Tri-City Dust Devils, prep basketball top highlights of the past 21 years

My next installment of 21 for 21, the top Mid-Columbia sports stories of the past 21 years, involves professional baseball in the Tri-Cities.

The century started out with the final season of the Tri-Cities Posse, an original member of the independent Western Baseball League.

The Posse played its final season in 2000, completing a 6-year run that started in the 1995 season with a new ballpark in Pasco.

But in 2001, the owners of the Portland Rockies of the affiliated Northwest League moved their franchise to Pasco, and the Tri-City Dust Devils — an affiliate of the Colorado Rockies —were born.

The Rockies stayed with the Dust Devils for 14 seasons before the San Diego Padres became the local team’s affiliate from 2015 to 2019.

During all of that time, area baseball fans were able to watch young players perform, some of them on their eventual way to becoming a Major League player.

During the past 21 years, the Dust Devils played for the Northwest League championship five different times — 2007, 2009, 2011, 2015 and 2019.

The best team might have been the 2009 group, with Fred Ocasio as manager. That squad earned 47 regular-season wins before losing to the Salem-Keizer Volcanoes in the title series.In fact, all five times the Dust Devils were in the championship series, they finished second.

But it was the talent that made fans come out. Here is a list of some notable players who donned the Tri-City uniform:

• Outfielder Charlie Blackmon, who has played in 1,119 games for the Rockies.
• Eric Lauer, now a starting pitcher for the Milwaukee Brewers.
• Joey Lucchesi, now a starting pitcher for the Padres.
• Phil Maton, a reliever for the Cleveland Indians.
• Antonio Senzatela, a current starting pitcher for the Rockies.
• Outfielder Ryan Spilborghs, who played in 619 MLB games, all for the Rockies.
• Pedro Strop, who played shortstop for Tri-City but was later converted to a flame-throwing reliever. Strop, currently a free agent, has appeared in 559 MLB games.
• Fernando Tatis, Jr., the current slugging Padres shortstop.
• Russell Wilson, an infielder who — while with the Dust Devils — was the starting quarterback for North Carolina State and always had his playbook with him that 2012 season. Wilson would eventually transfer to Wisconsin, lead the Badgers to the Rose Bowl, before becoming an All-Pro and Super Bowl winning quarterback for the Seattle Seahawks.

21 For 21: Prep basketball

High school basketball in the Mid-Columbia has had its share of great moments these past 21 years, and therefore gets a mention in my 21 for 21 series.

For the bigger schools, just getting out of Eastern Washington to the state tournament can be rough journey, especially for Tri-City schools having to go through the Greater Spokane League’s best.

But some of our better moments have occurred when that happened.

Our smaller schools have also had some great success.

Here are some of the top moments for the Mid-Columbia in prep basketball these past 21 years:

• Starting with 2000, the Kennewick girls — led by Emily Faurholt (who averaged 16.4 points a game), Heather Thoelke (12.7), and a quick little freshman guard in Leilani Mitchell — capped a perfect season when they won the 4A state championship. The team was coached by Debbie Roueche, who led the Lions into the state tournament with a 25-0 record. The Lions won each game leading up to the state tourney by an average of 25 points.At the state tournament, Kennewick defeated Decatur, Lake Washington and Snohomish en route to beating Prairie 62-59 for the title, completing a perfect 29-0 season.
• In 2014, Earl Streufert’s Richland boys team got all of the way to the state 4A championship game before falling to Garfield 68-59. The Bombers were in the middle of a long run in which they seemed to always make the final 16 in Tacoma, bringing back memories of the great Richland teams of the 1950s, 60s and 70s.And one thing Richland fans have always done is travel well. Teams from all over the state were amazed at the thousands of students and fans who would support their Bombers.
• Dean Wagenaar knew what he was doing at little Sunnyside Christian. The Knights boys have won 10 — that’s right, 10 — state titles from 2002 to 2019, in either Class 2B or 1B. Wagenaar, who has over 500 victories coaching boys basketball, was head coach for eight of them, including three in a row from 2017-19. Wagenaar just kept reloading his roster every year at the small, private school in Sunnyside.
• Mark Little has been the girls basketball coach at Prosser High School in two different stints. The first one lasted 12 seasons, from 1985 to 1997. In that run, it included a state championship with Kelly Blair leading the way, in 1989.Little came back in 2009, where the Mustangs had already been in a stretch of earning state tournament trophies for a few years. Prosser finished second at the 2A state tourney in Little’s first year back. Then, with almost the same group returning, and led by Tamara Jones and Tashia Hunt, Prosser won the state 2A title in 2011 — beating Burlington-Edison 50-33 to go 26-1. Prosser finished 26-1 that season, and Little retired as coach.
• Just sophomores, Talia von Oelhoffen and McKenna Martinez proved to be a lethal 1-2 punch in 2019, leading the Tri-Cities Prep girls over Liberty of Spangle 50-42 for the 2B state title in Spokane.Now both seniors, both von Oelhoffen and Martinez are headed for the big time at Oregon State University, where von Oelhoffen (who currently attends Chiawana) will play women’s basketball and Martinez will play women’s soccer.
• Ten years earlier, the Tri-Cities Prep boys gave the Jaguars the school’s first basketball state title, winning the 2009 1B state title. The Jaguars held off Moses Lake Christian 48-41 for their championship.
• Grandview’s boys also won a state title, earning the 2A championship in 2002, beating Chelan 58-55. It was an end to a perfect season, as the Greyounds — led by captains Phillip Candanoza and Jaime Fajardo — went 27-0.