Sports : Wednesday, June 07, 2000

by Seattle Times staff

Summer baseball isn't quite so simple as the high-school season where Eastside fans have primarily two leagues to worry about - KingCo 3A and KingCo 4A.

The Greater Seattle Youth Baseball League is composed of 16 teams, including Chaffey Baseball Club, Taylor Baseball, FOX Sports Net, Wilkinson Academy and Poulsbo RV.

The teams have different national affiliations, which means they play in different tournaments to finish the season. Standings are kept in the league, but are important only in terms of seeding for national tournaments.

For instance, FOX and Chaffey, both Connie Mack teams, are entered in a tournament in San Diego in August. Their seeding in the tournament will be determined by how they finished in theleague relative to each other.

Food Giant and Bellevue Honda are not part of the Greater Seattle league. As American Legion teams, they play many of the area teams but the games don't count in the standings as their postseason begins with a district tournament.

Here is a quick overview of where some of the Eastside's best baseball talent is playing this summer:

Bellevue Honda

National affiliation - American Legion

Home field - Bannerwod Park

The skinny - Team draws from Interlake, Sammamish, Bellevue and Mercer Island. Its one exception is Chris Savio of O'Dea. Levi Redding is in his fourth year playing for the team.

Chaffey Baseball Club

National affiliation - Connie Mack

Home field - Husky Ballpark

The skinny - The team started off its 20th season with 11 consecutive wins. Six players from the team will play baseball at Washington next season. Josh Conover, John Otness and Mike Wagner are three top players. All have Husky baseball scholarships.

Web site: http://www.chaffeybaseball.com/

FOX Sports Net

National affiliation - Connie Mack

Home field - Cheney Stadium

The skinny - Has ex-major leaguers Bill Caudill and Julio Cruz coaching a roster that includes Eastlake junior right-hander Blake Hawksworth, Mercer Island's Pollock brothers and Stosh Paluch of Redmond. The team also has three South-County players Luke Heatherington, Cameron Davies and Ryan Welsh.

Food Giant

National affiliation - American Legion

Home field - Bannerwood, Bellevue Community College

The skinny - Team draws players from Newport, Issaquah and Liberty, but will probably lose third baseman Tripper Johnson if he signs a professional contract as he said he plans to. Top pitchers include left-handers Rommie Lewis and Dan Lundeberg and right-hander Matt Kasser.

Poulsbo RV

Home field - Various Eastside sites

The skinny - One of two teams organized under the Northwest Boys of Summer umbrella, the team is coached by Craig Parthemer. Eastlake seniors T. Montgomery and Steve Ramsey are two of the top hitters on the team. Nate Williams of Seattle Prep, Ryan Rockhill of Sammamish and Sean Sattler of Mount Si are three of the five juniors on the roster.

Web site: http://www.nwboysofsummer.org/

Taylor Baseball

National affiliation - AAU

Home field - Bellevue Community College

The skinny - Craig Bishop is coach of a team that is loaded with Redmond's Andy Sisco and Eastlake's Kyle Larsen, two of the best seniors-to-be from KingCo 4A baseball. Liberty's Kerisi Reynolds is a middle infielder who signed a baseball scholarship with Oregon State, and Troy Martin is from Liberty who is also one of the best players in KingCo 3A.

Wilkinson Academy

National affiliation - Connie Mack

Home field - Primarily Edmonds CC

The skinny - Pete Wilkinson works with over 100 kids at his baseball academy, which includes six players who were drafted this year. His summer-league team's roster includes three Pac-10 players: Woodinville senior Bret Butler (USC), Kentwood senior Mike White (Cal-Berkeley) and South Kitsap senior Matt Einspahr (Cal-Berkeley).

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