Sports Briefs

All-State baseball title to Adams’ team

Medical Lake’s Cory Wagner pitched three innings for the Mt. Rainier team in the opening day of All-State Baseball last weekend in Yakima that defeated a Mt. Baker team with Cheney’s Riley Jones 14-6 at Parker Field June 11.

Wagner’s team lost in the championship game to Mt. Adams 8-1 while Jones’ team earned a 5-4 win over Mt. St. Helens. Neither Wagner, nor Jones, showed up in the stats Sunday.

Eagles ranked No. 12 in preseason poll

The start of the 2016 college football season is still nearly three months away, but already the Eastern Washington University football team has earned a lofty ranking in the NCAA Football Championship Subdivision.

Rated as the top Big Sky Conference team, the Eagles, coming off a disappointing 6-5 season in which they missed the postseason for the first time since 2011, are ranked No. 12 in the Athlon Sports preseason Top-25.

Eastern opens the season Sept. 3 at Washington State of the Pac-12 Conference, then plays two of the top programs in FCS – Northern Iowa and five-time reigning national champion North Dakota State. The Bison host the Eagles on Sept. 10 and are ranked No. 1.

Eastern’s home schedule begins on Sept. 17 versus Northern Iowa, which is picked third.

That challenging non-conference schedule sets the stage for an equally challenging league schedule that includes 2015 FCS playoffs participants Montana and Portland State.

Eastern plays five home games this season at Roos Field, highlighted by Eastern’s annual showdown with Montana on Oct. 29. The Grizzlies are ranked 16th in the Athlon poll. The Eagles also host UC Davis (Oct. 1), Northern Colorado (Oct. 8) and Idaho State (Nov. 12).

EWU season tickets went on sale June 15 with information and the ordering link at goeags.com.

Head coach Beau Baldwin returns 54 letterwinners and 14 returning starters to his 2016 squad.

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EWU women open preseason WNIT against UW

Eastern Washington women’s basketball team will take on in-state foe, Washington, to open the 2016 Preseason Women’s National Invitational Tournament. The game will take place on Friday, Nov. 11, with tip-off scheduled for 7 p.m. at the Alaska Airlines Arena in Seattle.

“Our goal every season is to play a non-conference schedule that prepares us for the rigors of the Big Sky, and I think this tournament does just that,” EWU head coach Wendy Schuller said.

It will be the second time in program history that Eastern has competed in the Preseason WNIT since Nov. 9, 2005, when the Eagles fell on the road to Pac-12 member California, 64-45.