the bench and averaged 15 minutes of playing time. She averaged 3.0 points and 1.5 rebounds a contest.

MLB

Richland High grad Eric Yardley, a reliever, was released by the Chicago Cubs on May 2, when MLB rosters were pared from 28 players to 26.

Yardley had been with the Cubs’ Triple-A team in Iowa, and had been struggling to find the strike zone.

Yardley, a right-handler who throws submarine style, has played in the big leagues with both the San Diego Padres and the Milwaukee Brewers.

He asked for his release this past offseason from the Brewers back in November, and then signed with the Cubs in January.

Prep football

Central Washington Athletic Conference football coaches will be seeing a new face across the field at Ephrata this fall.

Long-time head coach Jay Mills resigned following last fall’s football season conclusion. Ephrata wrestling coach Patrick Mitchell stepped down from his position to take on the head football coaching job for the Tigers.

Prep softball

The Mid-Columbia Conference softball regular season ended on Monday, with Walla Walla as the champion with a 14-2 MCC record and 17-2 overall.

Richland finished second with a 13-3/15-5 record, while Chiawana was third at 12-4/14-6.

Hermiston (10-6, 14-6) and Kamiakin (10-6, 13-7) tied for fourth, while Kennewick finished sixth at 6-10, 9-11.

Hanford finished seventh at 5-11, 6-14; Southridge was eighth at 2-14, 2-18; and Pasco was ninth at 0-16, 0-18.

The District 8 4A tournament begins Thursday, May 12, with a play-in game between Hanford and Lewis & Clark.

The tourney moves to two sites on Saturday. Richland is the MCC’s top seed in the 4A tourney, and the Bombers will host a noon game between Kamiakin and the Greater Spokane League’s No. 2 team. The winner then plays Richland at 2 p.m.

The other site will be at the GSL No. 1 team’s home park.

Chiawana will take on the Hanford/LC winner at noon, and the winner of that game will play the GSL No. 1 teamIn the 3A portion of the tournament, Walla Walla and Hermiston get first-round home games on Saturday against GSL teams.

Kennewick goes on the road to Spokane on Saturday.