Photo Credit: Chris Flor, O'Dea Senior

In the first round of the 2012 Metro League Baseball Tournament, the O’Dea Fighting Irish squared off with the West Seattle Wildcats yesterday. Clearly O’Dea was the better team, but with West Seattle finishing higher in their division (Sound), it allowed them to snag the higher seed and home field advantage. In the end, that did not make a difference as O'Dea was in control throughout, beating West Seattle 10-0.

Entering yesterday’s game West Seattle had their “ace” and maybe the best pitcher in the Metro League, Sam Hellinger, on the mound. O’Dea had their third or fourth best pitcher, sophomore Pierre Le Dorze, on the mound. It was the complete opposite. Le Dorze looked unhittable, while Hellinger struggled early. In the second inning of the game, Le Dorze put the Irish on the board 1-0 with a single up the middle which scored teammate Sam Moran. With runners on second and third base, O’Dea’s Ryland Kerr took advantage of the situation that was given to him and drove in both runners with a single to right field, extending the Irish lead to three.

Alex Foley pitched 7 strong innings in a complete game performance, and Eastside Catholic got help from a spotty Nathan Hale defense en route to a 4-3 victory at Bannerwood Park. With the victory, the Crusaders advance to a winner-to-state game on Wednesday against O'Dea.

Aside from an early 2 RBI single, the Crusaders' two other runs came via error or wild pitch. Julijs Pruzinskis pitched 6 innings, but his command was just a bit off the entire game, allowing Eastside Catholic to score just enough to pull out a win.

After getting rained out Thursday, the Puyallup Vikings and Kentwood Conquerors reconvened at Heritage Park on Saturday to square off in the crossover game featuring the two SPSL division champions. Coming into the season, the Vikings were the #1 ranked 4A team in numerous polls. But, Kentwood turned the tables over the course of the year and held the #1 ranking heading into this game. The Conquerors were undefeated, and were looking to stay that way. But in the end, Puyallup handed Kentwood their first loss of the season, as the Vikings pulled out a 5-4 win in 8 innings.

Matt Becker pitched two scoreless innings and also hit a HR to help lead the Vikings to victory over the Conquerors. Kentwood scored 3 runs in the bottom of the 7th to tie the game, before Puyallup answered withthe eventual game-winning run in the 8th.

                                                             Steve Cox Memorial Field (Photo Credit: Seattle Prep)

It has finally arrived, the Metro Baseball Tournament! This is only the first step towards conquering the state title. So far this season the Metro League has been dominated by one team, Seattle Prep. Can anyone take them down? Prep is the favorite to win this tournament and will be looking to capture their second consecutive Metro Championship. The winner of this event not only takes home a trophy, but earns a berth to State as the No. 1 team from the Metro League. Teams that finish in second and third place will also earn a berth to State. This is a double-elimination. Who are the sleepers? Players to watch? SeaTown Sports is here to answer those questions and preview your team’s chances of winning this tournament. Plus we predict the winner. READ OUR IN-DEPTH ANALYSIS AFTER THE JUMP!!

                                                                                  Photo Credit: soundersfc.com

On a sunny Cinco de Mayo, the Sounders celebrated in style to defeat the Philadelphia Union 1-0 to take their fifth straight victory.  From the very first whistle, the Sounders dominated.  With pace and precise passing, the rave green pounded the Philadelphia goal.  Newcomer Alex Caskey looked to be the real deal sending in several screaming shots at Philadelphia’s MacMath.  Mauro Rosales ever lurked on the far right, darting in with the ball on several occasions to wreak havoc upon the Union defense.  Rookie Andy Rose also made his first MLS appearance for the Sounders and looked very lively, but on some occasions almost to a fault as he received one yellow and could have earned another for reckless tackling.

Time: 1:30 PM

TV: NBCSN

Besides one mistake, leading to a penalty kick goal against San Jose, the Sounders have started the season beyond their wildest dreams. The Sounders haven’t started this well since their inaugural season in 2009 where they compiled a record of 5-2-0. This season, with a 5-1-1 record, the Sounders are only behind Real Salt Lake and San Jose in the Western Conference, yet they are still three and two games behind them. The Sounders this week look to continue their early season form against the Philadelphia Union.

Unlike the Sounders, the Union has not been off to the stellar start that they hoped after overhauling the team to where they thought they needed to be. With only 7 points through 7 games the Union are hoping something changes, and fast. The unfortunate news for them is that they must come across the country to play the Sounders. More unfortunate news for them is that they must play without their leading scorer, Gabriel Gomez, due to a suspension from a cleat up tackle. While one player may not seem like quite a blow to an 11-person team, he has been the only bright spot for the Union on the offensive end. Of the Union’s five goals this season, Gomez has scored three of them. The players that they are looking for to step up in his absence are former US national team player Freddy Adu, and forward Lionard Pajoy. Through these two players and the service of Danny Mwanga in the midfield, the Union are looking to break the Sounders tough defense.

                                                                                                                                               
                                                                 Photo Credit: Drew Sellers/SportsPress Northwest

Bruce Arenas came into CenturyLink Field with a weak squad.  He and the Galaxy paid the price for it.  The Sounders overcame the Los Angeles boogey man with a resounding 2-0 victory at home.  It was clear from the first minute that the Sounders were the superior and dominant side in the match.  The passing plays from Seattle were intricate and fluid with shades of Catalonia.  Fredy Montero looked as dangerous as ever with several blistering shots early in the first half only to be denied by LA’s Gaudette.  Seattle’s first goal came in the 40^th minute as returning captain Mauro Rosales put a divine cross onto the head of Eddie Johnson for his second goal in two games.

Mount Si head baseball coach Elliott Cribby was kind enough to pass along some tidbits about the Wildcats' end to the regular season.

With a 4-2 victory over the Interlake Saints last night, Mount Si clinched the KingCo 3A regular season championship. This is their second consecutive regular season title.

In the win, Wildcats starter Trevor Lane set a new school record with 17 strikeouts. Lane is not only doing well on the mound, he also is dominating at the plate. He currently holds a .441 BA with 8 doubles and 19 RBI.

The Wildcats' starting rotation has been strong all year. As a team, they hold a 1.40 ERA. Reece Karalus, who will be attending Santa Clara University next fall, has a 0.77 ERA with 71 strikeouts.

Cribby said the team has "answered the bell" thus far, and now they are gearing up for postseason action. The Wildcats open up KingCo postseason play as the #1 seed at Bannerwood Park in Bellevue next Thursday at 7 p.m. against the winner of Liberty vs. Mercer Island.

Much was on the line for our game of the week in the Metro Conference between O’Dea and Eastside Catholic. Coming into this game the O’Dea players were ready to go and try to secure their spot in the Metro tournament. With a win last night, it would have put the Irish over the hump and into the postseason. Eastside Catholic did not want to lose their third-straight game and fall back in the standings, resulting in a three seed for the Metro Tournament. In the end, it was Eastside Catholic pulling out a 3-2, extra-innings victory.

With the importance of this game, O’Dea started their best pitcher Tony Davila, while Eastside threw Blake Gillespie. Both pitchers were excellent. O’Dea jumped on the Crusaders first in the second inning when Scottie Graham ripped a single over the Eastside second baseman, scoring teammate Pierre LeDorze and putting the Irish up 1-0. From then on, Davila and Gillespie shut down the batters they faced. In the 6^th inning, Josh Dickerson got things started for the Irish with a leadoff single and with heads up base running, found himself at 3^rd base with one out. Sam Moran struck out, but the ball was in the dirt and got away from the Eastside catcher and ended up rolling to the back stop. This resulted in Dickerson scoring from third base and Moran being safe at first base.

                                                                                  Photo Credit: Getty Images


Time: 7:00 PM

TV: KONG 6/16

One game in a nine game May schedule and the Sounders have already emerged with a scrappy 3 points against Chicago. Only eight more games remaining and the schedule doesn’t get any easier with the Los Angeles Galaxy coming into town. Missing key players and coming into the 2012 season on a rocky start, the Galaxy come into CenturyLink in an attempt to continue their dominance over the Sounders. Will they be able to hold strong this year? We will see in this first meeting of the year.

After completing their 100^th MLS regular season game on Saturday, the Sounders are now facing the only team that has fared better than them in the MLS through those 100 games, the LA Galaxy. The Galaxy in the past have relied on a plethora of star players including Landon Donovan, Robbie Keane and David Beckham, while also developing strong younger players such as defender Omar Gonzalez. Through these factors they have acquired 184 points while Seattle is second with 171 points. This year though all of these pieces have not aligned to give the Galaxy the start they wanted to follow their MLS Championship run last season.

Before the season even started the Galaxy lost all star center defender Omar Gonzalez to an ACL injury that has benched him for the rest of the season. Other notable injuries include Landon Donovan (bronchitis) and David Beckham (Hamstring). The Galaxy have also lost starting goalkeeper Josh Saunders most recently to personal issues and have had to put back up Bill Gaudette, who hasn’t played since 2006, into the game. This has resulted in only 10 points in the Galaxy’s first 7 games.

This week it doesn’t get much easier for the Galaxy as Saunders is still out and reports out of LA indicate that Beckham and Keane have not traveled to Seattle with the team. The one piece of good news for the Galaxy is that they still have Landon Donovan and back up goalkeeper Brian Perk, who has more experience with the team than Gaudette. Without Keane and Beckham this leaves only Edson Buddle, Landon Donovan and ex-Sounder Pat Noonan to handle the scoring. For a team with 11 goals against and missing 40% of their scoring, this will be a hard task for a traveling Galaxy team.