Meet Mariner Moose and Seattle players in Tri-Cities. And the latest on area sports

The Seattle Mariners had a record of 68-94 in 2019.

That’s bad.

But it’s interesting to note that four other American League teams (and one National League team) had a worse record than the M’s last season.

Still, nothing is more optimistic than a major-league team getting ready for spring training.

The Mariners open training camp in Peoria, Ariz., next month.

But this week, the team embarked on its annual around-the-state Mariners Care Community Tour.

And the team makes its annual stop in the Tri-Cities on Friday, with a free autograph session at the Gjerde Center on the Columbia Basin College campus in Pasco, from 4:15 p.m. to 5:45 p.m.

Scheduled to appear for the Mariners will be pitcher Matt Festa, catcher Austin Nola, utilityman Austin Moore, team broadcaster Bill Krueger, and of course the Mariner Moose.

Festa, while spending the majority of the 2019 season on the M’s Triple-A team in Tacoma, opened the 2019 season with Seattle.

He ended up having four different stints with the M’s over the course of the year, appearing in 20 games as a reliever, going 0-2 with a 5.64 earned run average, walking 12 while striking out 21.

Nola spent the 2019 season between Tacoma and Seattle.

He made his MLB debut on June 16, and hit .269 with 10 home runs and 31 RBIs in 79 games in 2019 with the Mariners.

In addition being catcher, Nola also appeared as a first baseman and third baseman for Seattle.

Moore played in 113 games for the Mariners in 2019, over three different stints with them while also spending time in Tacoma.

He played every position — including pitcher — for the M’s, except catcher.

Krueger has been a baseball analyst for Root Sports since 2000.

He spent 13 seasons in the Major Leagues as a pitcher, playing for Oakland, Los Angeles Dodger, Milwaukee Brewers, the Mariners, Montreal Expos, Detroit Tigers and San Diego Padres.

▪ The Mariners Care Community Tour will also be at Cordiner Hall on the Whitman College campus in Walla Walla from 4:30 to 6 p.m. Thursday for a free autograph appearance.

High school, college sports update

• Richland High School added 15 more athletes and coaches to its Wall of Fame on Dec. 28, with a ceremony, reception, and then a boys varsity basketball game against Issaquah. Those added to the wall for their Bombers sports achievements are: Brandi Andrews, fastpitch softball; Steven Beo, boys basketball; Christian Berry, baseball; Lisa Bratton, girls swimming; Taylor Johnson, baseball; Jax Lee, football; Josh Mendoza, baseball; Riley Moore, boys cross country; Cole Northrop, boys basketball; Kathy Piper, boys and girls swim coach; Lindsay Rosenthal, volleyball; Riley Sorn, boys basketball; Adam Weissenfels, football; Brigham Whitby, football; and Randy Willis, boys and girls swim coach.
  
  
• Alyson Ambler (Class of 2012) and Hope Klicker (Class of 2011) will be inducted into the Wa-Hi Blue Devil Athletic Hall of Fame during halftime of this coming Friday’s Blue Devils-Hermiston boys basketball game.Both athletes are be inducted for their softball achievements.
• Congrats to Othello senior Patrick Azevedo, who has signed a letter of intent to golf for the University of Wyoming men’s golf team. The pipeline from the Mid-Columbia to the Wyoming golf program continues. Guys like Richland’s Jason Aichele and Drew McCullough have starred for the Wyoming men’s team. And Richland High grad Carl Underwood currently plays for the men’s team, while Southridge High grad Samantha Hui is on the women’s team.
• Oregon State University’s football team made themselves a little better on the offensive line when the Beavers announced Monday that Kamiakin graduate Korbin Sorensen has transferred from Portland State University to the Corvallis school. Sorensen, a 6-foot-6, 305-pound lineman, started 32 consecutive games for the Big Sky Conference school Vikings. He was a third-team All-BSC selection, and has been all-academic the past two seasons. But Sorensen also graduated from PSU with one year of eligibility left, and that allows him to play one final season at OSU this fall. He’ll join Hanford High grad Brock Wellsfry, who will be a redshirt junior this fall, on the offensive line.
• Former Eastern Washington University head football coach Beau Baldwin, who spent the last few seasons as the offensive coordinator at the University of California, recently was hired as the new head coach at Cal Poly. That’s a Big Sky Conference school. So he’ll be going up against his old school, EWU, over the next few seasons. But he won’t be alone. He’s added a number of former EWU coaches: Nick Edwards will be his offensive coordinator; Erik Meyer will coach the quarterbacks; Paul Wulff (the former head coach at both EWU and Washington State) will coach the offensive line; and JC Sherritt will be special teams and linebackers coach.
• Former Richland High standout Gia Sorn (sister of ex-Richland standout Riley Sorn) leads the Northwest Conference in blocked shots with 2.1 per game. Gina Sorn plays for the University of Puget Sound.
• Late note, but I’d be remiss without mentioning that Don Anderson, former Gonzaga Prep football coach, passed away a few weeks ago in Spokane at the age of 87.Anderson had a career coaching record of 269-63-4 with stints at both Lakeside of Seattle and Gonzaga Prep. Longtime Tri-City fans will always remember the battles that Gonzaga Prep and Kennewick had back in the 1980s, when Ed Troxel was the coach at Kennewick. Many of those games were classics.
• Heads up for local prep basketball fans. The District 8 basketball finals — both Class 4A and 3A and combines the Mid-Columbia Conference and the Greater Spokane League — will be held in the Toyota Center in February. It’ll be two days of playoffs, set for Feb. 21 and 22, to determine who advances to the state regional tournament. Last year, the final two days of the tournaments were held in the Spokane Arena.
• The Columbia River Pro Rodeo Circuit Finals are Jan. 10-12 in the Yakima Valley SunDome, and there are plenty of competitors from the Mid-Columbia who are involved.Walla Walla’s Derek Kolbaba is the top-ranked bull rider, with $20,274 in circuit earnings.Five locals are in the top 10 of the steer wrestling event: Hermiston’s Dalton Massey is second in the standings, Kennewick’s Justin Kimsey is fifth, Stanfield’s Travis Taruscio is sixth, Hermiston’s Ryan Bothum is seventh, and Walla Walla’s Taylor Gregg is 10th. Hermiston’s Jake Stanley is ranked sixth among team roping headers, while Hermiston’s Andy Carlson is sixth among team roping healers. In tie-down roping, Stanfield’s Seth Hopper is ranked eighth, while Hermiston’s Brad Goodrich is ninth. Hermiston’s Preston Pederson is ranked 10th in all-around.The season champion in each of event of the CRPRC, and the final’s champion in each event, will advance to the National Circuit Finals Rodeo Championships, set for Kissimmee, Fla., on April 2-4.