Connell grad inducted into coaches hall of fame + area standouts head to all-state series

The annual Washington All-State Baseball Series will be held this weekend at Parker Field in Yakima.

Games are set for 11 a.m. and 3 p.m. on Saturday, and 10:15 a.m. and 1:45 p.m. on Sunday.

Teams consist of players from around the state — all of whom are seniors, and regardless of classification. The members of the Washington State Baseball Coaches Association vote on the which players make the series, with their season’s work as well as their recent performances in the state feeder games taken into account as well.

As one might expect, Class 4A state champion Richland, which finished the season with a perfect 27-0 record, is well represented.

Four Bombers — pitcher Alec Ammerman (headed to Grand Canyon University), pitcher-first baseman Dallas Bennett, catcher/second baseman/outfielder John Corban (headed to St. Martin’s), and third baseman/pitcher Chris Daniels (New Mexico State) — will play for Team Adams.

Two Tri-Cities Prep players — outfielder/pitcher Henry Douglas and pitcher/third baseman Caleb Sherfey — are on the Team Baker roster. Both Prep grads are headed to Whitworth University to play baseball.

And Southridge pitcher Jabari Simon, who will play at Everett Community College in the fall, is on the Team St. Helens roster.

The WSBCA also inducts a class into its hall of fame on this weekend, and this year’s class includes Lindbergh head coach Benny Benavides.

If you’re an old-timer and that name sounds familiar, Benavides was a standout in both cross country and baseball at Connell High School in the early 1970s.

Benavides also played for the Kennewick-Pasco Dusters in American Legion back then too.

In 24 seasons as head coach at Lindbergh, Benavides has over 200 wins.

Soccer

The spring regular season for the United Premier Soccer League was completed last weekend for the Washington teams, and the 3 Cities Football Club finished tied for second place in the standings with the Snohomish Sky.

Both teams had 5-4-1 records. The Sky has the tiebreaker between the two squads, and they’ll host 3 Cities this coming Sunday at 5 p.m. at Glacier High School in a Washington conference semifinal match.

In the other semifinal, Bellevue Athletic visits conference champ Dalul FC.

The winners of the two semifinals will meet for the Washington title, and that winner will take on the Oregon champion on either July 6 or 7 as part of the UPSL national tournament.

The 3 Cities team had a 2-3 start to the spring season. But they bounced back in the second half of the season to go 3-1-1. In addition, 3 Cities handed league champ Dalul one of its two losses this spring, beating the title team 1-0 on June 1 at Fran Rish Stadium in Richland.

Chiawana grad Felix Mendoza has been 3 Cities’ leading scorer this spring with four goals.

Minor league baseball

Thursday was a very busy day for the Tri-City Dust Devils, as players were mobbed around in the Los Angeles Angels’ farm system.

See if you can keep up:

Three pitchers — Brady Choban, Camden Minacci and Jared Southard — were sent up to Double-A Rocket City.

Pitchers Quinton Martinez and Ben Thompson were sent down to Single-A Inland Empire, while pitcher Erik Rivera was placed on the 7-day injured list.

Catcher Juan Flores was sent to Tri-City, but then sent to the Arizona Complex League Angels.

Two players — outfielder Joe Stewart and first baseman Mason Martin — were given their releases.

The following players were then activated after being moved here from other teams: pitcher Jose Fermin (from Inland Empire), pitcher Houston Harding (from Rocket City), pitcher Luke Murphy (Rocket City), pitcher Roman Phansalker (Inland Empire), shortstop Adrian Placencia (Inland Empire), and outfielder Joe Redfield (Inland Empire).

Most notable here is Placencia returning here after spending most of the 2023 season in Tri-City.

Stewart had spent all of last season and this season with the Dust Devils.

And Martin is a Southridge High School graduate who reached Triple-A with the Pittsburgh Pirates in 2022. He was getting ready to play in an independent league in May when the Angels signed him.

▪ The moves were made as the second half of the Northwest League season began Friday night.

The Spokane Indians, a Colorado Rockies affiliate, won the first-half title and are guaranteed to play for the league’s best-of-5 championship series in September.

Here are the final first-half standings: 1, Spokane (Colorado) 38-26; 2, Hillsboro (Arizona) 35-30; 3, Eugene (San Francisco) 33-32; 4, Everett (Seattle) 32-34; 5, Vancouver (Toronto) 30-33; 6, Tri-City (LA Angels) 26-39.

The second-half winner will play Spokane for the title. If Spokane was to win the second-half title too, the Indians’ opponent will be the team with the next best overall record.

▪ Kennewick High grad Trent Sellers has been outstanding in the New York Yankees’ farm system this season.

Sellers, who pitched collegiately for Lewis-Clark State College and then Oregon State University his last season, was signed as a free agent last year by the Yankees.

In 16 appearances for the High-A Hudson Valley Renegades — all in relief — the right-handed Sellers has a 5-2 record, a 3.21 earned run average, and 41 strikeouts in 33.2 innings pitched. Opposing batters are hitting a meager .187 off of him.

In late May, Sellers was called up to Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre to help with the RailRiders’ depth.

In one game, he gave up two earned runs in 1.2 innings, striking out two batters. Sellers picked up the victory in that game, raising his won-loss record to 6-2 this season.

A few days later, Sellers was sent back to Hudson Valley.

College baseball

Brady Bean (Kamiakin) finished his first season with the University of Portland baseball team (37-19 record) by batting .321, hitting 6 home runs, and driving in 38 runs.

Bean, a sophomore infielder, spent his freshman season playing for St. Martin’s University in Lacey.

Last summer, Bean transferred to Portland.

For the second consecutive summer, he’s playing for the Medicine Hat Mavericks in the Western Canadian Baseball League.

▪ Richland High grad Avery Williamson had one-third of the Corban University baseball team’s victories this season as a true freshman.

While the team was 9-38, Williamson had a 3-7 record over 12 starts.

In 56 innings of work, Williamson had 40 strikeouts.

One of Williamson’s teammates was Alex Swaney, who played in the infield. Swaney, limited to seven games this season, is a junior who spent his first two seasons at Wenatchee Valley College.

Jeff Morrow is former sports editor for the Herald.