Three recent M-P grads are sporting some new duds.
Former Tomahawk baseball players Brandon Kizer, Kyle Mallory and Sean Moser were awarded rings Dec. 29 memorializing their 2008 Northwest Athletic Association of Community Colleges baseball championship.
The 2007 graduates, who played baseball for Marysville-Pilchuck, were bejeweled for their play for Edmonds Community College.
Edmonds has enjoyed a great deal of recent success. This championship was the program’s seventh since 1980 and the first under first-year head coach Brad Ditter who played for the 2002 Edmonds championship team.
“The kids absolutely worked their tails off. They set their goals and their goals were met,” Ditter said. “The way I’d put it is Edmonds is a program built on tradition.”
The NWAACC tournament is a double-elimination bracket. The Tritons won their first round, setting up a meeting with Lower Columbia in the second round, where Edmonds fell. With back-to-back wins, Edmonds earned a rematch against Lower Columbia on the Longview-area school’s home field.
It would take two wins against Lower Columbia to win the tournament.
Kizer, who had a 6-0 record and 2.6 ERA, took the mound in the second game for Edmonds. The Tritons entered the tournament the No. 1 seed in the North with a 38-9 record.
While Lower Columbia has had more NWAACC championships and championship game appearances than Edmonds, the teams had faced each other in the championship game only twice before. Lower Columbia defeated Edmonds for the title in 1992 while Edmonds took it all in 2003.
Kizer pitched five innings for Edmonds, helping the Tritons pull off the 6-4 victory.
Although Mallory saw little playing time against Lower Columbia, the Edmonds freshman played outfield during the season and developed a reputation among his teammates.
“He earned the nickname Dr. Double because he hit a ton of doubles,” Ditter said. Moser redshirted the season.
When the trio of players return for their sophomore season this spring, they’ll be joined by another Tomahawk teammate. Johnny Kruick, a 2008 graduate, will play for Edmonds. Kizer has signed a letter of intent to play for Seattle University starting in 2009-10.
