Snoqualmie Valley Hurricanes prepare for opening game June 3

Published 8:30 am Friday, May 27, 2016

Semi-pro baseball teams in the Valley are gearing up to begin the summer season, with the Northwest Honkers starting on Memorial Day weekend and Snoqualmie Valley Hurricanes opening on June 3.

The Northwest Honkers, based in Fall City, will be starting out their season with a tournament in the Tri-Cities on Memorial Day weekend.

Martin Lawrence, general manager and founder of the Northwest Honkers, said his young staff and team will be continuing to foster a friendly and competitive culture.

“We want to create culture within the Honkers of high energy and let the players have a lot of freedom in the way they play. It allows them to experiment with the different styles of baseball and allows them to do their own thing,” he said.

Last year they finished second overall in the Pacific International League (PIL) and are looking to continue to improve.

“As a team we lead the PIL in home runs. The Seattle Studs, who won the world series, did not hit as well as we did,” Lawrence said. “But that didn’t take us very far. Pitching was our weakness and we felt like our pitchers were the same guy. We tried to bring guys with different arm angles and different arm velocities.”

As for the Hurricanes, they have gone independent and will be playing their opening game against the Northwest Honkers at 6 p.m. on Friday, June 3 at Ravensdale Park.

Peter Kairis, founder and general manager of the Hurricanes, is excited to see the team move in a different direction than in previous years.

He said they are looking forward to “just having a good season and building. This year, we are not in the PIL. This year, we are doing what a few other teams are doing, independent semi-pro baseball.”

Being independent gives Kairis and the Hurricanes more control over where their money is spent and how they operate as an organization.

“We still play all the PIL teams and we still get to go to all the tournaments,” he said.

To start this new independent season, the Hurricanes will be playing their opening game at their new home field, Ravensdale Park, in Ravensdale. The park, which has just finished phase one of construction and renovation as part of a multi-phase project, will allow the Hurricanes to have a space for practice and to host home games.

As for the players themselves, Kairis said the year ahead looks good with strong returning players and a brand new pitcher.

“The year looks good, we’ve got a few of the returning players, pitching looks strong,” he said. “We’ve got Ciprian Ortiz. He is a 44-year-old U.S. Marshal, we look to see out of him a left-handed pitcher with a good fastball. He’s got pinpoint accuracy and we picked him up this year.”