19 collegiate prospects who played for WCCBL clubs were selected in the 2006 MLB June draft held Tuesday, June 6 and Wednesday, June 7. The first collegian with experience playing with a WCCBL club selected in this year’s draft was Pac-10 Player of the Year Cole Gillespie of Oregon State. Gillespie was picked in the …
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Major League Baseball’s first weekend of interleague play featured a pitching matchup of two former Bellingham Bells at Coors Field. On Saturday, May 20, Canadian born southpaw Jeff Francis of the Colorado Rockies out-dueled his 2002 Bells teammate Ty Taubenheim of the Toronto Blue Jays in Taubenheim’s major league debut. Francis took a no-hitter into …
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The Seattle Mariners can pitch. They can field. And presumably they’ll have better chemistry than in 2010, when a poor start, an anemic offense that scored just 513 runs, and a fractured clubhouse led to the early dismissal of manager Don Wakamatsu. Management addressed those concerns in the offseason, by adding some veteran bats, by …
Last spring’s University of Washington Huskies featured senior sluggers Brent Lillibridge, Kyle Larsen, Taylor Johnson and Nick Batkoski, but it was a freshman pitcher turned hitter from Kent, Washington that proved to be the Dawgs biggest stick. Mid-season injuries paved the way for Matt Hague’s offensive emergence. The young right-handed slugger made the best of …
Daniel Turpen of the 47-15 and #4 ranked Oregon State Beavers tossed 6 2/3 scoreless innings vs. the #1 ranked Rice Owls to lead the Pac-10 champions to a 5-0 College World Series victory. The win sets up a second game with Rice Thursday, June 22 to determine who faces North Carolina in the CWS …
UW’s post-season dreams could come true considering Kyle Parker’s history in big games. All the freshman did in 2004 was earn a complete game 7-2 win in the Huskies NCAA Regional victory vs. host Ole Miss and win two games for the Aloha Knights at the NBC World Series including a shutout in the Series …
The WCCBL announced plans to host its first All-Star gala Tuesday, July 11 at Wenatchee. The league’s All-Star teams will be split into East and West squads and feature the WCCBL’s top prospects. The East will showcase stars from the host and WCCBL defending champion Wenatchee AppleSox, Kelowna Falcons, Spokane RiverHawks and expansion Moses Lake …
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Last spring’s University of Washington Huskies featured senior sluggers Brent Lillibridge, Kyle Larsen, Taylor Johnson and Nick Batkoski, but it was a freshman pitcher turned hitter from Kent, Washington that proved to be the Dawgs biggest stick. Mid-season injuries paved the way for Matt Hague’s offensive emergence. The young right-handed slugger made the best of …
WCCBL Pitcher of the Year Tommy Hanson of Riverside CC and WCCBL MVP Steve Marquardt of Columbia Basin College were respectively rated the country’s #3 and #4 Junior College prospects in Baseball America’s 2006 College Baseball preview issue. Both are sophomores and draft-and-follow student-athletes. Hanson was drafted last June by the Atlanta Braves in the …
Third baseman Travis Hanson of the Springfield Cardinals of the Texas League (AA) was recently named the St. Louis Cardinals 2005 Minor League Player of the Year. Hanson was also named to the club’s 40-man MLB roster and should report this February to the team’s major league spring training camp in Florida. Hanson played for …
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On Monday, December 5, the West Coast Collegiate Baseball League unanimously accepted the Moses Lake Pirates as its eighth member team. With the Pirates, Husband and wife Brent and Amy Kirwan led a successful community effort to bring pro-like baseball to Moses Lake, Washington. The Kirwans, the clubs owner operators, recently hired Wenatchee Valley College …
The Spokane RiverHawks announced this week that the club will play its home games at historic Avista Stadium in 2006 and that coaching legend Steve Hertz will replace ex-major leaguer Kevin Stocker as the team’s field manager. Avista Stadium is the home of the Spokane Indians of the affiliated pro Northwest League. Hertz, GU’s Director …
WCCBL Pitcher of the Year Tommy Hanson of the Aloha Knights was named to Baseball America’s College Summer All-America first-team, which was announced by the national publication last month. He was the only WCCBL player chosen and one of only three selections from Western summer leagues. The Alaska Baseball League (ABL) featured two first-team picks. …
74 players with experience competing for WCCBL teams are currently active professionals playing for MLB affiliated clubs. The list of pros includes MLB starter Jeff Francis of the Colorado Rockies. Francis excelled at Coors Field as the left-hander, who threw his final amateur game for the Bellingham Bells, went 14-12 with a 5.68 ERA over …
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Third baseman Travis Hanson of the Springfield Cardinals of the Texas League (AA) was recently named the St. Louis Cardinals 2005 Minor League Player of the Year. Hanson was also named to the club’s 40-man MLB roster and should report this February to the team’s major league spring training camp in Florida. Hanson played for …
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WCCBL Notes The Wenatchee AppleSox won the inaugural WCCBL Championship Series as the Sox swept the Bellingham Bells 2 games to 0. The WCCBL Champions won game one at Bellingham by erasing a two run deficit with a three-run ninth to take the series opener 3-2. Shortstop Brent Wyatt of Wenatchee Valley College delivered the …
The Wenatchee AppleSox recorded their second straight WCCBL championship series late-inning come from behind victory to beat the Bellingham Bells 5-2 and sweep the league’s inaugural three-game championship series 2 games to 0. With the Bells leading 2-1 going to the bottom of the sixth, Steve Marquardt, a sophomore-to be at Columbia Basin College, delivered …
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Imagine the World Series Champion Boston Red Sox centerfielder. He runs like the wind, tracks everything, he leads off, is an offensive catalyst, he hits from the leftside and he’ll surprise you with his power (ask the Yankees). Now picture Jacoby Ellsbury without the locks and beard and you’ve got the next Johnny Damon. Ellsbury …
The #5 ranked Oregon State Beavers won the Pac-10 title for a second straight spring. OSU posted a conference best 16-7 mark and will host a regional June 2-4 as a #1 seed. The 39-14 Beavers offense was led by junior outfielder Cole Gillespie who was named Pac-10 Player of the Week for May 23-29 …
2005 All-WCCBL first baseman Bill Rowe continued to swing a torrid post-season bat and All-Pac-10 closer Kevin Gunderson recorded his second College World Series save as OSU advanced to the CWS Championship Series by shutting out Rice in consecutive games. In Thursday night’s bracket championship game vs. the #1 ranked Rice Owls, OSU’s senior first …
At its winter board meeting the West Coast Collegiate Baseball League (WCCBL), a premier wood-bat summer college league, announced its inaugural advisory board. The boardis membership includes such baseball luminaries as legendary ex-Washington State University head baseball coach Chuck “Bobo” Brayton; ESPN Baseball Tonight analyst Harold Reynolds; Northwest League President, Bob Richmond; 2003 Minor League …
A new summer collegiate baseball league has taken root out West. It will open play June 14, 2005 with seven teams and a 36-game regular season schedule. The summer amateur league is a first of its kind on the West Coast, as the newly formed West Coast Collegiate Baseball League will feature only college players …
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Bremerton, Washington, December 18, 2004 – The expansion Kitsap BlueJackets are doing all the right things as they prepare for their first season in summer college baseball. At least, that’s the opinion of 66-year-old Jim Dietz, commissioner of the new seven-team West Coast Collegiate Baseball League. Of course, Dietz could teach a class on the …
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UW’s post-season dreams could come true considering Kyle Parker’s history in big games. All the freshman did in 2004 was earn a complete game 7-2 win in the Huskies NCAA Regional victory vs. host Ole Miss and win two games for the Aloha Knights at the NBC World Series including a shutout in the Series …
