Competing on the same field as his big-league heroes, Lake Stevens Little League baseball player Cody LaCoursiere placed third in the 13-14 age division Sunday during the team championship of Major League Baseball’s Pitch, Hit and Run competition at Safeco Field in Seattle.
Each major-league team crowns a champion. Of the 30 team champs, the three with the best scores move on to the national finals to be contested during the All-Star Game festivities in July in Minneapolis.
On Sunday, LaCoursiere won the running and pitching portions, but placed third among the three finalists in hitting. The hitting competition, where a ball is hit off a tee, is judged for both distance and accuracy — the goal being to hit the ball deep to straightaway center field. Cody’s father, Chad, said his son crushed a ball, but it sailed into right center field.
“It was an awesome hit, but unfortunately it wasn’t great for accuracy,” Chad LaCoursiere said. “By the time it was measured back to the line, he lost a lot of distance on it. Unfortunately, when all the scores were totaled he was in third. The hitting is a heavy scoring event. You get two points for each foot the ball traveled. Cody probably hit about 230 or so to right field — it was an awesome hit — but by the time it came back to the tape, it was only about 160 feet (for scoring) points.”
Cody LaCoursiere and the other competitors were introduced in a pregame ceremony at Sunday’s Rangers-Mariners game. He also received a shirt and hat — which he wore to school Monday before his tryout for the Lake Stevens Little League All-Stars — and a plaque.
“It was a once in a lifetime experience,” Chad LaCoursiere said. “It meant a lot to him. He was just proud that he made it. He said, ‘Not a lot of kids get out here, dad. And I made it.’”
Soap Box Derby
Tayler Steen won the Super Stock Division and Ronan Johnson placed first in the Stock Division on Saturday at the seventh annual Windemere Stanwood Camano Island Soap Box Derby.
A total of 55 drivers competed in the event. Other winners included Jackson Houston of Stanwood (Sportsmanship), Ella Conway of Camano Island (Best in Show Super Stock) and Teddy Shipley of Camano Island (Best in Show Stock).
Football
Two members of the Everett Red Raiders, a club football team comprised largely of students from Everett Community College, have signed to play the coming season at four-year schools, head coach Tim Dennis said.
Preston Landon, a graduate of Shorecrest High School, will play at Kentucky Christian University, an NAIA school that plans to move to NCAA Division II in 2016.
Also, Ryan Lacoste, a Marysville Getchell grad, has accepted a partial football scholarship from Mayville State in North Dakota.
The Red Raiders, champions of the Northwest Junior College Football League in 2011, 2012 and 2013, open their nine-game 2014 season in late August.
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