Richland, Kamiakin grads to play WSU volleyball + Former Dust Devils gets MLB debut

Here is the cool thing about watching the Tri-City Dust Devils in the High-A Northwest League: you never know when you might see a player come through Gesa Stadium and then end up in the major leagues.

Case in point: Caden Dana was a starter for Tri-City in the 2023 season. The 6-foot-4 righthander started 11 games that season for the Dust Devils, going 2-4 with a 4.22 earned run average.

He also struck out 71 batters in just 53.1 innings, and had a WHIP (walks and hits over innings pitched) of 1.29.

That was enough for Dana to get a promotion to Double-A Rocket City in Alabama at the beginning of this season.

He did well enough that he was called up last week and then got a start in his MLB debut on Sunday, Sept. 1, where he got the decision in a 3-2 victory over the Seattle Mariners in Anaheim.

In that contest, Dana went 6 innings, surrendering 2 earned runs, giving up just 2 hits, walking 4 and striking out 4 batters.

WSU volleyball

Stumbled upon a couple surprises the other day while checking out the women’s volleyball roster for Washington State University.

The Cougars have two transfers from the Tri-Cities in Richland High graduate Sage Brustad and Kamiakin alumnus Taryn Vrieling. Both are outside hitters.

Brustad transferred into Pullman from Eastern Washington University. She’s a graduate student with a year of eligibility remaining.

Vrieling, a junior, transferred over from the University of Idaho.

The Cougars are off to a 1-2 start, which includes a 3-2 win over Omaha on Sunday, Sept. 1. Brustad led the Cougs with 19 kills and an ace in the victory.

Vrieling has seen some early action coming off of the bench.

WSU is playing in the West Coast Conference this season.

Soccer

Eastern Oregon University has three area athletes on its women’s soccer roster this fall: defender Delaney Pink, a redshirt junior from Chiawana; midfielder Gracie Rainsberry, a freshman from Kamiakin; and defender Hailey Rogan, a senior from Walla Walla Community College.

Football

Area fans might want to keep an eye on Whitworth University’s football team this fall.

The Pirates have nine area players on their roster, many whom will see plenty of action this season.

They are: sophomore DB Joe Baffney (from DeSales High School in Walla Walla); junior DB Seamus Doohan (DeSales); freshman DL Lane Hedrick (Chiawana); senior DL JT Munoz (Chiawana); junior RB Luis Salgado (Kamiakin); freshman RB Cam Schmidt (Kamiakin); senior DL Alex Smith (College Place); and freshman DB Maddox Suitonu (Kennewick).

The Pirates went 10-1 last season, making it to the second round of the NCAA Division II playoffs.

Whitworth opens this season at Gustavus Adolphus in St. Peter, Minn., on Sept. 7.

▪ The Central Washington University football team that went deep into the NCAA Division II playoffs has a lot of returners back this fall. So the Wildcats are one of the nation’s top D-II teams headed into the 2024 season.

The Wildcats have five players from the Mid-Columbia on this season’s roster.

Quarterback Caleb Christensen is a Royal High grad, a redshirt sophomore, and a transfer from Whitworth.

Defensive lineman Bridger Feldmann (Chiawana) is a redshirt senior; while fellow Chiawana graduate Jalen Webber — a redshirt junior — is at defensive back.

The McCallum brothers — Jaxin and Gavin — are both Kamiakin graduates who are offensive linemen. Jaxin is a junior who is transferring over from Idaho, while Gavin is a freshman.

CWU opens play on Sept. 7 at San Diego.

Eastern Oregon University’s football team opens its season on Saturday, Sept. 7, against Montana Western.

The Mountaineers have nine Mid-Columbia players on their roster, plus one coach: Richland High grad Ryan Piper is a graduate assistant coach for linebackers.

The nine players are freshman defensive lineman Dylan Buss from Connell; junior defensive lineman Sam Cadenas from Hermiston; sophomore linebacker Michael Lenke from Columbia-Burbank; freshman offensive lineman Gonzalo Lopez-Rojas from Prosser; sophomore linebacker Nehemiah Medrano from Prosser; junior defensive back Dounelson Mullen from Columbia-Burbank; sophomore defensive back Monte Pettichord from Waitsburg; freshman defensive back Cage Sommerville from Chiawana; and freshman linebacker Neal Stasik from Hermiston.

Cross country

The first college cross country meet of the season was held in the Spokane area on Saturday, Aug. 30, with the Clash of the Inland Northwest.

Richland High graduate Madi Carr placed 16th out of 80 women in the 4K event.

Carr, a senior at Eastern Washington University, was running unattached and finished with a time of 14 minutes and 34 seconds.

Carr is one of three Mid-Columbia runners of EWU’s women’s cross country squad.

The other two are senior Amanda Nygard (Hermiston) and junior Natalie Ruzauskas (Richland).

Volleyball

Columbia Basin College freshman Madison Brisco was named NWAC defensive volleyball player of the week for Aug. 19-25.

Brisco — from Kingman, Ariz. — averaged 3.88 digs per set, and 62 digs total, to help the Hawks get off to a 3-1 start to the season.

Golf

Kennewick’s Ken Wade fired a three-round score of 221 — with rounds of 70, 74 and 77 — to win the Washington Golf Association’s Senior Amateur golf tournament that was held at the Yakima Country Club on June 4-6.

Wade won $400 for his efforts.

Kennewick’s Darin Hekkela placed fourth in the tournament with a 225.

Fifty golfers competed in the annual event.

Jeff Morrow is former sports editor for the Tri-City Herald.