The Prep Beat

It’s partly sunny here at the RAC in Lacey. I prefer to be positive rather than say it’s partly cloudy. Hoping to hold off the rain here.

The Bainbridge Spartans will face Metro League opponent Bishop Blanchet at 2 p.m. in a loser-out game.

The Spartans lost a tough, tough opener against University of Spokane 11-10, but came back strong in their loser-out game against Bishop Blanchet to win 10-1.

Bainbridge (23-5) will play the loser of the Holy Names-Kamiakin game, which is at 4 p.m., at 6 p.m. That game is a loser out.

And you can find them here.
South Kitsap, Bainbridge, Olympic, Sequim and Port Angeles all qualified for state.

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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Bainbridge tennis will have several athletes vying for state tournament berths as they open the Class 3A SeaKing District tournament Tuesday at Lower Woodland Courts.

In the boys singles first round, Bainbridge’s Jordan Parker plays a loser-out match against Joe McRoberts of O’Dea at 9:15 a.m.

In the boys doubles first round match, Keet Curtis and Ben DeVries take on Johnny Ochsner and Michael Schaloum of O’Dea at 10:45 a.m. Metro League champions Matt Alderson and Jacob Christensen earned a first-round bye and won’t play until 1:45 p.m.

In girls singles, Jordan Ferguson of Bainbridge takes on Interlake’s Lina Larson at 9:15 a.m. while in girls doubles Meghan Hill and Margaux Henderson of Bainbridge face Natalie Stubb and Marielle Trumbauer of Blanchet at 10:45 a.m.

The district tournament continues Wednesday.

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.

Spring break is almost over, so here is a look at some of the best games on the schedule for the week of April 8.

Monday—South Kitsap softball vs. Bellarmine Prep, 4 p.m. SK leads the Narrows League with a 4-0 record. The Wolves play two games this week. After facing the Lions on Monday, they take on Gig Harbor at home on Wednesday.

Tuesday—Bremerton baseball at Klahowya; Olympic baseball at North Kitsap, 4 p.m. These are the top four teams in the Olympic League going at it. Bremerton is undefeated in league play with a 6-0 record. North Kitsap is second at 6-2, while Klahowya and Olympic are tied for third at 5-3.

Friday—North Kitsap soccer at Olympic: The second half of the Olympic League season begins with games Monday, Wednesday and Friday. North Kitsap is atop the league standings with a 6-1-0 record (18 points). The Vikings’ only loss was to Olympic, which is in third place with a 6-1-0 record (16 points). Even though both teams have the same league record, Olympic has won two games in penalty-kick shootouts, which are only worth two points in the win column instead of three.

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.