Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] 3 Humboldt County Little League All Star teams were in action at their respective section tournaments this week as a memorable summer for the district 26 squads continued hello and welcome to this week's KMUD News Sports Report. I'm Ray hamel with humboldt sports.com we'll have more on how the county's Little League All Stars fared in just a moment as we take a look at all of the big local sports stories of the week, including why it was a tough week for the Humble Crabs, all the latest on the local American Legion clubs and why it will be a big weekend for one of them. In particular, news of how College of the Redwoods football is succeeding off the field of competition and how the CR volleyball team is preparing for the upcoming season. But first up, an impressive summer continued for the county's Little League All Star teams. This week. A pair of Redwood Empire Little League teams were in action at their section tournaments. After going undefeated in the District 26 tournament last month, the RE L 12 year olds traveled to CALUSA to represent the county and finished second in tournament play. After opening the tournament with a 40 loss to Chico Central last Friday, Redwood Empire came alive and responded with three straight elimination game victories where they outscored their opponents by a combined35.5 to set up a rematch with the Chico All Stars in the championship round on Tuesday night. However, the Chico All Stars would post a second tournament win over the Humboldt county team to secure the championship and advance to the upcoming NorCal state tournament while ending a memorable summer for Redwood empire. The Redwood Empire 11? S were also in action at section tournament this week and got things off to an exciting start with a 54 walk off win over Chico Westside in Chico on Friday. The county champs, however, would drop back to back games on Sunday to bow out of the tournament and end their season.
[00:01:51] Rounding out a busy week for the district teams, the Eel River 10 year old all Stars also were in action at their section tournament in Clearlake. The Eel river players turned in a composed performance for such a young group on the way to winning the section championship.
[00:02:05] After losing to Westside Chico 149 on Tuesday night, their first loss of the summer, the Eel River All Stars responded with a much better performance in a true championship showdown on Wednesday night, defeating the same team 18 8. Eel river will now advance to the NORCAL State Tournament in Fremont, which gets underway on Saturday. Switching gears, it was a disappointing week for the Humble Crabs who saw their chances of qualifying for next week's Pacific Empire League Championship Series take a hit with with two losses over the weekend. On Friday night the Crabs closed out a five game series against the West Coast Kings at the Arcata ballpark with a 128 loss. They quickly bounced back with an impressive 2 to 1 win over the league leading Healdsburg Prune packers on Saturday night before dropping a second game against Healdsburg on Sunday by a score of 9 to 1. The Crabs came into this week fourth in the PEL standings with the top two teams advancing to the championship series. They will close out league play with a three game series against the third placed Medford Rogues this weekend with game one set for Friday night at 7pm The Crabs also played a non league game against the Berkovich Honors on Tuesday night and scored a pair of late runs on the way to a 20 win. In local American Legion baseball news the Humboldt Eagles 19 ewes saw their season end at their area tournament in Fairfield over the weekend. The Eagles dropped their tournament opener to Napa Valley falling 6 2, but would respond in dynamic fashion with a 65 walk off win in eight innings against the Sonoma County Vipers. However, the Eagles would lose their third tournament game falling 10 to Petaluma to end any hopes of a championship before closing out the season with a 93 win over Yuba Sutter in their final tournament game on Saturday.
[00:03:56] However, it was a good summer for the local American Legion team which is made up of the best young high school and college players in the county.
[00:04:04] Under the guidance of first year manager Scott St. John, the Eagles finished the season with a record of 1710, including an impressive showing on the way to winning the championship at the Fairfield tournament. The Eagles 17 Ewes meanwhile, also have been competitive this summer and are playing at their area tournament this week. The Eagles, who are coached by TJ Brogan, are 14 and 10 heading into postseason play. They dropped a pair of non tournament games to the show 18 use out of reading over the weekend falling 10, 7 and 16.
[00:04:39] But according to Brogan, that was the best team they have faced all summer and playing the tough competition in the lead up to the area tournament should help prepare the team for postseason play.
[00:04:50] Switching gears, the College of the Redwoods football team began preseason preparation this week, six weeks ahead of the Corsairs season opener at San Jose in late August. It's been a good off season for the team as the Corsairs moved an impressive 12 players onto four year programs, including at least four and that will play for Division 1 teams. According to head coach Jason White, that is the most players the program has sent to Division 1 programs in a single season in several years.
[00:05:19] Among the local standouts moving on, Former Saint Bernards crusader Kyler Smit is joining Montana Tech, an NAIA school, while former Eureka logger Dominic Conant is moving on to play at Simpson University in Reading. Another NAIA program, the Corsairs, made the switch from the American Division to the more competitive national division a year ago, and after some early setbacks, they began to find their feet, winning three late games to leave them in contention for a conference title on the final week of the regular season, including a memorable road victory at Bute, a perennial state powerhouse. They would finish the season 3 7, including a 32 record in conference play, and White and his players would be hoping to build on that this fall. And rounding out another big week in local sports, the College of the Redwoods volleyball team is also busy preparing for the upcoming season. Head coach Macy Thomas has been busy on the recruiting trails this offseason and has a sizable roster of 14 players heading into the new season, including multiple former HDNL players, a group that includes Macy Secor of Eureka, Sahara Tupua of St. Bernards and Melody Brennan of Del Norte, as well as Khalifa Young of Aldergrove Charter School.
[00:06:32] Thomas team will also feature a pair of key returning players from Arcata High School, Quincy Collins and Bella Campbell. And that's this week's KMUD News Sports Report. Until next time, I'm Ray Hamill with Humboldt sports dot com.
