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West Coast League

WCL on OSC: Post from the Coast

by Bruce Baskin
May 5, 2014 - West Coast League (WCL)


Just a few weeks left before the West Coast League's June 6 opening day. Teams have pretty much set their rosters for the season, but there was a fair amount of April signings. Let's look at what happened last month in the WCL...

WCL WEST

A trio of newcomers will be in BELLINGHAM this summer. 3B Dylan Garcia leads Chico State batters with a .346 average, OF Danny Miller is Garcia's teammate at Chico and is hitting .241 as a part-timer while C Conner Switzer (Lower Columbia CC) is struggling at the plate for the Red Devils with a .216 BA. The Bells also inked four NWAACC players to 10-day contracts: P/IF Aaron Sandefur, IF Sheldon Stober, OF Aaron Stroosma (all from Bellevue CC) and P Jake Thomas (Everett CC).

COWLITZ has added three more players to their roster: 1B Chris Iriart (Orange Coast JC), LHP Jake Dahlberg (Mt. Hood CC) and C Nick Funyak (Puget Sound). Iriart is batting .326 and leads the Pirates with 8 HRs and 38 RBIs, Dahlberg is 4-2 with a 3.06 ERA for the Saints and Funyak, a two-time All-Stater as a prep in Montana, is hitting .303 at UPS. One Black Bears signee, OF Bryan Poupore, is a descendant of Hall of Fame owner/manager Connie Mack.

No activity on the KITSAP website, but the team's Facebook page announced the signing of P Gary Steindorf. The 6'4" righty spent two seasons at Western Oregon (going 6-4 with a 4.20 ERA in 14 starts for 2013). The BlueJackets head coach will be Ryan Parker, who returns for his third year. Parker has also spent eight years coaching Olympic College in Bremerton. Original Kitsap head coach Matt Acker is considering a return to help operated the beleaguered franchise.

VICTORIA is bringing back three players from last season's squad. LHP Bryan Conant (Riverside CC), RHP Logan Lombana and IF Alex DeGoti (both from Long Beach State). Conant was 4-1 with a 1.81 ERA for the HarbourCats in 2013 while Lombana went 2-2 with a 6.00 ERA in 11 appearances. DeGoti hit .286 with 3 HRs last year in Victoria. Conant is pitching at Riverside for Dennis Rogers who stepped down as a HarbourCats coach in March. Bob Miller takes over at the helm.

WCL SOUTH

Little in the way of player movement on the BEND team site. Then again, with 37 players under contract (including 19 pitchers), there won't be a lot of room left in the Elks clubhouse. Among the pitchers from higher-profile programs, lefty Jeff Albrecht is 1-0 in 7 starts as a Creighton frosh this spring. LHP Mak Fox (Oregon State) pitched for his native New Zealand against Thailand in a 2012 World Baseball Classic qualifier. He's 1-0 for his freshman year with the Beavers thus far.

Speaking of teams loading up on players, CORVALLIS has 39 on their roster, six on ten-day contracts, including recent signees 6'4" LHP Austin Sodders (Riverside CC) and 2B Kevin Farley (Portland). Knights P Chris Haddeland (Linfield) won his third Northwest Conference Pitcher of the Week award this year after a complete game 2-0 shutout of Lewis & Clark on April 25. Haddeland is 9-1 with a 1.09 for the 22-2 Wildcats, who were ranked first in NAIA baseball at the end of April.

The KLAMATH FALLS Gems website had no new posts in April. Fortunately, the local Herald and News site was not similarly bereft of pertinent info. A story about SkyWest Airlines ceasing flights from the local airport mentions the Gems being impacted because 5-10 players flying in and out of the area for the season will now need to fly through nearby Medford, with the team providing ground transport. And that's all the news to print that fits from K-Falls.

MEDFORD has picked up three new sophomores, including OF Ramon Laureno (NE Oklahoma A&M), who ranks among the nation's top 25 Juco players in batting (.417), homers (9) and RBIs (51). Also joining the Rogues will be 1B Nathan Ethridge (Western Oregon) and SS Tucker Campbell (Lane CC). Another pickup is SS/CF Matt Cole (Mission CC), a 2012 Oregon All-State pick at Grants Pass HS. Cole is batting .295 with 37 runs scored over 34 games at Mission.

WCL EAST

KELOWNA is bringing in three players from the University of British Columbia this season: RHPs Jeremy Newton and Alex Graham plus IF Kevin Biro. Newton is 2-2 (with a win over NAIA powerhouse Lewis & Clark State), Graham is 1-0 and Biro is batting .350 with 30 RBIs for the 29-11 Thunderbirds. Returning to the Falcons from 2013 are RHP/IF Scotland Church (Weatherford JC) and IF Dawson Yates (Texas A&M-Corpus Christi). The latter is a Kelowna product.

No new player signings reported in WALLA WALLA, where the team site has been tracking players in college ball. Struggling 1F John Skrbec (North Dakota State) has raised his average 63 points since mid-April to .178 by going 9-for-29, freshmen LHP Jearl Jesson and OF Kevin Morgan have both appeared for fourth-ranked Cal Poly this spring while IF JJ Robinson (.342/9 HR), IF Jarod Gonzalez (.301) and P/OF Jesse Houser (8-1/.288) are starring at 24-8 Walla Walla CC.

WENATCHEE keeps adding players from California schools. Cal State Northridge is sending RHP Brandon Warner and IF Michael Livingston while Pomona-Pitzer's contributions are IFs Simon Rosenbaum and Tanner Nishioka. The 6'6" Rosenbaum in particular is wearing out pitchers, hitting .474 with 23 doubles and 8 homers in 28 games for a slugging average of .822. Nishioka is batting "only" .399. Eleven AppleSox players perform collegiately in the Golden State.

The expansion YAKIMA VALLEY Pippins have signed OF Reid Martinez (Missouri Western), IF Shawn Wardian (AIB Iowa) and C Jake Roberts (Cisco JC). Martinez and Wardian both played at Yakima Valley CC before transferring. The Pippins have also hired a new GM, Danny Tetzlaff, and owners say they've invested $100,000 in Yakima County Stadium improvements. The team is nicknaming the ballpark "The Orchard," a reference to fruit trees bearing Pippin apples.

Caught on the Fly: Former Kelowna infielder Andrew Firth was given the Bobby Gaul Memorial Trophy as the University of British Columbia's graduating male athlete of the year. Firth hit .344 over his four-year UBC career and batted .331 for the Falcons in the summer of 2012...Reporter Jake Garcia of the "Best Coast Baseball" website is making his preseason WCL prognostications. Garcia picks Cowlitz to win the West Division, Corvallis as the South's best team and Walla Walla to top the East...Because of outside commitments, the "Post from the Coast" column will not convert to a weekly offering on OurSports Central when the WCL season opens as previously planned. It will continue on a monthly basis...On a related note, "Post from the Coast" will expand next month with the addition of the WCL Road Trip, which will take readers on a virtual tour of all twelve league cities. You won't need a passport, but a Rand McNally atlas won't hurt...

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West Coast League Stories from May 5, 2014


The opinions expressed in this article are those of the writer(s), and do not necessarily reflect the thoughts or opinions of OurSports Central or its staff.


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