Western Nevada College has done a tremendous job of sending players to four-year schools and into professional baseball since its inception in 2006.
With that in mind, here’s a short update on a handful of players from last year’s World Series-qualifying team.
• Infielder Taylor Smart is playing at the University of Tennessee, and has helped the Vols to a 9-7 record thus far. He has played in 13 games and made 11 starts. Smart is hitting .265 with a homer and six RBIs. He is excelling in the field with just one error in 53 fielding chances.
• Pitcher Brandon Jackson is having a sensational season at Oregon State, which has posted a glossy 16-1 record. Jackson, 3-0, has appeared in five games over 13 innings and has yet to allow an earned run. In 13.2 innings, Jackson has allowed 12 hits and struck out 12 batters. He has walked just three batters thus far.
• Pitcher Andrew Woeck has posted a 2-0 record with a 1.42 ERA for North Carolina State. He has logged 12.2 innings over seven appearances, allowing just two earned runs and nine hits. Opposing hitters are batting just .191 in that span.
• Pitchers Anthony Consiglio and Tyler Spencer have struggled out of the gate at the University of New Mexico. Consiglio, who worked both as a starter and reliever at WNC, is 1-0 with a 15.95 ERA. In 7.1 innings over five appearances with one start, Consiglio has allowed 10 hits and 13 earned runs. He has struck out eight and walked 10, and opposing hitters are batting .313 against him. Spencer, who throws 90-plus, has made four appearances totaling 1.2 innings. He has allowed eight hits, three earned runs, three walks and two strikeouts. Teams are hitting .615 and he has a 16.20 ERA.
• Chris Woolley has started 16 of San Diego’s 17 games and is hitting .317 with a homer and eight RBIs.
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Can you believe the streak that diminutive Tyler Baker is on for this year’s WNC team?
Baker broke into the starting lineup last weekend for the four-game series against cellar-dwelling Colorado Northwestern with a .154 average after belting two doubles in the final game of a disastrous 1-3 series against Salt Lake. Baker gave the Wildcat offense major shot in the arm by going 12-for-14 with two homers, five RBIs and eight runs scored. What made it more special is that Baker hit only one homer his entire career at Bishop Gorman in Las Vegas. Both of Baker’s homers came in the same game, and Baker admitted that he’d never had a multi-homer game even at the youth baseball level.
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Former Carson Tigershark swimmer Tatum Boehnke finished her college swimming career at the University of Northern Colorado at the WAC swimming and diving competition last weekend.
She finished 24th in the 500 free with a time of 5:03.71. In the 1650, she was second-team all-WAC with a sixth-place finish, completing the swim in 17:00.36. This swim put her second on the Northern Colorado’s top-10.
Boehnke, according to her parents, has been accepted to the ,aster of science program in Sports Administration at the University of Louisville in August.
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Kudos to Rafe King for being named to the Las Vegas Review-Journal’s all-state basketball team. King, who averaged approximately 15 points a game, was instrumental in leading Carson to a second-place finish at the Division I regionals. The Senators fell in the finals to Hug.
King is getting some interest from some Division II schools, according to coach Carlos Mendeguia.
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It didn’t take long for Dashon Goldson, the 49ers hard-hitting safety to bolt to greener pastures. He got a nice $40 million contract from Tampa Bay. I feel sorry for him because I don’t think Tampa will ever be a championship team. That ship has sailed. I certainly think the 49ers could have been a little more generous and upped their ante a bit, but in the long run I think that Goldson will miss playing on a championship team. Charles Woodson to the 49ers? I like it. I think he still has some juice left in him at age 36.
I like the trade for Anquan Boldin. It was a steal for a sixth-round pick, and he’ll certainly bring a better attitude to the game than Randy Moss did. I still can’t get over Moss proclaiming he was the NFL’s best-ever receiver during Super Bowl week. Maybe I’d think more highly of Moss if he learned to block and play the game hard. The only time Moss played hard was when the ball was coming in direction.
