Binder drives home championship winning run for Wildcats

Edgewood College junior Steve Binder hit an unconventional sacrifice fly in the 10th inning to drive home the winning run for the Seaside Wildcats in the Northwest Collegiate League title game. Binder's liner to right allowed teammate Kyle Hallett to score. Hallett had been advanced to third base on a single by Edgewood College junior Alex Berta. It was the Wildcats' first NWCL title. Read the entire championship game story here:

Seaside Wildcats win first NWCL title (courtesy of Kevin Heimbigner at the Daily Astorian)

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The Seaside Wildcats have been the home team for Edgewood College baseball players Steve Binder and Alex Berta for the last two months. The local paper, the Daily Astorian, recently published an article about the team, which featured both Steve and Alex, as well as their parents.

"Take me out to the ball game: Wildcats find success in Seaside, but need more fans to fill stands" (courtesy of David Holley at the Daily Astorian)

Softball Karaoke Series #1

Welcome to the first of many installments of our Edgewood College softball team karaoke series. When you're on a 26-hour bus ride to Florida, there's really no better way to pass the time than grabbing the driver's intercom and belting out a few tunes.

The first video in the series is Brittany Rynes, a freshman from Ithaca, singing "Online" as made famous by Brad Paisley. You can vote for which video you'd like to see next. At the bottom of the page, I've given you two choices. Use the "Comment" feature to register your vote and select which Eagle star will be featured next. You can see more videos at Edgewood College's YouTube channel, "Videos from the Edge."


Brittany Rynes - "Online"

VOTE for the next installment in the series. Click on "Comments" and tell me whether you'd like to see:

A. Jamie Kurt singing "Ain't no Mountain High Enough"
B. Monica Humphrey singing "Famous in a Small Town"

Summer League Baseball: Alex Berta

Well as our season is coming to a close so is my blogging career. Since Steve last blogged we have been playing well. Our record currently sits at 24-9. We have been in a number of “round robin” tournaments over the past couple weekends within our league and also with non-league teams. This past weekend was spent in Bend, Oregon.

Going to Bend was a pretty neat experience. It is a nice city stuck in the middle of a couple of mountains. It gets very hot there and is very dry. The team that was hosting the tournament is part of the Pacific Coast League. We played the host team, the Bend Elks of Friday night. There were about 1,600 fans there. It was a great atmosphere for a game and the weather couldn’t have been better. We ended up beating them 10-6. It was a great win for our team because it was against a team that was full of Oregon State, University of Washington, and Santa Clara University players among others. The rest of the weekend went well as we were 2-1 after that.

This week we are heading as a team to Seattle to watch the Mariners take on the Boston Red Sox. Steve is wearing his Manny jersey to off-set his mohawk that I disapprove of. I think it must be his way of dealing with not being able to watch the Cubs every day.

We have about two more weeks of baseball left to play here in the Northwest. We play some games at home before we head to California to finish the season in Humboldt and Yuba City. Steve and I are going to leave for our road trip home from California. We are planning on catching a San Francisco Giants game as well as Colorado Rockies game on the way.

Overall the experience has been great. We couldn’t ask for anything more out of it. The time definitely flew by and we're trying to enjoy it as much as possible.

Zwaga caught in dangerous game of life and breath

Edgewood College baseball recruit Zach Zwaga knew something wasn't right as he struggled through game after game for Heartland Community College last season. He was suffering from shortness of breath and lack of energy. After visiting the doctor the cause was almost more surprising than the symptoms...

HCC's Zwaga caught in a dangerous game of life, breath
(A feature story courtesy of Randy Kindred and the Pantagraph of Bloomington, Ill.)

Aiyenero's hat trick highlights PSC56 rout

Edgewood College assistant women's soccer coach Henry Aiyenero (at left, with Edgewood College sophomore Laura Marx) scored a hat trick in a 7-0 victory for the Princeton-56ers over the Milwaukee Bavarians in a National Premier Soccer League contest at Warner Park.

Read the full story and see the box score here, courtesy of Madison Soccer Central

Summer League Baseball: Matt Werner

Well we are more than halfway through the season looking at the last 13 games, with considerable ground to make up to get into the playoffs. For me the biggest difference has been the change from metal to wood bats. I would say it has been a very painful learning experience because wood definitely stings your hands a lot more than a metal bat. I think the change has been positive for Matt Krueger (right) though because his high velocity fastball has put more bats back in the lumber yard than a chainsaw. I have regrettably sacrificed three bats to the league’s pitchers and hoping that I won’t have to break in another for the rest of the season.

For others I would have to say that the altitude and the climate have been the biggest factor in their play. The low amount of oxygen in the air here and the highly dry climate has had some people running for moisturizer (yes, I said moisturizer) and chapstick along with the water cooler every inning. Playing at high altitude can be a factor for players at first in the mountainous region because the body does not receive the usual amount of oxygen as per their own state’s climates. But with time the lungs make the adjustment and players go back to their own states with better conditioned lungs.

Getting to know our coaches has been a great experience because they have had to get to know each other and us as well. Two of the coaches are rivals in a junior college league in Iowa and the third is a former Edgewood College coach who came into the team teaching the same thing he taught me before, hitting. It’s been fun being treated like a professional team with owners, a general manager, coaches, staff, trainer, and a team doctor. Not only do we have those perks but we had an all-star game with our respective state hats Colorado versus Wyoming. Colorado won a hard fought game 4-2 with the fireworks being supplied by Keith Martin of Fort Collins who started our offensive charge with a home run to right field. The game was real fun getting to meet the other players from the Foxes and getting to see everyone playing on the same field.

I hope I can write again letting everyone know we are the league champions!

Summer League Baseball: Cory McCullick

With about three weeks left, things are starting to heat up as we approach the home stretch. Over the past couple of weeks we have been bouncing in and out of first place. We currently sit 2.5 games back of the league leader with some important games in the near future.

Weather has continued to be great, about 90 during the day and cooling down just in time for the game. We finish the season with our last road trip starting Monday, and then are home for the rest of the regular season. Our all star break is three days next week that will give those who do not make the team or want to go work out for scouts, some time to go home and see friends and family.

On the few off days we have had, many of the guys have taken advantage of the free movie deal we have at a local theater. In our free time we have also been able to do some fishing, visit a nearby water park, and spend quality time in our lovely trailer.

It has been a lot of fun to become close friends with guys from all around the country. We have learned not only from their different styles of baseball, but some of their weird habits and numerous words that we can not understand in their southern accent.

We quickly learned that in this fairly small town, baseball is about all these people have to do in the summer. So as the regular season winds down, we are looking to make one last push to take over first place and make our owners, and the town of Fulton proud.

Summer League Baseball: Steve Binder

Everything is looking up. The weather finally resembled summer, and just in time for a five game weekend. We swept it, starting off with three wins over the Central Oregon Bucks who entered the weekend 5-0 in conference play. Our record improved to 13-3.

Our team has come together nicely as we’ve spent more time together. Something fun we do before games and after practices is a Kangaroo Court. For those of you unfamiliar with this, it is when three judges are appointed to decide on anything and everything guys from the team feel like bringing up against another person on the team. For example, Alex and I were late to pick up one of our teammates for a movie, and he brought it up during court. Both sides argue their points, and the judges make a decision. Whoever loses is fined $0.25, and all the money goes towards a get-together at the end of the season. It is a fun way to crack some jokes and hear some pretty funny stories.

When we are not playing, Alex and I are hard at work making some money. I got a job with my host family at Bruce’s Candy Kitchen, their family owned candy shop that is highly regarded along the north coast. I get to make saltwater taffy, caramel corn, as well as any jobs they need done. Alex is working at the Nike Outlet, where he gets an employee discount that has come in handy already. We are both beginning to resemble Nike spokesmen.

This weekend we will be playing in Portland, hoping to add four more wins to our record. Until then, so long from Seaside, Oregon.