Serving Waitsburg, Dayton and the Touchet Valley
Serving Waitsburg, Dayton and the Touchet Valley
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WALLA WALLA – The 2019 Community College Baseball season in Walla Walla brings with it a change of leadership as Justin Speer takes the helm from Dave Meliah who has assumed duties as assistant to Athletic Director Jeff Reinland. Meliah, a Desales and Walla Walla Community College alumni, originally took over for Mike Cummins and served for nine seasons as Head Coach and eight years as an assistant. . Spear's wife, Chelsea, is the Women's Volleyball coach at WWCC. The couple moved here in the f...
DAYTON/WAITSBURG/PRESCOTT - Several local basketball players received league winter sports recognition. Player of the Year went to Prescott senior Joze Gonzalez who also made the Southeast 1B boys all-league team. In the Eastern Washington Athletic Conference, D-W senior, Chris Andrews, earned a place on the boys second team while D-W sophomore Sadie Seney made the girls second-team....
DAYTON-WAITSBURG – Track and Field has about twenty athletes participating in 2019, according to seventh-year Head Coach Dan Nechodom. "We have a pretty equal split between boys and girls, and we are still getting a few late turnouts," Nechodom said. Nechodom was eager to share his enthusiasm at some of the 2019 prospects. "I think this will be Aliyah Picarella's year to shine. She made it to district the last two years, and I think she may go all the way on this year," he said. Picarella is a...
DAYTON/WAITSBURG – Softball Head Coach Shane Robins loses four very valuable pieces from last year’s State tournament qualifying team. Megan Robins and Hannah Becker were both two-year All-Conference players who graduated last spring. Heidi Dobbs was also lost to graduation and Shelly Castoini opted not to play this season. However, the second-year coach does still have some pieces in place. Tatumn Laughery was a standout All-Conference player as a junior centerfielder. This year, her athleticism and experience have moved her to shortstop. Fil...
WALLA WALLA – Part of the dream for many junior college baseball players is to earn an opportunity to play high-level amateur baseball in the summers in a league such as the West Coast League. For three Walla Walla Community College Warrior players that dream became reality on Jan. 25 when Walla Walla’s own hometown Sweets signed pitchers Brayden Hirai and Michael Peterson, along with outfielder Brandon Wagstaff. In the case of the two pitchers, they both return for a second season with the Swe...
ASOTIN – The AAU BirdDogs ended their season in a back-and-forth win-loss series at the Asotin Hardwood Classic Tournament last weekend. The Dayton-Waitsburg team got off to a good start to win their first game against the Clearwater Valley Rams 46-21 before losing to Kamiah 26-42. They were back in the contest with a 39-26 second win against the Rams in the semifinal game. They ultimately lost the championship game 33-46 to Kamiah, to take second place in the tournament. Monte Pettichord r...
DAYTON/WAITSBURG – Typically, in early March, people associated with Spring sports find themselves either complaining about, or at the very least, verbally expressing their desire for warmer spring weather. But this year is more extreme than usual. Thus far, practices have been held in the indoor temperatures of gyms and multi-purpose rooms. Track and softball facilities at Dayton High School, the baseball facility in Waitsburg and the Touchet Valley Golf Course are still covered by 6-8 inches of snow. “We are utilizing indoor facilities whi...
A column by Rob Holtzinger The pair of August days Billy and I had waded the Touchet River in old tennis shoes, starting by the baseball-softball fields of Dayton High School and exiting the stream just before the Main Street bridge, seems more like a couple months passed, than the half year of days gone by. Fond of walking down the gravel bar in the middle of the river, ankle deep, Billy, my twelve-year-old son and I, cast to the deeper water, ironically right off the bank, holes swirl two to t...
A column by Eric Umphrey This is part four in a series of articles introducing the new statistics that baseball announcers are using in broadcasts. Today's statistic is Ultimate Zone Rating which is used to measure a players defensive skill. UZR only started being recorded in 2002 so we don't have data before then. This statistic is provided by a company called Sports Info Solutions. They actually hire people to watch every defensive play in baseball and give it a rating. It looks to pay fairly...
BEND, Ore. - Instead of wintering somewhere warm, 16-year-old Waitsburg resident Amy Farley spends her winters based in Wenatchee where she competes competitively with the Mission Ridge Ski Team. Farley has been racing competitively since age 8, when she joined the Bluewood Alpine Race Team. These days, she spends November through April, living with friends in Wenatchee while taking Walla Walla Community Courses online and hitting the slopes in between. "I like that it's an individual sport and...
This is part three of a series of articles I’m writing to introduce some of the newer statistics announcers are using in baseball broadcasts. Last time I covered BsR. This time I’m going to explain wOBA. It’s pronounced (whoa-bah) and it stands for weighted on base average. Weighted run average might have been a better description since it assigns run values to events based on the number of runs that event produced. An example might make this clearer. In 2018, the average number of runs that...
TACOMA, Wash. – Dayton Bulldog wrestler Carlos Norris found himself bypassing regionals and heading directly to state competition when snowstorms across the state made roads unsafe and resulted in the WIAA canceling the regional elimination round of wrestling competitions. Instead, the WIAA added an additional round to the finals at the Mat Classic XXXI wrestling tournament at the Tacoma Dome on Feb. 15 and Feb. 16. Norris, a junior, competed at state last year where he took fourth place in the...
COLFAX, Wash. – After being forced into the Southeast 1B playoffs loser bracket with a 57-45 loss against Oakesdale on Feb. 9, the Prescott Tigers boys basketball team extended district play with a 66-44 win over Pomeroy on Thurs. Feb. 14. The Pirates looked hot at the bell, dunking two treys in the first minutes of the game. Prescott quickly retaliated, ending the first half with a 27-23 lead. The Tigers continued to play hot and ended the game with a 68-44 win. Jose Gonzalez scored a game h...
This is part two of a series of articles I’m writing to introduce some of the newer statistics announcers are using in broadcasts. Last time I covered Park Factor and how it affects hitters. This time I’m going to discuss BsR. BsR is a base running statistic created by Fangraphs. I’ll get the formula out of way and then breakdown the components. BsR = wSB + UBR + wGDP wSB stands for weighted stolen bases. It estimates the number of runs a player contributed to or took away from his team by st...
Special to The Times by Brad Trumbo WALLA WALLA – Pheasants Forever is known as "the habitat organization," and the Walla Walla Chapter, Blue Mountain Pheasants Forever, upholds the mission. Make that two missions. Habitat enhancement and youth involvement in the outdoors are the two primary focuses and programs for the Chapter. In 2018, the Chapter maintained its staple projects to include an 88-acre grassland restoration site near Touchet, and a shrub-steppe restoration site just north of W...
SEATTLE, Wash. – If you’ve been following the MLB baseball hot stove you’ve probably noticed how busy the Mariners have been. General Manager Jerry Dipoto has been having a fire sale and everything must go. Over $200 million in guaranteed salaries have already been moved. The contracts that have come back in trade are expiring either in 2019 or 2020. In 2021 the bulk of that money is going to two players: Kyle Seager and newly acquired pitcher Yusei Kikuchi. Per Cots baseball contracts here...
OAKESDALE - The Prescott Tigers boys' basketball team dropped their first game in the district playoffs to Oakesdale, 45-57 on Monday night in spite of being tied 25-25 at halftime. Prescott's Jonathan Cardenas brought in 17 points for Prescott. The game pushed the Tigers into the losers bracket where they will play a loser-out game against the Pomeroy Pirates in Colfax on Wed., Feb. 13....
COLTON – The Prescott Tigers are playoff-bound following a 66-47 win against Colton here on Feb. 2. Prescott took control of this game early on with a great first half by Jose Gonzalez and Jonathan Cardenas who combined for 25 points. The game tightened in the 3rd quarter when Jon Bean cut the lead to seven at 44-51 with 4:33 left in the quarter. The score would get no closer and a big fourth quarter by Fernando Lopez put the game out of reach with a 14 point outburst. After the game, I spoke w...
DAYTON – The DW girls were overpowered by DeSales 46-21 at a Senior Night home game on Jan. 29. The game ended DW's season 1-12 in league and 2-18, overall. "The DW girls had a fantastic first half of play against DeSales. We took care of the ball fairly well, played tough defense and were only down 5 at the break. During the first minutes of the third quarter we gave up the ball several times allowing the Irish some easy lay-ins. We started chasing and trying to play catch-up instead of r...
DAYTON – DeSales defeated DW 55-25 in an EWAC home game that ended the season for DW. Dayton-Waitsburg had a tough season, wrapping up 0-14 in league and 0-21 overall. Absolutely nothing was falling for either team in the first quarter. The score was 4-2 for much of the first quarter despite both teams taking plenty of shots. Chris Andrews scored 20, including a nice three- pointer at the buzzer making his final shot of his senior year. Highlights – #24 Josiah White with a layup in the 2nd qua...
Spring Training starts February 21st so the start of the MLB baseball season isn't that far away. I thought I'd take the time before the start of the regular season to explain, with a series of articles, some of the more modern statistics that announcers are using more frequently in broadcasts. I will introduce formulas when they are simple and I'll try keep them as easy to understand as possible. So let's get started with the stat called Park Factor. Park Factor or PF is a measure to determine...
LEWISTON, Ida. – The BirdDogs boys AAU middle school basketball team participated in the state qualifier Battle Classic Tournament in Lewiston Idaho, last weekend, but failed to place. The BirdDogs took a hard hit on game one against Othello, falling 67-9. Monte Pettichord scored three points with Benny Bryan, Braden Mings and Jesse Ray Mings scoring two each. The BirdDogs played Lapwai in game two, falling 51-21. Pettichord, Braden Mings and Jesse Ray Mings each pulled in six point. Ryland K...
PRESCOTT – This Jan. 25 home conference match was a very enjoyable game to watch. Prescott fell behind early and a Jace Gwinn layup in the third looked to put the game out of reach for Prescott but they came roaring back in the third quarter with a series of three pointers to cut into the lead. In the 4th quarter Prescott came all the way back on a three pointer from Jonathan Cardenas tying the game at 55-55 late in the 4th quarter. In the end on back to back possessions the three pointers j...
WAITSBURG – Falling behind by ten points in the first quarter proved to be too big of a lead to overcome for the DW Varsity boys in a Jan. 22 home, non-conference game against the Touchet Indians. DW played well for the final three quarters but came up short. Highlights – #2 Chris Andrews opened the scoring for DW with a drive in the lane for the layup. #32 Tayven Seney sinks both his free throws to open the 2nd quarter. #20 Brayden Miller hits a nice jumper. #14 Damian Johnson steals the bal...
DAYTON – DW had control of the Jan. 22 non-conference home game against Touchet until late in the third quarter when DW seemed to be stuck at 26 points and shot-after-shot wouldn't fall for them. Even when they fell behind in the fourth quarter the game was still in reach but, DW couldn't score on their last few possessions. Highlights – #21 Mackena Culley opens the scoring with a free throw. #14 Kira Boggs steals the ball and takes it all the way for the layup. #50 Mackenzie Forney makes a sho...
