Morrow's Musings
- By Jeff Morrow
509-582-1507
Posted Feb. 11, 2000
Farrington returns with WSU baseball
If there ever was a guy enthusiastic about baseball, it's Steve Farrington.
I played just three months for the guy back in 1979, and I learned more about baseball in those 90 days than I had in all my time put together leading up to then.
And now, in his sixth season as the coach of the Washington State University baseball team, Farrington brings his team to the
Tri-Cities for the 12th annual Larry Barnes Series against Gonzaga University.
The teams will play a three-game series at Posse Stadium in Pasco, with the first pitch at 2 p.m. today, and 1 p.m. starts Saturday and Sunday.
The Cougars are picked by Pac-10 coaches to finish eighth this year. But judging by their first big weekend of competition, that may be off.
Although WSU lost to Kansas State 9-7 in Albuquerque, N.M., last weekend, the Cougars also beat nationally ranked Texas A&M by scores of 5-3 and 14-4.
Farrington credits those victories, ironically, to Lewis-Clark State, a team that beat WSU 10-1 on Jan. 29 in the season opener for both teams.
"L-C State has some of the best pitching we'll see this season," Farrington said. "We were ready for that pitching that Texas A&M showed us because L-C State helped us."
Even more impressive is the fact that WSU won those games without the services of Walla Walla grad Jason Grove, ranked No. 31 among the nation's top 100 college baseball prospects by Baseball America magazine.
Grove had surgery on his hand last week, after the outfielder/pitcher broke the hamate bone during batting practice. He could be out 4-6 weeks.
Farrington, who used to coach at Kennewick High and managed the Kennewick Dusters American Legion team, said WSU has been outside all of 12 times this year since Jan. 1.
But what he's also done is eliminate most midweek games and focus on playing weekend games for the first time.
"It allows us to concentrate on academics, and to do some teaching and coaching after the weekend games," Farrington said.
It also helps him to hold back his best pitchers for more important games.
Farrington said the Cougars' team goal is to finish in the middle of the pack in the Pac-10, which features Stanford, UCLA and USC - all top-10 programs.
"We felt we were better than what we showed last year," he said. "Our goal is to get into the top five and get an NCAA regional berth."
Farrington is high on redshirt freshman Stefan Bailie, a Connell native who graduated from Kamiakin and is starting at first base.
Junior Justin Williams, who spent the past two seasons playing at Columbia Basin College, should see action in the outfield.
Gonzaga has two players with Mid-Columbia ties: catcher Brian Munhall played at CBC, while freshman outfielder Phil Mattern is from Moses Lake.
Tickets for each game cost $4 for adults and $3 for students and seniors.
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Baseball America figures Hanford grad Jason Repko will be the Dodgers' starting center fielder by 2003. . . . Kennewick's Matt Massingale, a pitcher at the University of Washington, is No. 70 in the magazine's top 100 college prospects list.
Moses Lake's B.J. Garbe is projected to be the Minnesota Twins' starting right fielder by 2003. The first-round draft pick in last year's draft should start this season in Class A Quad City of the Midwest League.
* * *
Nothing like getting off to a fast start.
Grandview's Sean Culver is at $14,103 in earnings as a bareback rider on the Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association circuit.
He got a good chunk of that change last month in Denver when he scored a 90 on Maggie Mae. Culver leads second-place Ken Lensegrev of Kyle, S.D., by $4,057.
Brad Goodrich, who now calls Hermiston home, is ninth in the world in calf roping, while Prosser's Bucky Campbell sits in 10th among team roping heelers.
* * *
Walla Walla's Seville Broussard, who finished her collegiate track eligibility at Eastern Washington University last spring, was a nominee for the female athlete of the year award at this year's Inland Northwest Sportswriters and Broadcasters awards show.
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The Central Washington League's senior American Legion lineup will get a new team this summer when the Walla Walla Bears join.
Walla Walla hasn't had a legion program since the early 1990s, choosing to compete in Senior Babe Ruth. But longtime coach Scott Tibbling resigned after last season, and boosters felt it was time to try legion again.
With Walla Walla, the CWL has eight teams - the Dusters, who finished second in the 1999 American Legion World Series; the Kennewick Bandits, Pasco Sun Devils, Richland Knights, Yakima Beetles, Yakima Valley Paks and Wenatchee's Apple Valley Packers.
* * *
Brendan Suhr, whose boss is Continental Basketball Association owner Isiah Thomas, told a Yakima radio station the CBA is considering Spokane for an expansion franchise for the 2000-01 season.
Suhr said the Brett brothers, who own Spokane's entries in both the Western Hockey League and baseball's Northwest League, could be partners in the deal.
Suhr also ruled out expanding into Tacoma or the Tri-Cities for next season.
- Sports editor Jeff Morrow can be reached at 582-1507 or via e-mail at jmorrow@tri-cityherald.com
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