NW Briefs | Mill Creek Little League earns top seed in Regional semifinals

SAN BERNARDINO, Calif. — The Mill Creek Little League team concluded its march through Northwest Region pool play on Wednesday evening, rolling to an 18-1, four-inning, mercy-rule victory against Oregon.

Mill Creek (4-0) is the No. 1 seed in the Northwest Region semifinals and will play Montana at 7:30 p.m. today at Al Houghton Stadium.

In the other Northwest Region semifinal, Oregon meets Wyoming at 4:30 p.m.

Mill Creek outhit the team from Beaverton, 18-3. The Washington team hit five home runs — a grand slam by Derrick Mahlum, three-run homers by Alex Jondal and Jason Todd and solo homers by Joakim Soderquist and Alec Kisena.

Washington has 55 runs in four games and has allowed six — both tournament bests.

The Northwest Region title game, with a berth to the Little League World Series on the line, is at 6 p.m. Saturday and will be televised on ESPN.

Hydroplane apology

American Boat Racing Association chairman Sam Cole sent an open apology to fans and the media for the confusion that took place in the final of the Chevrolet Cup at Lake Washington on Sunday.

The U-37 Miss Beacon Plumbing boat driven by Jean Theoret took the checkered flag in the race, but was assessed a one-minute penalty, giving the win to Dave Villwock in the Ellstrom Elam Plus. Many fans apparently were unaware of the penalty and did not know Villwock had won.

"We erred in how we failed to get timely information to the fans and the media. This left many of our hydroplane fans that left the race site, turned off your television sets and radios or signed off the internet, wondering who won the race," Cole said in part of his letter.

Carey to Western

Jordan Carey, the Capital High star who was The Seattle Times' state football player of the year in 2002, will play strong safety for Western Washington.

Primarily a wide receiver and running back in high school, he had 2,700 all-purpose yards while leading Capital to the state title game.

Carey played two seasons at Oregon, and as a true freshman he recovered a fumble for a touchdown against Michigan. He was dismissed from the team in 2004 after failing a drug test, according to The Register-Guard in Eugene.

Notes

• Mercer Island has hired ex-Seahawk John Williams (who preceded John L. Williams as a fullback with Seattle) as its interim football coach for this season. Williams most recently worked as an assistant at Eastlake and has also coached at Chief Sealth.

• Washington State wide receiver Daniel Blackledge was not able to practice after suffering a hamstring injury. Coach Paul Wulff said Blackledge was at about 60 percent strength.

Blackledge, a sophomore from Colorado Springs, Colo., is expected to be a starter.

• With Washington Huskies recruit Richard Lee shooting a 4-under 66 and Jarin Todd a 67, the Washington State Golf Association team overcame a five-shot deficit to win the Morse Cup. The Morse Cup is a team competition held concurrently with the first two rounds of the Pacific Coast Amateur at the Royal Colwood Golf Club in Victoria, B.C.

Todd, from Woodinville, is fourth in the Amateur at 134, three shots off the lead. Todd was NCAA Division II player of the year at Sonoma State.

• Rui Li, of Kent, will attempt to defend her title this morning against Stacey Blunt, of Federal Way, at the PNGA Junior Girls' Amateur Championship in Longview. Each won twice Wednesday to get to the title match.

• The Washington men's track and field team was named the Outdoor Scholar Team of the Year by the U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association.

The Huskies placed 16th at the NCAA championships and had a team cumulative GPA of 3.080.

Freelancers John Murphy

and Brandon Scheller

contributed to this report.

Information in this article, originally published August 7, was corrected August 8. A previous version of this story incorrectly stated that Daniel Kingma hit a homer when Alec Kisena did.