Mudville Youth/IBC 2006 team season tryouts Mudville Youth Baseball and Island Baseball Clubs are co-sponsoring the following premier teams: 13-and-under Sandy Koufax, 14-and-under Sandy Koufax and 15-and-under Mickey Mantle. Tyrouts for each team are held at Island Crest Park. The 15-and-under Mickey Mantle tryouts are Saturday, Aug. 27, from 2-5 p.m. The 13-and-under Sandy Koufax tryouts are Saturday, Aug. 27, 10 a.m.-2 p.m. with make-up tryouts being held Saturday, Sept. 10, 5-7 p.m. for 15-and-under Mickey Mantle and Sunday, Sept. 11, 12-4 p.m. for the 13- and 14-and-under Sandy Koufax.

Go to eteamz.com/islandbaseballclub to pre-register and mudvillebaseball.org for coach contact information.

Tryouts are not required for Island Baseball Club Pony 14-and-under Cascade and 16-and-under Colt teams.

Online registration will run from December, 2005 through Feb. 1, 2006. New coaches, open gyms for girls basketball The Mercer Island Girls Basketball Booster Club Board has hired seven non-parent coaches for the upcoming middle school select program. The club expects to hire one more coach before the start of the season to give each team, grades 5-8, a coach and an assistant coach. The coaches will hold open gyms for all Mercer Island girls going into grades 4-12, Aug. 17 through Sept. 18. The gyms are to help prepare middle school girls and high school girls for the upcoming basketball tryouts and season.

North Mercer open gyms and coaches: Aug. 24, 5-7 p.m. with Holly Echeverria and Tana Ross (fifth grade) and David Michaelis; Aug. 28, 7-8:30 p.m. Echeverria, Ross; Aug. 31, 5-7 p.m. with Karen Greytak and Dawn Wilson (sixth grade); Sept. 7, 5-7 p.m. with Michaelis; Sept. 10-11 (all girls, grades 4-12 welcome at each open gym). In addition, there will be a “Tune-Up for the Tryouts” on Sept. 10-11 from 1-4 p.m. at the high school gym for grades 4-8. The new website, www.migb.org will have all the information posted soon. Islander help tennis team in Northwest tournament The 4.5 Women’s United States Tennis Association (USTA) team, based out of Seattle’s Amy Yee Tennis Center, competed in the Pacific Northwest Sectionals tournament in Portland, Ore., the weekend of Aug. 12-14. Alecia Young of Mercer Island won the deciding match in a closely contested 1-6, 7-6, 20-18 super tie-breaker singles match. Playing two singles and three doubles matches in each round, the Seattle-based team beat clubs from Bend, Ore., and Lakewood, Wash., in preliminary matches, and was victorious against a team from Portland in the finals. With this sectional win, the team will represent the Pacific Northwest in the 4.5 Nationals to be held in Tucson, Ariz., in early October. Other Mercer Island players include Mary Konopa, Cathy Ramsay, and Susan Regan.

Mudville wins Western Open National Island Baseball Club’s Sandy Kofax team, the Mudville 9 Ironmen, dominated an international field of 13-and-under baseball teams, to claim the Western National Championship in Blaine, Wash., Aug. 12-14. The Ironmen led off the tournament against the Blue Thunder from Seattle’s Capitol Hill neighborhood. After a scoreless first inning, the Mudville team scored six runs in the second inning, on the way to a 15-2 victory in five innings. Islander Tyler Ybarra led the attack with three hits and Trevor Martin pitched a three-hit, two-run ball game. Mudville’s second-round game was against the Bellingham Blue Sox. The game was tied 3-3 after four innings. The Ironmen proceeded to score four runs in the fifth inning, five runs in the sixth and three more in the seventh to cap a 15-7 victory. Mercer Island’s Steven Leighton had two doubles and five runs-batted-in to help secure the second-round victory. The Ironmen’s third-round contest was their toughest game of the tournament. The Ironmen took a 5-1 lead into the sixth inning, but then gave up five runs to fall behind 6-5. Troy Colyer led off the seventh inning with a walk, then advanced to third on a Martin single. Dan Medrzycki drove in Colyer with a single. Mercer Island’s Dan Drucker put the Mudville team ahead for good with a sacrifice fly. Mercer Island’s Eric Swedstedt capped the inning with a two-out double. Mudville shut down the Timber Jacks in the bottom of the seventh to win 7-6.

The final day of the tournament began with the Langley Giants against the undefeated Ironmen. Mudville jumped out to a 5-1 lead after two innings, then went on to win the game, 11-3, in five innings. Medrzycki led the attack by hitting for the cycle. The win assured the Ironmen a spot in the championship as the only undefeated team. The No. 2 seed and state Sandy Kofax Champion Kent Bulldogs Gold were slated to meet Mudville in the championship game. The match-up never happened as the Bulldogs were upset by the Bellingham Blue Sox, 1-0, during the semi-final contest.

The championship game match-up found Mudville jumping out to a 3-0 lead after the first inning of play. Bellingham came back to tie the game at 3-3 after three innings. The Blue Sox scored three runs in the top of the fourth inning, as darkness began to creep over the diamond from the setting sun. Mudville players, coaches and fans knew that the bottom of the fourth inning could be there last chance to break the tie and take the lead. The team proceeded to score seven runs, capped by a three-run 330-foot home run by Ybarra. After the top of the fifth inning, the shadows swallowed the field as the game was ended, giving the Mudville Ironmen a 10-6 final victory. Ybarra was the tournament’s Most Valuable Hitter; going 11-for-16 with 12 RBI and Medrzycki was the tournament’s Most Valuable Player going 12-for-19 with 14 RBI and two victories from the pitching mound. Coach Steve Leighton credits Island Baseball Club with assisting in organizing the team in December. Leighton stated the tournament played by the Ironmen was the finest hitting displayed by any 13-and-under team he has seen.

The Ironmen hit .450 as a team, outscoring their opponents by 33 runs throughout of the five games of the tournament. Mudville was led by Islanders Greg Williams, Byron Rosen, Drucker, Ybarra, Swedstedt, Steven Leighton, and Peyton Bell. Eastside FC ’94 Red team wins Crossfire Challenge The Eastside Football Club ’94 Red premier soccer team took first place in the girls 11-and-under division of the Crossfire Seattle Challenge Tournament at 60 Acres in Redmond July 28-31. The Eastside Football Club went undefeated through six games, with four wins and two ties. During the semi-final game, the Eastside Football Club defeated the Southside Ireland team from Oregon, 3-1. In the other semi-final match Football Club Crush, a premier team from Kitsap County, defeated the GU11 Crossfire A team, 1-0. In the finals, the Eastside Football Club was able to overcome the strong defense of the Crush to win the 11-and-under championship by a score of 1-0. The Eastside Football Club Boys ’94 Red also took first place, defeating BU11 Crossfire A in the finals, making it a sweep for Eastside Football Club in the youngest age bracket.

The Crossfire Seattle Challenge is sponsored by the Crossfire Premier Club and is considered one of the toughest tournaments in the Pacific Northwest, drawing teams from several Western states and Alaska. The Eastside Football Club ’94 Red team is comprised of girls from Sammamish, Bellevue, Issaquah, Maple Valley, Black Diamond and Mercer Island. Islanders on the team are Laura Harrison, Suri Johnson, Prudence McDougald and Sara Vaughan. The Eastside Football Club ’94 Red GU11 team is coached by former US National Team member and 2000 Olympic silver medalist, Michelle French, and her assistant coach, Kelli Smith. Vikings take Strawberry Classic unbeaten The Vikings, a boys 13-and-under select team representing the Mercer Island Youth Soccer Club, recently swept their age division with an impressive 5-0 showing at the 2005 Strawberry Classic, hosted by the Marysville Soccer Club.

In preliminary round-robin play, the Vikings began by beating North Sound Nitro 6-0. The next two games against the Mukliteo Spirit Football Club and the Alliance White ’92 Football Club from Woodinville, ended with identical outcomes of 3-0 in favor of the Vikings. The Mercer Island team, based on the standard tournament scoring system, received a perfect tally of 30 points in round-robin play to garner the top seed in its bracket. In its semi-final bracket, the Vikings encountered the Force ’92 select team from the host city of Marysville. Once again, the visiting Mercer Island squad overwhelmed the home team to record another shutout, 3-0. For the final contest of the tournament, the Vikings met an Eastside rival, the unbeaten Crossfire select team from the Lake Washington Soccer Association. The Vikings jumped out to a quick one-goal lead with less than a minute gone in the match. The point was scored on a header put in the back of the net by Ian Hermanns. The game then went back and forth with neither team able to score. With one minute remaining in regulation, the Vikings were awarded a penalty kick that was converted decisively into a goal by Charlie Kern. With the final whistle and a score of 2-0, the Vikings were crowned champions of the 13-and-under division with an astonishing scoring-record of 17 goals to none. The defense was led by Jake Patterson and Bryan Struck in goal, along with teammates Jared Thomas, Aaron Elefson, Perrin Guyer, Alex Medlock and Sean MacMillan. Manning the midfield of this all-Island team were Levi Kloss, Nick Goelz, Nick Radow, Kyle Moline and Evan Moline. Participating on the front line were Evan Thompson, Steven Bennett, Hermanns and Kern. Former Islander to play basketball in Spain Former Mercer Island High School basketball standout Josh Fisher recently signed a contract to play professional basketball for Gigon in northern Spain.

One of Fisher’s newest teammates, Mark Bigelow, is one of Fisher’s oldest rivals. The two met during the state tournament as Olympia High School defeated Mercer Island.

Tempest and Billbe make honor roll Former Mercer Island High School standout basketball players Kevin Tempest (Lehigh University) and Braden Billbe (American University) were named to the accdemic Honor Roll. Both players compete for their respective universities in basketball.

Girls basketball on the rise, select team tryouts Tryouts for Girls Select Basketball are Sept. 17 and 18 at the Mercer Island High School gym; 1-4 p.m. for fifth- and seventh-graders, and 4:30-7 p.m. for sixth- and eight-graders, both days. Note: fourth-graders may try out for the fifth-grade team.

Correction: Due to misinformation, the Mercer Island Boys & Girls Club Summer Allstar team was misidentified as the Mustangs in the “Sports briefs” section of the Aug. 17 issue. The Reporter regrets the error.