CBC baseball team back from NWAC championships + Kamiakin grad wins men’s decathlon title
The Columbia Basin College baseball team had a rough go at last week’s NWAC Championships, going 0-2 and not able to score a run.
The Hawks lost their opener 5-0 to Linn-Benton last week, as Harper Huang (Taiwan) had CBC’s only two hits.
The next day, CBC fell 4-0 to Bellevue. Brady Toth (Borah of Boise) pitched four innings of shutout relief for the Hawks, scattering four hits and striking out three.
Still, it was a great season for CBC, who finished with a 34-19 record.
Host Lower Columbia ended up winning the tournament, beating Tacoma 5-3 in the title game on Monday.
Three Tri-City athletes — Nate Gray Jr. (Kamiakin), Joey Pearson (Richland) and Royce Vandine (Chiawana) — all play for LCCC and earn championship rings.
▪ Tri-Cities Prep grad Logan Mercado helped the University of Oregon baseball team win the Pac-12 Conference tournament last weekend in Arizona.
Mercado, who has spent much of the season as a starter for the Ducks, was in the bullpen for the tournament.
In a 3-2 win over California, Mercado tossed 1.1 innings of shutout relief, striking out 2 batters and earning the victory to raise his season record to 5-1.
In an 8-6 semifinal win over Stanford, Mercado tossed 4.1 innings of scoreless relief, surrendering just one hit while walking three batters.
The next night, Oregon beat Arizona 5-4 in the tournament championship game.
The Ducks will play this coming weekend in the Nashville Regional, opening against Xavier.
Mercado now has pitched in 17 games for Oregon, 10 as a starter, and has fanned 69 batters in 69.2 innings of work.
▪ Grays Harbor Community College’s baseball team finished the season with an 18-30 record.
Aidan McMurdo (Hanford) was among leaders on the team with 21 runs, 34 hits, 18 RBIs and 9 stolen bases. Preston Vine-Close (Chiawana) had 33 hits, scored 16 runs, drove in 12 runs and had a team-best 12 stolen bases. He also hit .280, and was named second-team All-West Region as a utility player.
Cael McMurdo (Hanford) added 14 runs and 11 RBIs for the Chokers.
And pitcher Luke Stutesman (Hanford) was No. 1 on the team in wins with 5. He struck out 40 batters in 62 innings of work.
Swimming
That Hanford boys swim team that did well at the state 4A championships back in February is sending three seniors off to college to swim.
Hanford coach Jesse Grow said Andy Gelston — who won 4A state titles in the 500 freestyle and the 100 backstroke — is headed to Oakland University in Michigan in the fall.
Gelston also finished second in the 200 backstroke at the Western Zone Senior Championships on March 29 in Federal Way.
Gelston’s teammate, Andrew Jones, will be swimming for the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee this coming fall, and teammate Riley Pasicaran will do the same at Brandeis University.
Grow is also the Richland boys swimming coach, and Bombers senior Ethan Johnston has committed to swimming this coming fall at Iowa Central Community College.
Track and field
Earlier this month, Kamiakin graduate Jaxson Nichols won the men’s decathlon title at the NWAC Championships in Eugene.
Nichols — a sophomore competing for Spokane Community College — scored 6,069 points over the 10 events.
His nearest competitor, Umpqua’s James Kelly, finished second with 5,904 points.
Nichols was among the top three placers among the 11 competitors in all but two events.
He finished first in the long jump (22-3.75), the shot put (35-10), the high jump (6-8), the javelin (158-7) and the discus (102-00).
Nichols had three third-place finishes: 100 meters (11.49 seconds), 400 meters (53.66 seconds), and the 110 high hurdles (16.74 seconds).
He also finished fourth in the pole vault with a height of 10 feet, 2 inches.
His worst placing was in the 1500 meters, where he was ninth with a time of 5:22.34. But that was the final event, and he had already wrapped up the title.
In the actual track and field championships last week, Nichols won the men’s high jump with a leap of 7 feet, 0.25 inches.
Nichols also placed fifth in the long jump with a mark of 22 feet, 7.75 inches.
Spokane CC sophomore Madeline Gebers (Kennewick) finished third in the women’s javelin with a throw of 126 feet, 2 inches.
Lane CC freshman Cydney Sanchez (Hermiston) placed fourth in both the women’s 1500 meters (4:59.60) and the women’s 5000 meters (19:06.60).
▪ Central Washington University’s Austin Albertin (Kennewick) finished second in the men’s 400-meter hurdles at the recent Great Northwest Athletic Conference outdoor track and field championships.
Albertin covered the 400 meters in 53.05 seconds.
Basketball
Columbia Basin College head men’s basketball coach Anthony Owens says that two of his sophomores, Christian Cross (Arkansas) and Malakai Munoz (Portland Christian), have signed to play for Hannibal-LaGrange University — an NAIA school in Missouri.
CBC advanced all the way to the NWAC semifinals in March, finishing the season with a 22-7 record.
Munoz started 28 games for the Hawks, averaging 4.2 points, 2.1 rebounds, and 2.2 assists.
Cross started 11 games, averaging 7.0 points and 2.5 rebounds.
Soccer
Southridge senior keeper Danika Galbreath signed a letter of intent to play women’s soccer starting this fall for Central Washington University.
Galbreath has been one of the team captains for the Suns the past two years. She was a second-team All-Mid-Columbia Conference selection this past season.
Jeff Morrow is former sports editor for the Tri-City Herald.
