Walla Walla Sweets
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Walla Walla Sweets
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| Team Information | |
| Location | Walla Walla, Washington |
| Ballpark | Borleske Stadium |
| League | West Coast League |
| Division | East Division |
| Founded | 2009 |
| Inaugural season | 2010 |
| 2015 season record | 22-31 |
| Owner | Pacific Baseball Ventures, LLC |
| President/Chief Operating Officer | Zachary Fraser (7th season) |
| General Manager | Katie Biagi (3rd season) |
| Manager | Frank Mutz (2nd season) |
The Walla Walla Sweets is an amateur baseball team located in Walla Walla, Washington. They play in the West Coast League, a collegiate summer baseball league. Walla Walla calls Borleske Stadium home which has a capacity of 2,378 spectators.
The Sweets were an expansion team for the 2010 season. They set a WCL record for attendance in their first season, drawing 40,461 fans during 28 home games in 2010 (34,824 during league games), good for #23 in the country in overall attendance. Four Sweets gained league recognition, with catcher Elliot Stewart (Cal Poly) being named to the second team All-WCL and pitcher Joey Wagman (Cal Poly), SS Kevin Kuntz (Kansas) and 1B/OF Dennis Holt (UCLA) being named to the honorable mention All-WCL team. GM Zachary Fraser was named the 2010 WCL Executive of the Year.
After a last-place finish in the WCL East division in 2010, the Sweets made significant changes to their roster, specifically bolstering the pitching rotation (a major concern after the inaugural campaign). Opening the season against Corvallis, the Sweets took 2-of-3 at home from the Knights, but the Sweets struggled for the next month. By July 15, the team was in third place in the East, trailing the Bellingham Bells by five games for the wild-card spot with only three weeks left in the regular season. The Sweets then became one of the hottest teams in the WCL, turned around their season and caught the Bells in the last week of the season to earn the WCL East wild-card spot with a 26-28 league record. With the WCL's second-best pitching staff and an improved offense, the Sweets shocked the league by sweeping Wenatchee (who were ranked #3 in the country and had won the regular season division title by 13 games over Walla Walla) two games to none in the division series, winning the WCL East Division as a wild card and earning a spot in the WCL Championship Series. The Sweets magic ran out, as the Knights swept the Sweets. However, the club saw major improvements over the first season. The team had the league MVP in 2011, 2B/SS Alex Stanford of Gonzaga, who also broke the league record for hits in a season (setting the new mark at 66). In addition to once again being a league leader in attendance (ranking 21st in the country, up from #23 and drawing over 54,000 fans), the team placed 6 players on the WCL East All-Star team (C Elliot Stewart, 2B/SS Alex Stanford, OF Andrew Mendenhall, and pitchers Ryan Richardson, Tim Culligan and Brett Watson), as well as the following recognitions for all-WCL performance: Alex Stanford (1st Team All-WCL), Andrew Mendenhall (2nd Team All-WCL), RHP Tim Culligan (2nd Team All-WCL), C Elliot Stewart (Honorable Mention All-WCL), RHP Ryan Richardson (Honorable Mention All-WCL), and LHP Brett Watson (Honorable Mention All-WCL). Richardson led the league in ERA with a 1.53 mark in 53 IP.
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