By Rick McCorkle for Blast Zone Media / blastzonenews@gmail.com

NWAC Sports / College Signings

A two-time top-three state placer in basketball, along with a hoopster who reached the 1,000-point club and a highly-ranked player by Baseball Northwest are among the latest student-athletes to ink letters of intent to play sports at Lower Columbia College.

R.A. Long guard Landon Irwin has agreed to play men's basketball with the Red Devils, and guard Lainey Dean of Toutle Lake will join the LCC women's basketball team.

The defending NWAC champion baseball team has added several new pieces for next year. Included in that crop is pitcher Arlo Copony from Portland's Cleveland High, and first baseman Spencer Gillespie of North Kitsap High in Poulsbo.

And the NWAC runner-up LCC softball team has added pitchers Lynzee Reid of Port Angeles, and Charlie Naylor from Pocatello, Idaho.

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By Rick McCorkle for Blast Zone Media / blastzonenews@gmail.com

NWAC Sports / College Signings

A two-time state champion softball player, along with talented women's soccer, volleyball and baseball players have inked letters of intent to bring their talents to Lower Columbia College beginning this fall.

Pitcher Grace Gooding of Montesano will be coming to Longview in an effort to help get the Red Devils back to the NWAC title game for a third (and maybe a fourth) straight season.

Midfielder Ashley Hermenegildo of Shelton will roster with the LCC women's soccer team in the fall.

Meanwhile, middle blockers Kennedy Purvis of Napavine and Lauretta Taylor of Ogden, Utah, are set to bring their size to the Lower Columbia volleyball team at Myklebust Gymnasium.

And catcher Joe Giles of Curtis High in University Place south of Tacoma, along with lefty pitcher Aiden Jones of Arlington, Wash., will compete with the NWAC champion Red Devils baseball team.

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By Rick McCorkle for Blast Zone Media / blastzonenews@gmail.com

NWAC Sports / College Signings

All-league student-athletes from around the greater Blast Zone area have always had a tendency to gravitate to Lower Columbia College, and this year is no different.

A pair of all-leaguers in women's soccer, volleyball and baseball have all agreed to bring their talents and have inked letters of intent to attend classes beginning this fall.

In women’s sports, joining LCC soccer are Delanie Zueger of R.A. Long and Ada Labowitz of Peninsula High in Gig Harbor. The LCC volleyball team will be adding Kendal Dean of Toutle Lake. And the NWAC runner-up Red Devils of the softball diamond will have Keegan Castro of Hazen High of Renton in the mix for the redemption tour.

And in men’s athletics, the NWAC champion LCC baseball team has added Bradley Dinelt of Curtis of University Place, along with Liam Rhoads of Kennedy Catholic in Burien.

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By Rick McCorkle for Blast Zone Media / blastzonenews@gmail.com

NWAC Sports / College Signings

An MVP in baseball, along with two all-league players in softball and a pair in volleyball are among the latest letter of intent signees to join the athletic program at Lower Columbia College.

In baseball news, Deker Bartell of Mark Morris and Aberdeen's Aidan Baker have agreed to join the newly-crowned NWAC Champion Red Devils.

On the softball diamond, Kelso's Brooke Hefley and Raelynn Brown from Bishop Gorman in Las Vegas will join the perennial NWAC title contending LCC team.

And on the volleyball court, Anika Plowman of Rainier, Wash., and Belle Priebe of Logan, Utah have signed up to join the Red Devils at Myklebust Gymnasium in the fall.

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By Same Barbee special to BlastZoneMedia.com / blastzonenews@gmail.com

NWAC Baseball / Commentary

STORY FIELD — It must be really hard to practice with all those years of winning staring at you.

That green set of stands for the fans down the left field line, built not for a Red Devils game but for a tournament of 12-year-old All-Stars, didn’t always have those years of wear upon it. In fact, the long row of pennants that adorn its upper most facade used to all be on the outside of the stadium, but the new nursing building got in the way of the view. So the powers that be moved them to a more conspicuous location for the players.

They always loom. And they’re big. The white of the numbers catches your eye.

And you move down. Year after year. Decade after decade. Thinking about how different the world was in 1969. Then from 1970 through 2025, Lower Columbia College claimed 15 Conference titles. Some were before the two states merged their community college athletic associations, but most are after the merger to create the NWAC(C). And since the ‘90s it hasn’t been close.

Winning championships is part of the recruiting pitch to bring college baseball players to Longview. But you don’t really have to say it out loud. Your goal can also be your villain. Yeah, you’re gonna be expecting to win. But you’re also expected to win.

Forget about the polls (Yes, the rankings that had the Red Devils ranked No. 1 coming into the season, and then again before the tournament.). Everyone knows LCC is good. I’m sure them topping the preseason poll generated all kinds of opinions. I bet is was a really fun group chat in several different communities, including Cowlitz County..

So when it doesn’t happen, when the Devils have to give the trophy away, what’s the response? LCC skipper Kurt Lupinski and I (full disclosure, we coach together in the summer) talked a lot about what failure and success looked like last year. A new school record for wins and other assorted accolades. And yet, they only won one game in the NWAC Tournament. Didn’t get past Saturday in the bracket. That left a whole weekend to watch other people play on their field.

With those years staring at you.

This season, this championship run, started on that Saturday one year ago. And it became a mantra. In their minds they became bison.

Stay with me.

The thinking goes that when a bison is in the path of a storm, it makes one calculation; how do I find the shortest path out of this storm? And so it figures, if you march toward it, it’ll move by quicker. Now you’re covering some distance, and the worst of the weather is also moving toward the group, so the skies will clear quicker and everyone will come out the other end together.

A cow, on the other hand, runs from the storm. It’s scared, so it tries to get away. But it can’t. In the end the herd is scattered and still out in the cold.

The end of last season was a storm. So how did third baseman Sam Davidson and the rest of the Red Devils meet it? What were they? All together now…

“We became bison,” Sam Davidson said. “We ran straight into the storm.”

And when the weather cleared in Monday those pennants were still staring back at them — welcoming a new member to the club.

Sixteen. Lower Columbia has now won 16 NWAC titles in program history. That’s the most in the conference. It’s the most for any team, and it’s not even close.

Lupinski is now responsible for hanging two of those championships on the wall. He fully understands how internal and external pressure play off each other. That one brings the other, and the other compounds on the one. It doesn’t really do anyone any good to ignore that fact. It is so.

The trick is how to channel it. How to have a healthy relationship with it. And that comes through hard work. Live up to it. Aspire to it. Fake it ‘til you make it. But you must believe you will make it. After all, every storm has a happy ending — if you can find it.

“These are just good reminders to me of really how hard it is,” Lupinski said. “Yes, we have 16. But look at how many teams have never even made the NWAC tournament or how many placed in the Top-4.”

Extraordinary results require extraordinary expectations.

Allow me to be more specific, and we’ll move on.

Lower Columbia played fantastic defensively in the tournament. But that wasn’t always so this season. They couldn’t execute a relay throw under any circumstances in the fall. Teams exploited it, which probably means aggressive sends from the third base coach and extra bases surrendered by inaccurate or ill-advised throws.

Did they try to run from the storm? Or did they decided to be bison?

“Instead of dragging their blanket at practice and not working hard, they said,

‘Okay, let’s work on. Let’s drill it out.,’” Lupinski recalled. “And just those little details is what has won us so many games.”

And most memorably, the last one.

— VIDEO: LCC players dogpile on the turf at Story Field after defeating Lane 12-2 to win the NWAC Championship, Monday, May 25, at Story Field. / Video by Sam Barbee for BZM —

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By Rick McCorkle for Blast Zone Media / blastzonenews@gmail.com

NWAC Baseball / Championships Report

The sixth-ranked Lane Titans grabbed the early lead, but Lower Columbia College scored early and often as the top-ranked Red Devils pounded their way to a 12-2 victory in the title game of the Northwest Athletic Conference Championships on Monday at David Story Field.

LCC (45-11) claimed its 16th conference crown. Its previous title, also under coach Kurt Lupinski, came in 2023. Since 1947 when it was known as the Washington State Junior College Athletic Conference, LCC has made 29 conference title game appearances.

“It’s a little relief at the end of the season once you finally get the job done,” LCC’s Jaylen Kennedy said. “It’s always nice to dog pile on your home turf.”

Lane finished its season 39-18. The Titans' last championship appearance came in 2010, also against the Red Devils, which they lost 6-0. Lane's last title came in 2004, against LCC.

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Sam Barbee special to BlastZoneMedia.com / blastzonenews@gmail.com

NWAC Baseball / Commentary

STORY FIELD — When Kai Miller hit a two-run homer in the top of the second inning, Justin Fuller didn’t seem long for the ballgame.

The Lower Columbia College freshman and La Center grad was a little erratic. Lots of at-bats started with balls and turned into lengthy face-offs with lots of stress pitches.

A four-run deficit for the host Red Devils felt like a lot, especially with a quality arm in the other dugout. But he stayed with in. Stayed on it. And pitched all the way into the eighth inning, when a second homer finally sent him off the field.

Lower Columbia had another arm ready the whole game, expecting the worst, but hoping for the best.

And the best came. It just took a while to arrive.

After a strikeout to end the seventh, he was as demonstrative as you could be, full of sound and fury, but signifying everything.

Pitching coach Mike Calia asked if he was good, if he wanted to go back out. There was no question.

“I wasn’t going to let him take the ball (from me),” Fuller said postgame.

It highlighted the Red Devils’ team mentality. Head coach Kurt Lupinksi called it relentless.

That’s an idea. A concept. A feeling. So, let’s look at one specific thing.

You have to get three outs in an inning, right? And you have to throw a ball at a guy who has a stick, and if he’s good, which ideally he is, then there is a rather significant risk he might put it in a place you can’t catch it, and that’s scary.

So you work really hard to throw the ball in such a way that he can’t hit it, or that he’ll hit it somewhere you can catch it. Or, better yet, that he misses altogether. Those are called outs.

And you have to do that three times. And you can’t always guarantee that you can get the other guy to hit it where you can catch it or, ideally, miss altogether.

Three times. Nine times over.

And that’s what baseball is.

It’s imperative that when outs are presented, you take them. That requires practice. Taking grounders, Catching popups. Making throws. Over and over. So that when an out is presented, you take it.

When Lower Columbia got extra outs to work with, it pounced.

When Everett got extra outs, it got back-picked.

Let me explain.

Chase Halvorson was really good on the hill for Everett the first time through the order. His confidence was buoyed by an early 4-0 lead.

Sam Davidson singled to start the second time through the order for LCC in the third inning, but then Karsten Hansen hits a tailor-made double play ball. Second baseman gets there in time. Backhanded flip to second.

But the transfer is too fast. Ball not quite in the glove. It bounces away. Davidson should be out, but is safe. That’s an out evaporated. Hansen is obviously safe at first, maybe could’ve been an out. Now you have to get 20 more outs and you lost out on the possibility of a double play.

So what should have been a three-out inning becomes a four-out inning. And LCC is now seeing Halvorson a second time. Then Jaylen Kennedy comes up and hits a double. Hard into the right-center gap. Davidson scored easily. The relay throw to the plate was perfect. And Hansen was called out, but later ruled safe after review.

You miss an out, you give up two runs. Baseball collects its debits — now or later.

Then James Coté grounded out with two outs. Hit it right at the shortstop. Throw is wide. Throw is in-between, first baseman tries to turn the short hop into a long hop.

Can’t. Another probable out — gone.

Now you have to get five outs. You’ve already gotten three. But you missed one, and now two, and now two more runners are on. Martyn Hernandez hit the next pitch into the right field corner. Two runs scored easily.

Tie game.

LCC was given two extra outs and scored four runs. The game is unforgiving in regard to mistakes.

Now it’s Everett’s turn.

It’s late in the game. Everett has already singled and been back-picked (we’ll talk about that later). Popup on the infield. We learned later that the ball got a chunk taken out of it and was both sky-high and dancing around all over the place from its irregularity — because Hernandez dropped it.

That’s a precious out wasted, missed. One of those bad breaks everyone wants to desperately avoid.

Then LCC closer Matthew Kosderka gets a flail at a slider in the dirt for strike three but Kennedy can’t glove it behind the dish. It gets to the screen. Runner gets to first. Another missed out. A five-out inning in progress.

And then Everett turns the lineup over.

See, this is where LCC exploited the extra outs on offense. Can LCC account for the extra outs on defense?

Kosderka threw four pitches. Three were strikes. Kennedy caught the last one. Ballgame.

So when people say they capitalized, this is what they mean. With a 6-5 win at the end of the day, LCC earned at least nine more innings this season. Meanwhile, Everett ran out of both outs and innings left to play.

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Sam Barbee special to BlastZoneMedia.com / blastzonenews@gmail.com

NWAC Baseball / Commentary

STORY FIELD — After LCC won on Friday night, a come-from-behind 7-4 victory over Spokane, I jokingly told the coaching staff to stop making it so hard on themselves, to have an easy one.

Just one time. Go ahead. Make it easy on yourselves.

And for a while on Saturday it looked like they might.

Wenatchee Valley kicked the ball around some, threw the ball around some more, and didn’t throw enough strikes, and LCC turned that into a five-run fifth inning with just one hit, a leadoff single from Sam Davidson.

The Knights needed four pitchers to get three outs and surrendered five runs. Lots of numbers, none of them good. At least for WV.

LCC went to the ninth up 11-4, just three outs away from one of those easy, chill, relaxing final site wins that feels like a confirmation but is not a quite a coronation.

But then the ninth inning happened.

Harlan Rowe got the final inning on the hump for the Devils after reliever Lincoln Berg allowed a homer. Giving up dingers is bad, true, but otherwise Berg was stellar, and that came after starter Graham Learing scattered a pair of runs over the initial six frames.

But Rowe allowed six baserunners (three hits, three walks), got one out and surrendered five runs (four earned), and Brandon Bowyer had to come slam the door, which he did in emphatic fashion with a pair of high-velocity strikeouts.

And here’s the thing about bullpen decisions: They’re really hard.

Planning pitching is really difficult. It’s so volatile. The range of potential outcomes is a chasm. So all your plans are made to eliminate as many variables as possible, knowing most variables are entirely uncontrollable.

And then sometimes the game situation changes so rapidly that the whole set of variables to control changes. I really hate griping about who pitches when, and in what spot, or for how long.

Because there are plenty of opinions about who pitched when, and in what spot, and for how long. And then there are valid reasons to answer all those questions — but they are generally only communicated between coaches via bullpen phone and facial gestures..

From LCC’s perspective, they won the game. Which is the most important thing. And they have La Center’s Justin Fuller, and his heavy fast ball, going Sunday in another loser-out game.

But they’ll play Everett, which is a squad that can — and probably will — hit homers. On a related note, LCC’s one problem recently has been allowing the long ball. Which is a crazy thing to say if you’ve been reading around these parts for any time at all.

Let’s get along to the the things I liked, and the other things I didn’t on Day 3 of the NWAC Championships in Longview.

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Sam Barbee for BlastZoneMedia.com / blastzonenews@gmail.com

NWAC Baseball / Commentary

STORY FIELD — Now we’re getting to the fun part.

We can start to see the light at the end of the tunnel. It nears.

Two teams – Pierce and Spokane – have been eliminated. Down to six. Only Everett and Lane have not lost, meaning everyone else (Lower Columbia, Edmonds, Linn-Benton and Wenatchee Valley) are all on the chopping block.

If the stakes were high before, they’ll be monumental now.

And that’s the fun of playoff baseball. It’s why you grind so hard through the fall and winter and why those weekend site-splitting doubleheaders are so worth it.

For this.

For every pitch mattering. For every base taken getting you one step closer. For every strike and out shortening your opponents path.

Now is when the fun starts.

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Sam Barbee special to Blast Zone Media / blastzonenews@gmail.com

NWAC Softball / Commentary

PORTLAND — It seems like every year I’m tempted to write about the nature of failure, what constitutes it, how success and failure are often connected and related and not so different from each other.

But I don’t want to do that here. I don’t want to retread old ground.

Instead, with the NWAC Baseball Championship in full swing at Story Field in Longview, let’s talk about vibes. Vibes are everything. Vibes are like 70 percent of the operation. Bad vibes are a momentum killer. Good vibes are a tail wind.

Mt. Hood hit five homers in its 11-3 win over LCC in the championship opener to force an if needed game. And the vibes are bad in LCC’s dugout. Lots of emotion. I can probably approximate some of them for you; Letting people down, feeling it slip away, more than a little frustration.

We’ve all been there.

And I was curious going for a walk between games how LCC would respond. You don’t win as frequently as the Red Devils without behind able to bounce back. Earlier this year, after it’s year-long winning streak ended, the Red Devils won the next game and talked about how, actually, it was nice to not have to worry about it anymore.

But Sunday felt a little different.

We’ll talk about the stakes in a bit, but it felt like they became suddenly burdensome. Heavy. You got the feeling that one team was running out of gas, and the other was just getting started.

It was unusual because LCC is generally the team that is champing at the bit, that is, as the former New York Giant Lawrence Taylor once said, like “a pack of wild dogs.”

That’s right, the Saints from Mt. Hood had the vibes on championship Sunday. All LCC could do was desperately trying to summon them, but instead it may have been the specter of failure and unmet expectations that made an appearance. Hard to say. I wasn’t in the dugout.

But the vibes mattered, even if you don’t believe in ghosts.

Things I Liked

Sadie Guyette!

Not long for this league is she. Nobody to ever play college softball has had more RBIs in a season that Guyette.

Guyette knocked in 136 runs this season in 55 games. She hit.584 (104-for-178) with 26 doubles and 27 homers. She had two nine RBI games. She went hitless just three times, but with some 0-for-0s because nobody wanted to pitch to her.

And for good reason. When she gets what she’s looking for, she doesn’t miss. The ball comes off the bat crazy.

And like, I totally get not wanting any part of that. But even when teams try to avoid Guyette — she finds a way to make them pay.

In Sunday’s championship doubleheader, Guyette wen 3-for-4 across the two games with five runs, a double, a homer, an RBI and four walks.

In fact, LCC was so interested in avoiding her they intentionally walked her in the first inning of Sunday’s opener, and, because it’s really hard to intentionally throw a ball in the other batter’s box, it resulted in two wild pitches, the second of which let in a run.

Greg Maddux once said of Barry Bonds that he was the easiest guy to pitch to because if it mattered at all you just walked him. And Guyette is certainly on that level in the NWAC.

If Games!

If games are what doubleheaders aspire to be.

When doubleheaders are wee lads running around the backyard, they want to be If Games when they grow up. They have a poster of If Game on their bedroom wall and fall asleep looking at it.

You can’t do better than an if game.

I mean, if you’re the team that lost to force it you might feel differently. But as a third party?

Oh. Oh. There’s just something about the stakes. There is no more next game, no next day. The mantra that powers these people of the diamond is gone. You have to do it now. No more safety net. No more time to think. The end of the line.

You can feel the emotion. You can feel the “Oh my, we’re about to do this.” And you can feel the “It’s getting away from us.” It’s all so clear, so tangible. You can tell who’s been playing with that kind of urgency all season, versus who is trying to turn it on at the end.

The teams that win are the teams that play every game with these stakes set and understood internally. Every pitch matters that way. Every game matters that way. Every rep at every practice matters that way. And it’s borne out in the results.

That isn’t to say that because Mt. Hood won on Sunday that LCC didn’t have the required urgency. I don’t believe that. You don’t go 47-6 or whatever and play for a consecutive NWAC titles without it.

But as Mt. Hood kept firing off homers in Game 1, and after the Saints rallied to flip the game in Game 2, you could feel an unfamiliar sentiment creeping in the Red Devils dugout.

“Oh no, there it goes…”

It’s a human thing.

Having Fun!

Mt. Hood had an absolute blast playing these games. I imagine they have that much fun all the time.

After every out, each player had a unique way to signaling to each other whether there were none, one or two outs. A couple times the second baseman had to go really fast to make sure she got all of them in before the next pitch. The right fielder had the same problem. It looked fun.

The Saints also had a giant banana they would hold during defensive innings. And a player wore a fun hat while warming up the left fielder from the third base dugout.

The reminder that this is just a game was pretty cool, especially considering the stakes we talked about.

Bunts!

The game is more fun when runs don’t come easily.

I’m on the record saying this. I’m not anti-homer. But I think they’re kinda boring. Maybe I feel this way because I couldn’t (still can’t) hit them and so I’m biased.

Ça va. So it goes.

But LCC and Mt. Hood both clearly felt like runs would be at a premium. The Red Devils tried a first-and-third steal play in Game 1. It didn’t work, but set the tone for the rest of the day — small ball was in the park.

There were lots of great bunts in Game 2, especially in the second half of the contest where things really tightened up.

I’m a big fan of making the other team play defense, even as I understand the logic of homers. I get that they can’t catch it if you hit it over the fence. It makes sense. I get the emotion, I get how hard it is, all that.

But I want to make the other team use their gloves. I want them to catch the ball, throw the ball, catch the ball. The law of averages dictates that eventually they’ll screw it up. And when they do — that’s when you pounce. LCC did that, but they couldn’t quite pounce hard enough and came up just short in the end.

Ah, well, nevertheless.

Things I didn’t like

Having fun?

There exists a line in having fun. We used to call in sportsmanship, but that ship seems to have sailed.

Maybe it’s just pushed off from the dock and it seems like we can run back on, but the boat is bigger than you think, making the distances greater than they appear, making the speed more impactful and it’s momentum effectively unstoppable — and so, there’s nothing we can do.

There comes a time where we have to wonder if it’s gotten a bit, how do you say, too much?

Mt. Hood got a strikeout to end an inning. Okay cool. Dugout empties to greet the team as they come off the field. Fair play.

But they also have a celebratory chair and the Saint slam it down in (or at least close to) fair territory and the pitcher takes a seat until action is set to resume. This is where they’e lost me and the proverbial shark seems to have been jumped.

Sure, we say “Throw them a chair!”, right? Meaning: Sit ‘em down. Send ‘em back in. Punch them out, etc…

But the physical manifestation of a chair on the field is, in my left-handed opinion, bad form.

So we’re having fun. Cool. Having fun isn’t justification in and of itself. Things have constraints. They have to. That’s what rules, written and unwritten, exist to do. They have to keep things within an acceptable bounds.

If you run out of the baseline, you’re out. If you get in the way of somebody, they get an extra base. These rules keep people from making a mockery of the operation.

We have to get back to some kind of behavioral middle ground. It’s perfectly cool to celebrate a good thing. But there has to be a limit. There has to be a constraint.

And it’s on the adults. Which isn’t fun, but it’s the right thing do.

Temporary Fences?

Delta Park does a really good job of putting on this tournament. This is not meant to be a criticism of the park or the City of Portland.

But temporary fences stink. I wish I could use a stronger word, but we have constraints (see how that works?) to keep things in acceptable bounds around here.

First of all, they seemed pretty short. Line drives in the gap turned into homers. A homer should be a nuke, a shot, a bomb, that goes very far. Off the bat you think “no chance they catch that one!” It’s loud. It sounds different. It pulls you from your brief distraction or day dream by the sound and the sudden gasp of the crowd tells you all you need to know.

The baseball tournament has this thanks to the big yard at David Story Field with the (mostly) real wood bats. But there were some balls that didn’t feel like homers off the bat that left the yard at Delta Park, and several times the temp fences did something weird — which is a part of its very nature.

At one point Lower Columbia dropped a homer over the fence on a ball that felt like a routine fly out. Maybe it should’ve been, but it shouldn’t have been a homer. Later, both an LCC and a Mt. Hood outfielder tripped over the temporary fence and fell down while tracking batted balls.

Maybe we should communicate more in the outfield. But maybe we have something better, or maybe we move the walls away from home plate some. These are developed athletes, capable of hitting the ball relatively far. I mean, Mt. Hood’s slap hitter hit a backside homer! That’s weird!

At least the porta-potties were emptied.

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About The Author: Sam Barbee is a freelance sports reporter and a former member of The Daily News sports desk. Barbee, was once a southpaw pitcher for the R.A. Long Lumberjacks, is now an assistant baseball coach with Heritage High School in the spring and JBD Athletics in the summer.

In Case You Missed It

Sam Barbee special to Blast Zone Media / blastzonenews@gmail.com

NWAC Baseball / Commentary

STORY FIELD — This might be my favorite weekend of the year. No, scratch that. It is. The baseball is so good. And it’s been even better this year.

The baseball is never bad. It’s college ball. The pitchers throw hard, the fielders are athletic and smooth, the swings are tight and powerful, the strategy is always well-thought out and the energy is always high.

But it’s risen a level this year. And I think I know why. It’s taken some time for it to trickle down, but I think we’re seeing it now.

It’s the transfer portal. It’s the NIL money at the highest level.

So you’re a Division I college program. You have an opening for a third baseman and you need a pitcher. Are you gonna go find a high schooler that might not be ready right away, that you’d have to develop and train and feed and work him through the transition of being away from home and now having to take college classes?

Or are you gonna go find a 22-year-old who’s already been there, done that and can contribute immediately?

The answer is B. The answer is always B. There’s a lesson in there.

So you’re a high schooler now. You’re good. What looks more attractive as an option right away? Go to a D1 and sit? Or go to a two-year and play?

You already know the answer.

I remember talking to former LCC skipper Eric Lane about this when the paradigm began to change. We mostly talked about guys getting extra years and how that would affect his sophomores. But the corollary to that note is this point: — the levels are stratifying in terms of how old the players are.

Community college is becoming a much more attractive level for 18-year-

olds who are eager for a chance to prove themselves.

And, again, that’s not to say that there haven’t been good players “down here” before. Back when the MLB draft was this time of year guys would regularly sign their pro contracts in the parking lot before getting on the bus after their team was eliminated.

But there still existed this stigma of CC ball. Guys would hold out looking for that elusive four-year offer that never came, thinking they were too good for a community college.

But go watch a random D1 game. They’re all streamed now. Pick a random game and pull up the rosters. Chances are there is at least one guy on each team who transferred from a two-year. And a smaller, but still not insignificant chance, that there’s an NWAC guy on at least one team.

That tells you plenty.

Things I liked

Technology!

In the year of our Lord 2026 it’s an expectation that things are recorded visually and live on the internet. Sure, we can argue the benefits or drawbacks until we can no longer breathe. But there’s no sweeping in that tide at this point.

Such is life.

So we’re gonna do it, and since we are, surely we can gussy it up a bit.

And the NWAC has. At least at the baseball tournament.

If you’ve been watching closely (and I hope you have, because, again, it’s awesome baseball), you might’ve seen not only a score bug at the bottom righthand corner of the screen, but also a little guide up in the top right that tells you who’s pitching, who’s batting (with a number to indicate where they’re hitting!) and, intermittently, pitch type, velocity and location(!).

It did think that change-ups and sometimes curveballs were fastballs, but so it goes. You can’t have everything and be right all the time.

Cool, though. This is good technology that’s getting better.

Upsets!

I’m not sure where to put this. Do I put it in “Things I like” because I’m ostensibly a local guy (More on LCC later…), or do I put it in “Things I don’t like” because I know some Beaks players?

We’ll put it here, because I like upsets — a lot.

It was a weird game for the Roadrunners in their return to Story Field. Linn-Benton played uncharacteristically sloppily, got thrown out at third and at the plate to end two different innings, and still nearly came back to win.

And I don’t want to leave out Wenatchee Valley. Drawing the two-time defending champs in the first round after having to come through the Super and not backing down is really cool. Valley even managed a response after Bryant Starr hit a homer in the bottom of the first. First tournament win since 2006. Pretty meaningful. Pretty cool.

The Powah!

I always see how long it takes for someone to run it out of Story Field. It’s always a while. It’s usually well into the weekend before someone catches it right on the barrel and sends it to the right spot and the weather has to be perfect and the wind has to cooperate and the pitcher probably has to be throwing pretty hard, etc., etc.

Not yesterday!

It was hot Thursday. Temperature got beyond comfortably into the 80s. Got a little sweaty, actually. And the tournament’s first game saw a homer with Everett’s Davis Downer taking the honors by putting one onto the roof of the little shed right next to the big barn.

Because they’re using the Trackman this weekend, the LCC coaching staff got to settle a longstanding open question: How far is the shed from home plate? Turns out, about 378 feet. And we owe our thanks for that newfound bit of knowledge to Downer.

Then Bryant Starr ran one out just into the party deck (Party Deck? Is it capitalized? Editor’s Note: Yes. But, is it still a party?) in the day’s very next contest. That was the first round-tripper of his life, according to a couple teammates. So that’s cool.

Then Lane hit two out in its 12-2 rout of Spokane in Game 3. Peyton Tyner went big boy big fly left-on-left into the parking lot in right field. It hit the concrete, and we know that because you see how high the bounce was. Then, later, Nolan Donavin sent one into the setting sun to provide insult to injury.

And, finally, Dylan Jacobs of Edmonds asked his grandmother to get out the rye bread and mustard by sending one midway up the trees in left field in an after dark special against the hometown Red Devils.

In addition, there have been 13 doubles already. Lane had 15 hits. Everett had 14. The offense is usually pretty quiet and requires teams to squeeze runs out of the towel.

Not Thursday.

Edmonds Dugout!

If you want to see a bunch of young folks having the time of their lives, stand close to a good team’s dugout during a game. It’s amazing.

There’s a conversation inside baseball about behavior. We saw some of thatin the softball tournament, and it’s a real thing.

I appreciate the restraint that’s been shown so far by the participants at Story Field. Teams are loud and more than a little annoying, but that’s how it’s supposed to be.

It’s supposed to be constant. That’s why it’s annoying. Ceaseless. Never ending. An uninterrupted slew of voices. It wears on you. It doesn’t have to be malicious.

And it’s so much fun. I love it.

Real Wood Bats!

I have another theory for why we’ve seen more offense so far. The weather could be one factor. The quality of player could be another. But could there be more?

I don’t think so much of myself as to believe my columns make it everywhere. I’d like to think so, but I’m realistic. I work for a pokey little outlet in a saturated market. And people don’t tend to read so much anymore these days.

But, last year I lamented the lack of wood bats in an ostensibly wood bat league. They were “unbreakable” metal-lined composite bats.

This year, however, I’m seeing a lot more actual wood bats.

They sound like wood bats. They behave like wood bats. When you catch it on a wooden barrel, it goes. You can backspin it, as evidenced by Thursday’s offensive surge.

Not everyone has switched over. Some still stick with the other ones. But I like the developing trend back to the basics.

Things I Didn’t Like

It took a while to get my hot dog but I mistimed it. So, it’s my fault. I disliked nothing.

Except… Edmonds uniforms

I was standing next to a guy who does graphic design for a living and when Edmonds was being announced we couldn’t believe what we were seeing.

Little. Tiny. Numbers. Microscopic.

The Tritons have some big dudes. Very large humans. And the numbers look comically small on their backs. You can’t read them from a distance. The point of uniforms is to make things clear from a distance.

The very fact that uniforms have numbers on them is so fans could know where guys batted. That’s why single-digit numbers on pitchers is always remarked upon by

announcers. The lowest number a pitcher could have in the original incarnation of jersey numbers was 10. Then the Yankees didn’t want to hand a few back out because of obvious reasons, and so guys started wearing numbers based on choice.

But all that is moot if you can’t read them. I just know they pulled them from the box and sighed. A decision was made by someone for reasons I’m sure they thought were good ones, and now I’m writing about them.

Interminability

I used to love late nights. It’s such a good time to write. Nothing is happening except movies and highlights. Everyone you know is asleep and won’t offer distractions in whatever form they might come. There is calmness in being alone with only your keyboard and the ideas you’re trying to accurately describe.

But I’ve gotten older. I’m now called unc by the young folk, which I understand to be insulting. I’m not sure how it is, but alas, it is.

I no longer enjoy being up this late. It’s 11:13 p.m. as I write this and this baseball game is still in the eighth inning. The double-edged sword of a clock-less sport.

Remember when that World Series game went like 18 innings? I started watching that game at the office, covered a football game, came back and wrote my story and took all the calls, and watched the end of the game at a watering hole. I loved that.

I gotta get to bed. I’m old now.

(Editor’s Note: I’m even older than Sam and fell asleep reading bed time stories to my children before the game was over. Thank you for supporting our family-owned news outlet. We like local sports!)

Day 1 Scoreboard

• Everett 11, Pierce 5

• Wenatchee Valley 6, Linn-Benton 5

• Lane 12, Spokane 2

• Edmonds 4, Lower Columbia 2

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About The Author: Sam Barbee is a freelance sports reporter and a former member of The Daily News sports desk. Barbee, was once a southpaw pitcher for the R.A. Long Lumberjacks, is now an assistant baseball coach with Heritage High School in the spring and JBD Athletics in the summer.

In Case You Missed It

By Rick McCorkle for Blast Zone Media / blastzonenews@gmail.com

After finishing the regular-season as one of two teams in the Northwest Athletic Conference with at least 40 victories, the top-ranked Lower Columbia College Red Devils are striving to return to the title game of the NWAC Baseball Championships and claim their first title since 2023.

The double-elimination tournament, which begins Thursday on David Story Field at LCC, features the top eight teams from around the conference including defending champion Linn-Benton. The Red Devils open with Edmonds at 7:35 p.m. on Thursday.

Pierce and Everett kick-off the tournament at 9:35 a.m. Thursday, followed by Wenatchee Valley and Linn-Benton at 12:35 p.m., and Lane meeting Spokane at 4:35 p.m.

The tournament continues through the championship game at noon Monday.
LCC (40-10) won the West Region, finishing six games ahead of runner-up Pierce.

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By Rick McCorkle for Blast Zone Media / blastzonenews@gmail.com

NWAC Softball / Reports

PORTLAND — Too many baserunners stranded, along with too many strikeouts in key situations spelled disaster for the Lower Columbia College Red Devils, who were unable to defend their title at the NWAC Softball Championships which concluded Sunday at Delta Park in Portland.

LCC (47-7) lost twice to Mount Hood in the double-elimination championship, falling 11-3 in the six-inning first game, and 6-5 in the penultimate title tilt.

The Red Devils reached the title games after beating Clackamas 8-0 in six innings, toppling Edmonds in five innings in the quarterfinals, and beating Mount Hood 5-4 in the semifinals.

— VIDEO: The Lower Columbia College softball team goes through pregame reps on the infield at Delta Park prior to the first game of the NWAC Championship finals, Sunday, May 17, at Delta Park in Portland. The good vibes did not last long for the Red Devils as they went on to drop both games to Mt. Hood. / Video by Sam Barbee for BZM —

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By Rick McCorkle for Blast Zone Media / blastzonenews@gmail.com

NWAC Softball / Championship Preview

After winning last year's softball conference title with a 48-0 record, the top-ranked Lower Columbia College Red Devils extended their winning streak into this season by winning the first four games.

That winning skein ended after falling to Everett 4-3. Undaunted, the Red Devils won their next 38 contests before dropping a doubleheader at Mount Hood on May 5.

LCC (44-5) won the Northwest Athletic Conference South Region, and enters the NWAC Softball Championships beginning Thursday through Sunday at Delta Park in Portland. Earning an opening round bye in the double-elimination tournament, the Red Devils play Clackamas at 6:30 p.m. on Thursday.

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Rick McCorkle for BlastZoneMedia.com / blastzonenews@gmail.com

NWAC Sports / Red Devils Roundup

An extended winning streak for one team ended, while another squad had to scramble to earn a split with a divisional rival. It all happened during the past week in Lower Columbia College Athletics.

The softball team had its 38-game winning streak snapped during a trip to Gresham to face Mount Hood, while the baseball team split a pair of doubleheaders against Tacoma at David Story Field and in Tacoma.

Despite having its winning streak come to an end in softball, top-ranked LCC (44-5 overall, 29-3 in the NWAC South Region) still heads into the NWAC Championships as the South Region champion.

The Red Devils dropped both ends of the twinbill at Mount Hood 10-4 and 7-3, and split with Centralia, losing the opener 4-2, and taking the nightcap 10-2 in six innings. The last time LCC lost three games in a row was during April 29 to May 2, 2023, when it was swept by Mount Hood, and lost the opening game of a doubleheader to Centralia.

Talk about history repeating itself.

— Content below this line is reserved for paid subscribers. Thank you for helping sustain Blast Zone Media. We depend on your support in order to continue reporting on local athletics. Consider showing your support today. —

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By Rick McCorkle for Blast Zone Media / blastzonenews@gmail.com

NWAC Sports / Red Devils Roundup

A winning streak reached 38 games, another winning run comes to an end, and a third no-hitter is thrown by a sophomore pitcher. Those were the highlights from last week's play from the Lower Columbia College softball and baseball teams.

In softball, top-ranked LCC (43-2 overall, 28-0 in Northwest Athletic Conference South Region play) stretched its winning streak to 38 games after sweeping region doubleheaders against third-ranked Southwestern Oregon and Grays Harbor.

In baseball, the top-ranked Red Devils (48-8, 20-0) split a nonleague doubleheader with the Pacific University junior varsity, bringing their 23-game winning streak to an end.

Also in softball, pitcher Ava Eib twirled her third no-hitter of the season in a 14-0 pounding of Grays Harbor in five innings. But the good news ended abruptly early this week when the LCC softball team saw a towering win streak tumble for the second time this season.

— Content below this line is reserved for paid subscribers. Thank you for helping sustain Blast Zone Media. We depend on your support in order to continue reporting on local athletics. Consider showing your support today. —

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By Rick McCorkle for Blast Zone Media / blastzonenews@gmail.com

NWAC Sports / Red Devils Roundup

The wins just keep on coming for the Lower Columbia College softball and baseball teams, as both squads have combined to win an eye-popping 56 consecutive contests.

The top-ranked softball team (39-2 overall, 24-0 in NWAC South Region play) has stretched its winning streak to 34 games, while the second-ranked baseball team (37-7, 20-0) has claimed victory in its last 22 outings along with the West Region crown.

— Content below this line is reserved for paid subscribers. Thank you for helping sustain Blast Zone Media. We depend on your support in order to continue reporting on local athletics. Consider showing your support today. —

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By Rick McCorkle for Blast Zone Media / blastzonenews@gmail.com

NWAC Sports / Red Devils Roundup

Winning is something that seems to come easy for the Lower Columbia College baseball and softball teams, as the two squads have now combined to win their last 48 games.

The Northwest Athletic Conference’s top-ranked softball team has claimed its last 28 outings including s recent no-hitter by Zoey Hughes, and the baseball team has made good on its last 20 contests.

Red Devils baseball (33-7 overall, 16-0 in the NWAC West Region) dismantled Olympic College of Bremerton, turning away the Rangers 8-1 and 5-0 at David Story Field, and 13-6 and 4-1 on the road.

— Content below this line is reserved for paid subscribers. Thank you for helping sustain Blast Zone Media. We depend on your support in order to continue reporting on local athletics. Consider showing your support today. —

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By Rick McCorkle for Blast Zone Media / blastzonenews@gmail.com

NWAC Sports / Red Devils Roundup

The wins keep coming in bunches for the Lower Columbia College baseball and softball teams, who have now won a combined 40 consecutive games.

The Red Devils' softball team was on the road in Yakima last week to play four games at the NWAC Crossovers and has now claimed its last 26 straight contests. Meanwhile the LCC baseball team has been victorious in its last 14 consecutive matchups after sweeping a four-game series with Centralia College.

— Content below this line is reserved for paid subscribers. Thank you for helping sustain Blast Zone Media. We depend on your support in order to continue reporting on local athletics. Consider showing your support today. —

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By Rick McCorkle for Blast Zone Media / blastzonenews@gmail.com

NWAC Sports / Red Devils Roundup

Lower Columbia College continued on its winning ways during the past week, as the softball and baseball teams have combined to build a 32-game winning streak.

LCC’s softball team stretched its current winning streak to 22 games following doubleheader sweeps of Yakima Valley, Mount Hood and Centralia, while the Devils’ baseball team ran its winning run to 10 games following a pair of doubleheader shutouts of Grays Harbor at David Story Field and in Aberdeen.

— Content below this line is reserved for paid subscribers. Thank you for helping sustain Blast Zone Media. We depend on your support in order to continue reporting on local athletics. Consider showing your support today. —

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