Winds of change blowing through the Columbia Basin

The winds of change are blowing through the ball diamonds around the Columbia Basin and I like what I’m seeing and the ideas swirling around.

The Moses Lake Chiefs were two outs away from advancing to the Class 4A state quarterfinals after winning the 2018 Columbia Basin Big Nine league title. The No. 8-ranked Big Bend Vikings slugged their way out of the NWAC East Region, which included No. 1 Yakima Valley and No. 5 Spokane, to win the West Super Region and advance to the NWAC Baseball Championships for the first time since 2002.

The winds of change are continuing right on through to the summer schedule. At the highest level of amateur ball around here, Wenatchee AppleSox founder Jim Corcoran sold the franchise to Jose Oglesby, a lifelong baseball fan who grew up in Colombia and the Panama Canal Zone listening to Major League Baseball radio broadcasts. After coming to the United States, Oglesby got the chance to attend hundreds of major and minor league games in person over the years. Now he owns a team of future stars.

If you haven’t seen an AppleSox game, make a run up the corridor and take in a ballgame. It’s a chance to see some of the best NCAA players in the country, and maybe the next legend in the making.

The team has enjoyed considerable success, winning five West Coast League Championships (2005, 2006, 2009, 2010, and 2012) and one Pacific International League Championship (2003). Eleven former AppleSox players have gone on to reach the major leagues, including Marco Gonzales of the Seattle Mariners and Jason Hammel of the Kansas City Royals.

The AppleSox opened the season on Friday on the road against the Victoria HarbourCats, and play their home opener in Wenatchee tonight against the River City Athletics. The AppleSox have 18 players from Washington, including former Moses Lake Chief and Columbia Basin River Dog Hunter Boyd. Boyd goes into his second season with the AppleSox. The big right-hander was on staff three years ago when Yakima Valley won the NWAC championship. Now he’s taking his game to the next level against some of the best collegiate hitters on the country. It’d be worth the effort to visit Paul Thomas Sr. Field to see Boyd throw.

Visit www.applesox.com or www.columbiabasinherald.com for the latest standings, scores and news from the diamond.

A little closer to home, the Columbia Basin River Dogs are putting together a select team in July to take another run at the Senior Babe Ruth League World Series championship. They last won when Boyd, Josh Kallstrom and the lads claimed the title in 2015.

They also won it again in 1998 with arguably the best team in River Dog history. Seven players from the ‘98 River Dogs were drafted in the MLB Draft, including BJ Garbe (Minnesota), Jason Cooper (Cleveland), Brian Skaug (Houston), Stefan Bailie (Boston), Gabe Boruff (Kansas City), Brian Johnson (Baltimore) and Ryan Doumit (Pittsburgh).

This year the River Dogs, who also won a national title in 1995, will take the top players from the two teams that finished tied for third in last summer’s Senior Babe Ruth World Series, and combine them to make a select team for the first time in program history.

A change is coming to Columbia Basin baseball and the real winners are those of us who get to see it happen.

Rodney Harwood is a sports writer for the Columbia Basin Herald and can be reached at rharwood@columbiabasinherald.com