Special to the Reporter

Four members of the 2022 Mercer Island High School 3A state champion baseball team are continuing their careers in the Pacific International League. Austin Cupic (class of ‘23), Gov Aufranc (‘22), Cutter Werdel (‘23) and Jack Varney (‘22) have joined forces on the Redmond Dudes Baseball Club. The Dudes travel throughout the Northwest and Western Canada, mostly on their own and are seeing a lot of success.

On June 25, the Dudes met the Victoria (BC) HarbourCats of the West Coast League before a crowd of nearly 2,000 spectators in Victoria. The HarbourCats featured two sons of former Boston Red Sox all-star Manny Ramirez along with a roster of current college players. On “Taylor Swift Night” ticket raffle night, the Dudes pulled off a stunning win against the home team.

Led by pitcher Cupic, who pitched all nine innings, the Dudes won, 8-1, in a game that was close until the final innings. Notable in Cupic’s effort was pitching 75 strikes on 100 pitches, seven strikeouts, no walks and an ERA of 0.00. He had an overall ERA of 1.17 in this summer’s action at press time.

Against Victoria, Cupic bounced back from a line drive headed toward his face in the sixth inning, which he protected with his pitching hand. First baseman Varney had one hit and one RBI and shortstop Werdel had one hit and scored a run.

Aufranc has pitched in three games for the Dudes thus far.