Colfax baseball will open season at Asotin

Colfax baseball players will launch the new season Saturday with a trip to the Asotin tournament. The Bulldogs are booked to play the Clarkston junior varsity at 9 a.m. for the season opener and then face off with Potlatch in a 1 p.m. game.

Coach Mike Parrish and his assistants have 27 players out for the season and most saw action last year with a relatively young squad.

Jamie Bledsoe, catcher and power pitcher for the Bulldogs last year, and Connor Appel were the only grads of the 2012 team which was stopped by Reardan one game short of the state playoff grid.

“We’ve got a lot of good kids back, but right at the start we’re fighting a lot of injuries,” Coach Mike Parrish noted. One of the injury setbacks was sustained by Keith Gfeller, a freshman who was charted to do some of the pitching for the Bulldogs after coming off a successful hoop debut. Gfeller sustained a stress fracture in a foot and will be on the sidelines for the start of the season.

Patrick Jacobs who did a lot of the pitching for the Bulldogs last season will return to the mound this year as a junior. Jacobs put in a full season of summer ball with the Pullman Patriots to build up his experience for the spring NE campaign.

Senior Brady Ellis and sophomore Garrett Burke are also expected to be part on the pitching rotation along with Gfeller when he gets off the injury list.

The NE League format this year calls for teams to play each other in one rotation of doubleheaders. That could be a big advantage for teams which can have two strong pitchers ready to go on league days.

The league doubles slated for McDonald Park include Lind/Ritzville/Sprague April 2, Northwest Christian April 9, Davenport April 11, Springdale April 16

The Bulldogs are booked for NE road doubles at Liberty April 20 and St. George’s April 23.

The Bulldogs will have two veterans back at the corners with seniors Bryce Kramlich at third base and John Mellor at first base. Both picked up experience last year and can be expected to have solid seasons for the Colfax offense.

Two other seniors, Brock Morgan and Ellis, will be at second base, and Burke will be at shortstop. Catchers will be Brent Becker and Anthony Becker, both sophomores.

Back in the outfield will be Dylan Heiser, Christopher Appel, Jacobs and Austin Getz. Coach Parrish also has Kenton Lyman and Mark Webber on the roster for utility assignments over the season.

The Bulldog coach expects Northwest Christian to be the top contender in the league. The Crusaders had a strong pair of starting pitchers in their lineup last year and they are expected to be back this year.

Parrish has coached baseball 21 years at Colfax and began his stint as head coach in 1997. Eric Patton will be back as assistant coach, and Tony Lewis, who has been hired as the district’s new information technology specialist, will also be an assistant.

Colfax grads Nathan Johnson and Joe Johnson are also helping as volunteer assistants. Nathan Johnson, who wrapped up a college pitching career at Whitworth last year plans to depart for New Mexico about midway through the high school season to play a second year of minor league professional ball.