WALLA WALLA — By most baseball standards, finishing a season 12 games under .500 — when you play only 48 — is more a foul ball than a home run.
But for the Walla Walla Sweets, their debut campaign in the West Coast League was a big hit — with the fans, anyway.
The Sweets open their second season today in the Northwest's summer collegiate wood-bat league as the defending champions ... in attendance.
Nearly 35,000 fans trucked to Borleske Stadium last summer on 24 dates, averaging 1,451 a game.
"There's an excitement, a buzz that's maintained through the offseason," said manager J.C. Biagi, a Walla Walla native who played at DeSales and is the assistant coach at Walla Walla Community College.
More than a century after the Walla Walla Walla Wallas played the first minor league ball in the city in 1908, the Sweets again have made baseball a big deal.
"The buzz is around town," Biagi said, "and people are getting excited."
If that's the case, then expect a big house for today's 7:05 p.m. first pitch against the Corvallis Knights at Borleske.
Neither team will be at full strength until the college season and classes end and players have a chance to report. The Knights, who have won four consecutive WCL West Division titles, will travel with just 20 players.
The Sweets will be missing 10 players, four taking part in the NCAA regionals: UCLA's Kevin Williams (infielder) and Brenton Allen (outfielder), and U.C. Irvine's Scott Gottschling (outfielder) and Jimmy Litchfield (pitcher).
Walla Walla has a strong connection to the area's baseball scene, with six players having local ties. However, at least half of them will be inactive to start the season, including former Richland star Brett Jacobs (Washington State) and Southridge standout Andrew Mendenhall (Oregon).
Mendenhall is still finishing classes in Eugene, and Jacobs will rest a nagging wrist injury. Another former Bombers player, Eric Yardley at Seattle U, is listed on the inactive list.
Three players expected to play right away all were on the Walla Walla CC team: former Hermiston standout infielder Chance Kopacz, who was one of the best hitters in the NWAACC this season, as well as outfielder Alex Bonczyk (Las Vegas) and pitcher Brett Watson (Lewiston, Idaho).
NOTES: Kody Young, former Kamiakin and Columbia Basin College pitcher who threw for the Sweets last summer and is headed to Liberty University in Virginia, will take the summer off. ... The Sweets poured $250,000 into renovating Borleske for last season and were back at it again in the offseason. Among the improvements: 156 seats added behind home plate along with a new press box; general admission bleachers behind right-center field to bring capacity up from 1,600 to more than 2,200; a satellite beer garden next to the picnic pavilion behind right field; the outfield fence in center has been lowered to better see the game; wooden frames for the seats along the first-base line; and new lockers for the players in the clubhouse. ... Other Mid-Columbia players in the WCL: Spencer O'Neil (Southridge) with the Cowlitz Blackbears; Shawn O'Brien (Kamiakin, Saint Mary's) with the Bend Elks and Britt Hammer (Kamiakin, CBC) has a temporary contract with the Wenatchee AppleSox.
To see more of the Tri-City Herald, or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.tri-cityherald.com. Copyright (c) 2011, Tri-City Herald, Kennewick, Wash. Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.?
