RAINIERS SWEEP WEEKLY AWARDS
Tacoma Rainiers infielder Nick Franklin was named the Pacific Coast League Player of the Week and right-handed starter Andrew Carraway was named the league’s Pitcher of the Week for the week of April 22-28.
Franklin batted .474 with three doubles, one home run, six RBI and seven runs scored during the week. He ranked 10th in the league with nine hits over that span, highlighted by a 5-for-5 outing at Las Vegas on April 25 that saw the 22-year-old hit a pair of doubles, score three runs and produce two RBIs.
Carraway flirted with a no-hitter in his lone appearance over that stretch – a start at Las Vegas on April 26. The right-hander held the 51s hitless through 6.1 innings and ended the night surrendering just two hits and striking out five batters through seven scoreless frames. He has now earned a winning decision in each of his last three starts and has compiled a 3.38 ERA through five outings this season.
This marks the first time Tacoma has swept the weekly league awards since Abraham Nunez won Player of the Week honors and Masao Kida won Pitcher of the Week accolades June 13-19, 2005.
Through April 29 the Rainiers sat in first place in their division with a 15-10 overall record. They were scheduled to finish off the series against Tucson on May 2 at 7 p.m., and will host Reno on May 3 at 7 p.m., May 4 at 5 p.m., May 5 at 1:30 p.m. and May 6 at 11:30 a.m.
TCC DROPS THREE OF FOUR
Despite losing three of four non-conference contests to Bellevue College last weekend, the Tacoma Community College baseball team sits in second place in the West Region of the NWAACC as they head into their final two series of the year.
The Titans fell 3-2 to Bellevue in the opener on April 27, as starter Lukas Hinton surrendered three runs in seven innings to take his first loss of the season. Hinton, though, sports some strong numbers, including a 4-1 record with a team-leading 1.56 earned run average in 52 innings pitched.
But TCC scored nine runs in the first two innings in the nightcap to take a 9-6 win. Seth Heck – the team leader with 27 RBIs on the season – drove in two runs and went 2-for-3 with a double, while Chad Michaud was 2-for-4 with two RBIs and Austin Johnson hit a three-run homer.
Michaud and Ben Circeo drove in two runs apiece in the opener on April 28, but Bellevue scored six unearned runs – including two in the bottom of the seventh – to take a 7-6 walk-off win. It was the same result for the Titans in the nightcap, as they came back from a 5-1 deficit with four runs in the sixth inning – including a two-run double by Evan Peterson – to tie it. But Bellevue notched another walk-off win in the ninth, with the winning run scoring on a wild pitch.
That left TCC with a 26-10 overall record, and a 12-4 mark in the West Region as they resume conference play by hosting Green River in a doubleheader on May 4 at 1 p.m. and travel to Green River for another doubleheader on May 5 at 1 p.m.
UPS CLOSES WITH A BANG
The Puget Sound baseball team closed their conference slate with a 15-3 win at Willamette on April 28, banging out 20 hits in the process.
The Loggers got on the board with five runs in the third inning, including a three-run homer from designated hitter Christian Carter. They scored six runs in the ninth inning to put the game out of reach, including a two-run double by first baseman Jeff Walton. Left fielder Connor Savage was 4-for-6 with two doubles, three runs scored and two RBIs, while third baseman Kaulana Smith was 3-for-6 with a double and three RBIs. Starter Nathan Aguiar allowed two unearned runs in 6.2 innings pitched, giving up three hits and two walks with four strikeouts.
The Loggers – with a 16-22 overall record and 11-13 mark in conference play – close out their season by hosting Whitman on May 4 at 10 a.m. and Pacific (Ore.) on May 4 at 4 p.m.
SOLID RESULTS AT NWC TRACK MEET
The Pacific Lutheran and Puget Sound track and field teams finished their seasons at the Northwest Conference Championships on April 26-27 in Salem, Ore.
Alicia Burns and Matt Klein headlined the day for UPS on April 27 as the Loggers’ All-NWC honorees. Burns took third in the 800-meter run with a time of two minutes and 19.50 seconds, while Klein earned his second All-NWC honor of the meet by taking third in the 5k after taking second in the 10k on April 26.
Joe Cerne also earned All-NWC status in the pole vault on April 26, vaulting just over 15 feet to take third. His vault was a personal-best and ranks fourth all-time for the Loggers.
Josh Seekatz took second in the steeplechase with a time of nine minutes and 41.08 seconds to earn All-NWC honors on April 26, while Klein came in as the defending champion in the 10k and took second for All-NWC honors. Kathryn Flyte was an All-NWC performer for the women’s team with a third place finish in the 10k. The Loggers’ men placed fifth overall while the women placed seventh.
Pacific Lutheran, meanwhile, placed fourth in the men’s championship while the Lute women placed fifth overall.
Marisa Gonzalez pulled off the biggest surprise for the Lute women on April 26, throwing a personal best mark of 41 feet and 5.25 inches to beat teammate Samantha Potter for the women's shot put championship. Potter won her second straight NWC discus crown for the Lute women with a throw of 142.5 feet, while Taryn Dee finished second in the 400-meter hurdles and Madison Guscott took third in the 400-meter dash in 59.53 seconds.
I.V. Reeves placed in the top seven in all four of his individual events, highlighted by his championship in the 100-meter dash with a time of 10.94 seconds. He had placed seventh in the men's long jump on April 26, finished seventh in the triple jump with a leap of 43 feet and nine inches and capped off his individual event effort by taking fifth in the 200-meter dash in 22.81 seconds.
Kyle Peart, second in the hammer throw on April 26, threw a personal best of 53 feet and 8.25 inches to place second in the shot put.