News and Announcements
Juniors SB All-stars lose heartbreaker, 9-8, in extra innings
The combined MI/BE/Thunderbird Juniors (13-14) softball All-star team suffered a tough first round loss to Sammamish on Sunday, 9-8, in extra innings. Bellevue East pitcher Tennessee Hardesty allowed no walks in 7 strong innings; MI's Amanda Mayo went 3 for 4 with two triples and a double; and Abby Elggren added a defensive gem, making a spectacular running catch in foul territory down the RF line, but at least 8 fielding errors and 3 unearned runs allowed in the top of the 7th allowed Sammamish to hang on for the win. The MI/Bellevue girls did score two in the bottom of the 7th and got the tying run to 3rd, but no further.
The MI/Bellevue team plays again on Tuesday at 6pm at Everest Park, field B, in Kirkland.
Mercer Island 10-11 BB All Star Team Eliminated in District 9 Tournament
After getting off to a hot start with 2 victories in its opening weekend, the 10-11 All Star team lost its next 2 games to bow out of the District 9 tournament. It was a disappointing ending for the players and coaches after a promising beginning.
On Wednesday, with plenty of loud fans supporting both teams, Mercer Island ran into a hot Snoqualmie Valley team and lost 10-4. Uncharacteristic errors and a lack of timely hitting proved to be too much to overcome despite the strong pitching effort of Andrew Pickles. Andrew also led the team’s offense with a towering home run to left field that still hasn’t landed. On defense, the team fielded a beautiful Brenden Yan-Michael Petrie- Caden Conder (4-6-3) double play to keep Snoqualmie Valley at bay in the 4th inning. In the end, MI couldn’t come back from a 5-0 1st inning deficit and fell into the loser’s bracket.
Mercer Island played Kirkland American in a loser out game Friday night. These two leagues know each other well, with MI defeating KA twice last year on the way to winning the 9-10 District 9 title. This year proved to be a different story, however, as Kirkland American knocked Mercer Island out of the tournament with an exciting 9-7 victory. KA started hot, hitting 2 home runs in the 1st inning to jump out to a 3-0 lead. After Mercer Island responded with a run in the bottom of the 1st, MI’s gloves and pitching again struggled uncharacteristically and KA added 6 runs in the 2nd inning to go up 9-1. Lucas Chapman and Cameron Coe combined on a nice relay play from right field to nail a runner at home and contain the damage. Mercer Island fought back to score 6 runs of its own in the bottom of the 3rd inning. A double by Eric Kim plated 2 runs and a single by Andrew Pickles scored 2 more. Michael Petrie came in to relieve in the 2nd inning and shut out Kirkland American over the final 4 innings. Unfortunately, MI would leave the bases loaded 3 times during the game and its comeback fell just short.
For the tournament, Mercer Island was led by the bats of Andrew Pickles (.600 batting average, .733 on base percentage, 1.100 slugging percentage), Michael Petrie (.538 BA, .647 OBP), and Eric Kim (.500 BA, .647 OBP). Brenden Yan led the team with 7 RBIs while Jackson Caputo added a team-high 6 walks and a .667 OBP. As a team, MI batted .377 and scored 42 runs in 4 games.The players and coaches would like to thank all of its fans for your amazing support during the tournament! See you next year. Go MI!
TBird/MI Majors SB wins again, 7-1 to reach Monday's winner's bracket final
The combined Thunderbird/MI Majors SB team, defending state champs and affectionately known as the "THin MInts", beat Kirkland Nat'l/Redmond 7-1 on Saturday. A close game until the 4th inning when the home team, TB/MI, tacked on 2 extra runs off of Megan Page's triple. (It was Page's second consecutive game with a three bagger.) Solid defense took over from there. Kaitlin Sahlinger went the distance. Claire McCarthy was 2/3 and had 3 assists from behind the plate.
Next up for the team is the winner's bracket final vs. Falls LL on Monday at 6pm at Eastlake H.S. The winner will advance to Wednesday's championship game, also at Eastlake H.S.
Link to Tournament Bracket.
On Friday night, the 9/10 team had a rough outing and was handed its first loss by a very strong Kirkland American team. Anna Gallagher doubled in the effort. The team was not able to bounce back and lost 11-8 to Bell East on Saturday afternoon. Anna Gallagher had another good day at the plate going 2/4 on Saturday. Shaune Lam collected a double to help the Islanders. The 9/10 All Star team is now done for the season. A big thanks to Pat Ogawa and his coaching staff for leading the team through their all-star run.
Bottom row: Josie Blakeslee, Cameryn Steiner, Anna Gallagher, Kailee Yan, Nalani Ogawa Middle row: Sidney Montague, Shaune Lam, Caroline Boissoneault, Boo Williams, Kayla Varney, Gabrielle Kasman Top row: Jeffrey Boissoneault, Pat Ogawa, Ed Slezinger
On Saturday morning, the 10/11 Bell East/Bell Thunderbird/MILL team fell to Snoqualmie Valley North 11-10 in extra innings. The team was up 10-8 with two out in the bottom of the 6th but couldn't hold the lead. Sno Valley North tied the game to send it to extra innings and then pushed across a run in the bottom of the 7th to win. District Nine again picked MI's own Katie Hendrickson as the offensive highlight for going 3/5. The 10/11 All Star team is now done for the season. A big thanks to Jessica Cabales and her staff for a great coaching job.
9-10 BB All-stars win 9-5 to reach Monday's championship
Mercer Island is the sole undefeated team in the 9-10 year old District 9 tournament, after a hard fought 9-5 victory over host team Redmond West.
Redmond West broke a 0-0 tie in the bottom of the 3rd with two runs off a walk, two singles and an outfield error, but starting pitcher Drew Christofferson got out of the inning with the score 2-0, stranding two runners with a flyout and a strikeout. MI came right back in the top of the 4th with 3 consecutive singles by Johnny, Devon and Scott which loaded the bases for Spencer, who plated two with an RBI double to LF. Noah Hsue made the play of the game to save a run in the bottom of the 4th with a fully horizontal, diving layout catch of a line drive to make the 3rd out. In the top of the 5th, MI broke it open with 4 walks, 4 hits, including a bases clearing double by Luke Boksem, an RBI single by Kenny Koning and a sacrifice fly by Justin Myers. RW got 3 back in the 5th, but Scott Ramseyer needed just 7 pitches to strike out two batters with the bases loaded to hold an 8-5 lead for MI. The Islanders scored one insurance run in the 6th when Johnny doubled and Devon singled him in, and then held RW scoreless in the bottom of the 6th to preserve the 9-5 win.
More photos, courtesy KuYuen Hsue
The Islanders will play in the championship game on Monday night at 6pm at Hartman Park in Redmond, and need only to win on either Monday or Tuesday to win the District 9 title and advance to the state tournament which begins Saturday, July 18, at Valley Ridge (Tyee High School) in Sea-Tac.
