Mudville BHC wins Northwest Wood Bat Tournament
Mudville BHC, a Mercer Island-based 14U Sandy Koufax team, won the Northwest Wood Bat Tournament over Memorial Day weekend. The team played four games during the weekend, including two extra-inning games, winning three games and tying one. The team won a thrilling nine-inning game on Sunday evening to qualify for the championships, beating the South Sound Cardinals 6-5. Will Bassetti, Ionnis Kritonis, David Oppenheim and Jeff Lindquist gave up no earned runs during the victory, and Charlie Meyers drove in the tying runs with a long double to left field with two outs during the last inning of regulation, and then the winning run with a bases-loaded single in the bottom of the ninth inning.
In the championship game, Mudville BHC defeated the Puget Sound Stars 1-0 behind great pitching by Sammy Vetter, Philip Pugel and Kyle Jaske. Jaske drove in Pugel for the winning run in the fourth inning. Other players playing key roles were Sam Shank and Islanders Max Dammeier, Nic Sotelo and Zack Hartmann. Mudville BHC is coached by Vince Bailey and Oscar Delaney, and is sponsored by Beecher’s Handmade Cheese.
MIHS girls basketball finishes third in Oregon City
Prior to last weekend’s Class of the Field Tournament in Oregon City, Ore., the Mercer Island High School varsity girls basketball team had never won its first game of the tournament in the nine years they have been attending. This year they made a statement — they won their first three games and went on to earn third place out of 64 of the best high school teams from Washington, Oregon and Idaho.
En route to their third-place finish, the team beat four teams that placed in their respective state’s tournaments a few months ago. MIHS finished higher than any other team from the state of Washington — including rivals: Newport, Bellevue, and Skyline, and Washington State 4A Champs in 2008, Lewis and Clark from Spokane.
The only game that the Islanders lost was in the semi-finals on a buzzer-beater half-court heave in overtime to the team that went on to win the tournament. They ended the weekend 4-1.
Six “generations” of MIHS basketball players attended the tournament. It has become a tradition that former players go with the team to support them. This year’s long line of tradition included: 1996 graduate (current MIHS varsity coach) Jamie Prescott, 2003 graduate (current MIHS assistant coach) Elizabeth Christofferson (Richards), 2005 graduate (played at Smith College) Jessie Paull, 2007 graduate (current Division I player at Colgate University) Georgia Gier, 2008 graduate Holland Fleming and players from next year’s team.
Senior-to-be Janelle Chow and junior-to-be Hannah Lilly were both named to the All-Tournament Team.
The third-place roster included: Chow, Kelly Han, Kate Dapron, Ashleigh Diamond, Lilly, Kristen Mozeika, Hailey Gullstad, Jae Shin, Alfa Hordges, Bethany Yollin, Sarah Taylor and Heidi Black.
Register for the 3-on-3 basketball tournament
Registrations are still being accepted for teams wanting to compete in the 10th Annual 3-on-3 Basketball Challenge Tournament on July 12. Go to www.myparksandrecreation.com and click on the “Recreation” link. Enter 8866 for the activity code to pull up the online registration. You can also register at the Community Center at Mercer View. For more information, call Christa Lilly at (206) 818-7622.
