News

Northwest Sports Update: A Ski to Sea dynasty, Vikings exit World Series, Mariners fall in key series and more

Photo courtesy of WWU Athletics Photo: Contributed


Ski to Sea News

Modern-day race legends finished Ski to Sea in first place for the fourth year in a row. Birch Equipment finished the county-wide multisport race with a collective time of 5 hours, 44 minutes on Sunday. Peak conditions at the Mt. Baker Ski Area allowed Birch to keep a lead throughout the race with speedy finishes in the first three legs.

Consistently trailing Birch Equipment was Boomer’s Drive-In and the Inn at Lynden, who finished second and third respectively for the second straight year. Olympic kayaker Jonas Ecker propelled the Nelson’s Market team to a decisive fourth place finish. In total, 360 teams completed all seven legs of the 93-mile race.

WWU Softball News

Western softball’s magical postseason run has come to an end. The Vikings fell to UT Tyler 2-0 on Sunday in the College World Series semifinals.

Western had won back-to-back elimination games the day before to reach the semis, but Tyler gave up just two hits to knock the Viks out and advance to the finals for the second straight year. Senior second baseman Connie Pitoy went 1-3 to finish her career at Western with a program record 218 hits.

The team finished the season with a 47-13 record while making its second straight trip to the College World Series.

Mariners News

The Mariners are looking to recover from a rough weekend series in their return home tonight. The M’s are hosting the Washington Nationals while still clinging to first place in the AL West.

They gave up a lot of ground over the weekend, losing three out of four games to the second-place Astros. Houston slugger Christian Walker capped the series off with a walk-off home run on Sunday to drag them within 1.5 games of Seattle.

Logan Evans is taking the mound for the M’s tonight as he’ll try to help stop a streaking Nationals team that has won six of their last eight. Coverage begins at 5:30 and first pitch is at 6:40 on KPUG.

Storm News

The Storm spoiled a former star’s homecoming to get their third straight win over the weekend. Seattle beat the Las Vegas Aces 102-82 on Sunday.

It was Jewell Loyd’s first game back in Seattle since was traded to Vegas over the offseason after requesting a trade. The former WNBA scoring leader was held to 14 points, while Nneka Ogumike led the Storm with 23 in the win. Erica Wheeler added 21 points off the bench to help Seattle improve to 3-1 on the young season.

They’re in Minnesota tonight when they’ll try to hand the Lynx their first loss of the season.

Prep Sports News

Sehome’s boys soccer team is nearing its return to the state championship. Sehome blanked Cedarcrest 2-0 on Saturday to advance to the 2A semifinals. There, the 2nd-seeded Mariners will play 3rd-seeded Columbia River at 5 pm on Friday. The match and Saturday’s championship game will both take place from Federal Way Memorial Field.

Lynden Christian’s baseball team didn’t fare as well. They had their season come to an end Saturday in an 11-6 loss to Cashmere in the opening round of the 1A tournament. Anacortes and Mount Vernon are both still alive as the top seeds in their respective tournaments. Anacortes plays Othello at Joe Martin Field on Friday night in the 2A semifinals. And Mount Vernon takes on Ballard Friday afternoon at the 3A semifinals in Yakima. Meanwhile, Lynden and Lynden Christian’s fastpitch softball teams each fell in the consolation bracket on Saturday.

Over in tennis, Lynden twins Halley and Avery Brooks flew through the 2A girls’ doubles tournament without losing a set to take home the state title. The Sehome boys won the state championship as a team for the second time in three years.

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