At Mid-Columbia, two young players were drafted by two teams on Tuesday, the third and final day of the Major League Baseball Draft.
Southridge outfielder Max Martin, who signed with the University of Oregon, was drafted by the Texas Rangers in 2011.th A round of 20 round events.
Playing for the Walla Walla Suites of the West Coast League this summer, Martin went to Texas as a 321 player.centoverall choice.
Max is Mason Martin’s younger brother and a fellow Southridge High School graduate.
Mason Martin was elected in 2017th First round pick of the 2017 draft by the Pittsburgh Pirates.
He currently plays first base for the Altoona Curves, the Pirates’ double-A club in Pennsylvania.
Meanwhile, Richland High School pitcher Spencer Green was drafted by the Los Angeles Dodgers in 2019.th round (580thoverall selection).
The 6-foot-4, 190-pound right-hander has dominated the Bombers’ mound for the past few seasons.
sign and offer
Preston Vine Close (Chiawana) has spent the last three seasons playing baseball at Grays Harbor Community College. The outfielder recently announced that he will continue his college career by transferring to Benedict Mesa College in Arizona.
▪ Outstanding women’s basketball post-player from Chiawana, Maria Rude, received another scholarship offer. The University of California, San Diego made an offer to Ruud, who will be in his junior year next year.
▪ Hanford’s Claire Nguyen has signed a contract to play women’s soccer at Whitworth University in Spokane this fall.
▪ Chiawana quarterback DJ Duran, who will be entering his senior year with the Riverhawks this fall, has received an offer to play at Montana Western University next year.
▪ Kamiakin baseball infielder Kellen Berg has pledged to play at Central Washington University next year.
hockey
Next NHL season, Tri-City Americans fans may become Boston Bruins aficionados.
The Bruins, who had the best regular-season record of any NHL team last season, already had former Ams defenseman Brandon Carlo.
Carlo is in the middle of a six-year contract and will be paid $4.7 million next season.
But last week, the Bruins signed forward Morgan Geeky to a two-year, $4 million deal. Geeky has spent the past two seasons with the Seattle Kraken.
Finally, defenseman Parker Wotherspoon, who spent the last few seasons with the New York Islanders, signed a one-year, $750,000 contract with Boston.
▪ Last week, the Tri-City Americans announced their 2023-24 Western Hockey League schedule.
The season begins September 22 with a road game in Prince George, British Columbia. That’s where the Ams ended the year in April, losing to the Cougars in the first round of the WHL playoffs.
The Tri-Cities will play PG back-to-back on September 22-23, travel to Spokane on September 30, and play the home opener against the Everett Silvertips on October 7.
Other highlights include the annual New Year’s Eve game against the Spokane Chiefs and eight games (four road, four home) against new United States Division opponent Wenatchee.
Last month, the WHL board approved the sale of Winnipeg Ice to David and Lisa White, who owned BCHL’s Wenatchee Wild franchise.
The Whites will deactivate their BCHL team and have a WHL franchise instead.
The schedule for the entire American regular season is as follows (all home games in the Capital, all game times in the Pacific):
September
22nd — 7pm at Prince George. 23rd — 6pm at Prince George. 30 — 6:05 p.m. in Spokane
October
7 — Everett, 6:05 p.m. 13 — Brandon, 7:05 p.m. 14 — Kamloops, 6:05 p.m. 15 — Portland, 5 p.m. 18 — Wenatchee, 7:05 p.m. 20 — Kelowna, 7:05 p.m. 22 — Everett, 4:05 p.m. 25 — 7:05 p.m. in Everett. 27th — 7pm in Kamloops. 28 — 6pm in Kamloops
November
1 — Vancouver, 7:05 p.m. 4 — Spokane, 6:05 p.m. 7 — Kelowna, 7:05 p.m. 10 — Kamloops, 7:05 pm. 11 — Prince Albert, 6:05 p.m. 15 — Wenatchee at 6pm. 17 — Wenatchee, 7:05 p.m. 21 — Seattle, 7:05 p.m. 24 — Victoria, 7:05 p.m. 25th — Vancouver, 7pm. 28 — Saskatoon, 7:05 p.m.
December
1 — Prince George, 7:05 p.m. 2 — Vancouver, 6:05 p.m. 3 — 4pm in Wenatchee. 8 — Seattle, 7:05 p.m. 9 — Wenatchee, 6:05 p.m. 15 — Victoria, 7:05 p.m. 16 — Victoria, 6:05 p.m. 27 — Portland, 7:05 p.m. 30 — 6:05 p.m. in Spokane. 31 — Spokane, 6:05 p.m.
January
5 — 6 pm in Lethbridge. 6 — 6 p.m. at Medicine Hat. 9 — Swift Current, 6 p.m. 11 — Edmonton, 6 p.m. 12 — 6pm at Red Deer. 14 — 1:00 p.m. in Calgary. 19 — Seattle, 7:05 p.m. 20 — Seattle, 6:05 p.m. 21 — 4:05 p.m. in Everett. 24 — Wenatchee at 6pm. 26 — Portland, 7:05 p.m. 27 — Prince George, 6:05 p.m. 31 — Everett, 7:05 p.m.
February
3 — Spokane, 6:05 p.m. 4 — Portland, 5 p.m. 7 — Wenatchee at 6pm. 9 — 7:05 p.m. in Spokane. 13 — Seattle, 7:05 p.m. 16 — Spokane, 7:05 p.m. 17 — 6:05 p.m. in Spokane. 19th — 2:05 pm in Kelowna. 23 — Moose Jaws, 7:05 p.m. 24 — Regina, 6:05 p.m.
march
1 — Victoria, 7:05 p.m. 2 — Kelowna, 6:05 p.m. 6 — Kelowna, 7:05 p.m. 8 — Wenatchee, 7:05 p.m. 10 — Seattle, 5:05 p.m. 12 — Vancouver, 7 p.m. 15th — Portland, 7pm. 16 — 6:05 p.m. in Spokane. 22 — Portland, 7:05 p.m. 23 — Spokane, 6:05 p.m. 24 — 4:05 pm in Everett
Jeff Morrow is a former sports editor for the Tri-City Herald.
