The Prep Beat

The final softball leaders are in and we had nearly full participation this year.

South Kitsap’s Hannah Spohn came in as the area’s top hitter, averaging .620 during the regular season. She also led in RBIs with 26. Port Angeles’ Sarah Steinman had an ERA of 1.50 with 48 innings pitched while Katie Raben of Bainbridge pitched 70.33 innings and had an ERA of 1.69.

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South Kitsap’s Michael Wood was named co-pitcher of the year for the Narrows League. The Wolves had three first-teamers and six second-teamers.

All-Narrows League Baseball
MVP—Leo Valenti, sr., Olympia
Pitchers of the year—Michael Wood, sr., South Kitsap; Elliott Loague, sr., Olympia
Coach of the year—Todd McDougall, Olympia.
First team
Pitchers—Nick Gagliardi, sr., Gig Harbor; Harry Stenberg, jr., Bellarmine.
Catchers—Matt Gunn, jr., Stadium; Justin Polzin, so., Yelm.
Infield—Sterling Brown, jr., Gig Harbor; Michael Fairchild, sr., Olympia; George Foley, sr., Bellarmine; Garrett Gallinger, sr., Gig Harbor; Tyler Ludlow, jr., South Kitsap; Jacob Veith, jr., Stadium.’
Outfield—Nathan Heath, sr., Bellarmine; Joey Knight, sr., Olympic; Brandon Thompson, jr., Bellarmine; Michael Van Orden, jr., Stadium; Cody Wolfe, sr., South Kitsap.
Designated hitters—Tanner Paulson, jr., South Kitsap.
Utility—Haak Wagner, sr., Gig Harbor.
Second team
Pitchers—Leif Hansen, jr., Olympia; Josh Johnston, sr., South Kitsap.
Catchers—Michael Ota, sr., Bellarmine; Riley Paschal, jr., Central Kitsap.
Infield—Jesse Moore, sr., South Kitsap; Alex Morrison, sr., South Kitsap; Gabe Padukiewicz, sr., Olympia; Kevin Whatley, sr., South Kitsap.
Outfield—Alec Anderson, sr., Central Kitsap; Jake Biscay, sr., Olympia; Drew Frame, sr., Gig Harbor; Cameron Frost, sr., Olympia; Tom Simpson, sr., South Kitsap.
Designated hitter—Brandon Hamilton, jr., Stadium.
Utility—Logan Knowles, jr., South Kitsap.
Honorable mention—CK, Griffin McCormick, fr.; Chandler Manson, jr.; Bernt Onarheim, so. SK, Tyler Pinkerton, jr.; Tiler Moore, sr.

South Kitsap’s boys soccer team had to make a late push in the season just to make the playoffs.
Facing Mount Rainier on Saturday in a Class 4A West Central/Southwest District tournament game at Bethel High School, the Wolves couldn’t make up ground any longer.
Paced by Isaac Gettis’ hat trick, Mount Rainier eliminated South Kitsap from the postseason with a 4-0 victory. The Rams, who are coached by former Kitsap Pumas captain Steve Mohn, advance to face Ferris next week in the first round of state.
Gettis scored goals in the 15th and 16th minutes to help stake Mount Rainier to a 3-0 lead at halftime. His third goal came off a free kick in the 67th minute.
Gettis, who’ll play next season at UC Irvine, came into the game with three goals for the Rams (11-2-4).
“He stepped up big today,” Mohn said.
South Kitsap could not overcome what coach Cory Vartanian described as three mental mistakes in the first half that led to the there goals against.
“Games like this, can’t have ‘em,” said Vartanian, whose team finished the season at 7-6-2.
Vartanian said he was proud of his players, especially his seniors, who endured two coaching changes over the past three seasons.
Those seniors helped South Kitsap win three of its final four games to clinch a district playoff berth.
“Two weeks ago, we were in sixth,” Vartanian said. “You can’t give enough credit to the seniors.”

The latest Scoreczar.com state softball rankings have South Kitsap listed Bainbridge tops among local teams with a No. 6 ranking in the 3A classification. In 4A, South Kitsap is ranked No. 9.

Sequim is ranked No. 3 in 2A while Port Angeles is 15th. Kingston is ranked 22nd.

You can find the full rankings here.

Here is a story on South Kitsap’s softball team beating Olympia 8-7 on Wednesday to pull into a first-place tie in the Narrows League. SK owns the tiebreaker after sweeping the season series with Olympia.

Masterful job recreating the action by TNT prep guru Todd Milles, who covered the game in Port Orchard. Milles never fails to find an interesting angle.

The South Kitsap softball team moved into the seventh spot in the Class 4A weekly ScoreCzar.com Washington state rankings.

In 3A, Bainbridge is ranked seventh as well while Sequim is at No. 4 in 2A. The only other team to break into the top 20 from West Sound was Port Angeles at No. 12.

Here’s the link to this week’s rankings.

As per usual in April, there hasn’t been much softball the last week due to the rainy weather.

But that trend seems to have changed for this week as the weather is supposed to clear and be nice.

And that means softball. So here’s a breakdown of this week’s games with some meaning.

Monday—The top four teams in the Olympic League take on each other and depending on the outcomes, there could be some shuffling in the standings. Fourth-place Kingston (5-2) travels to league-leader Sequim (7-0), while second-place Port Angeles heads to Olympic (6-2) to face the third-place Trojans. All games are at 4 p.m.

Wednesday—A mid-week showdown between first-place Holy Names (8-0) and second-place Bainbridge (6-0) should be a good one as these rivals meet in Metro League Mountain Division play. These two teams usually meet to decide the ML title and do battle in SeaKing District play as well. If you’re anywhere near the island, I’d suggest catching this game to see two solid programs going head-to-head. The game starts at 4 p.m. at BHS.

In the Narrows League, the second meeting between the two 4A schools, Central Kitsap (2-3) and South Kitsap (4-0) will be at Linder Field in Silverdale. SK won the last meeting as former CK alum and current SK coach Jessica Cabato beat mentor Bruce Welling’s Cougars.

Friday—It looks like the rains might return, but if it holds off you’ll see a repeat battle between Holy Names and Bainbridge, this time at Lower Woodland Park in Seattle. Closer to home an inter-district rivalry game between North Kitsap (3-4) and Kingston is set for 4 p.m.

South Kitsap, Bainbridge and Sequim are ranked in the top 10 in the scoreczar.com softball rankings.

South (3-1) is ranked No. 7 in Class 4A, Bainbridge (7-0) is ranked sixth in 3A and Sequim (6-0) is third in 2A.

Scoreczar.com rankings go deeper than just the top 10. Central Kitsap comes in at 26th in 4A, with Port Angeles 14th in 2A and Kingston 18th.

Here’s the link to the rankings.

The South Kitsap baseball team is ranked No. 8 in the Class 4A rankings by washingtonbaseballpoll.com, which is compiled by Lem Elway.

The Wolves are the only West Sound school to be included in the first week’s rankings.

Here’s the full poll:

Class 4A

Class 3A

Class 2A

Class 1A

South Kitsap boys soccer coach Cory Vartanian will be back coaching his team Tuesday at Olympia following a two-game absence, South Kitsap athletic director Ed Santos said Monday.
Vartanian, who is in his first season with the Wolves, was not with the team during its first two games last week against Stadium and Central Kitsap.
On Monday, Santos declined to comment when asked about the reason for Vartanian’s absence.