Pasco, Chiawana boys soccer teams open playoffs in Tri-Cities on Saturday
Boys soccer coach Matt Potter’s Pasco Bulldogs did it again, winning another Mid-Columbia Conference regular-season crown with a 15-1 record.
Only Southridge handed the Bulldogs a loss this season, beating them 1-0 in March.
The regular season ended on Monday, but there is no time to rest on their laurels, as the District 8 tournaments for both Class 4A and 3A begin this week.
First, here are the final MCC boys soccer standings:
Pasco (4A) 15-1
Chiawana (4A) 13-3
Southridge (3A) 9-7
Walla Walla (3A) 8-8
Richland (4A) 7-9
Hanford (4A) 6-10
Hermiston (3A) 6-10
Kamiakin (4A) 4-12
Kennewick (3A) 4-12
The eight-team Class 4A tournament begins Friday and Saturday with four first-round contests.
The top-seeded Bulldogs will play Kamiakin at 1 p.m., Saturday, at Edgar Brown Stadium; while Richland travels to Spokane to play Lewis & Clark at 12 p.m., Saturday.
That game will be played at Spokane Falls Community College.
Meanwhile, Chiawana will play host to Central Valley at 7 p.m., Friday night.
Finally, Hanford visits Gonzaga Prep at 1 p.m. Saturday.
The top three teams in this tournament will advance to the state tournament.
Meanwhile, the eight-team Class 3A district tournament will have a loser-out first round setup, meaning teams will have to have verify few mistakes to advance.
Also, teams will open play on Thursday.
Southridge — considered the top seed in the 3A field — will play host to Ferris at 5 p.m., Thursday.
Hermiston will travel to Ridgeline at 5 p.m.; North Central visits Walla Walla at 4 p.m.; and Mt. Spokane plays Mead at 7 p.m. at Union Stadium.
The top two teams in this event will advance to the state tournament.
▪ Chiawana senior midfielder Fernando Lopez-Vega announced last week that he will be playing men’s soccer in the fall at Whitman College in Walla Walla.
Lopez-Vegas was the Mid-Columbia Conference Player of the Year last year as a junior, and the all-conference awards haven’t come out yet for this season.
Baseball
A quick checkup on Southridge grad Mason Martin shows that he started the season with the Altoona Curve, the Pittsburgh Pirates’ Double-A Eastern League team based in Pennsylvania.
The 24-year-old Martin spent the entire 2022 season with the Pirates’ Triple-A team in Indianapolis. But the team didn’t like his strikeout numbers as a hitter, and asked him to go back to Altoona to start the season.
So far, through 14 games and 62 plate appearances, the left-handed hitter has 3 home runs, 8 RBIs, and it hitting .227.
He has 17 strikeouts among those plate appearances.
▪ Seattle University’s baseball team is 11-10 in the Western Athletic Conference, and 15-26 overall.
But it’s nice to see Hanford High grad Hudson Shupe, a true freshman, is leading the Redhawks with a .331 batting average.
The infielder also has 10 doubles, as well as 19 RBIs.
Even cooler to see is Jackson Lind, a Kennewick High grad, has hit his way into the Redhawks everyday lineup, as either a catcher or designated hitter.
Lind didn’t get many opportunities to play at the beginning of the season. But he was hitting when he did play.
He’s batting .287, has five home runs, and 24 RBIs.
Football
What Kris Welch has done at River View High School in Finley has been impressive.
The Panthers head football coach has the squad playing at a high level these past few years, going 7-3 in 2021, and 9-2 last fall.
Others have noticed what’s going on out at River View and what Welch — a River View grad himself who starred as a linebacker in his college days at Eastern Oregon University — has been doing.
Recently, Welch was named the District 5 Coach of the Year by the Washington State Football Coaches Association.
The group honors the top coach out of each of the state’s nine districts, with 398 schools involved.
▪ Last month, the North Franklin School Board approved the hiring of Scott Forsyth as Connell High School’s head football coach.
Forsyth, an assistant coach for the football team before that, will replace long-time head coach Wayne Riner, who retired after the last football season.
Forsyth is also Connell’s head coach for the boys and girls track and field teams.
Basketball
Chiawana senior Donavin Young is planning on continuing his basketball career next fall at Link Prep Academy, which is in the Chicago area.
The 6-6 forward/guard was plagued with injuries his junior year with the Riverhawks, but broke out in fine fashion his senior year.
By spending a year at Links, Young won’t lose any college eligibility as he fine tunes his game.
Jeff Morrow is former sports editor for the Tri-City Herald.
