Jun 18, 2018 4 min read

Things Roa named Player of Week

For the second consecutive week, a Washington Wild Things outfielder has been named the Frontier League Player of the Week by Pointstreak, the official statistical provider of the league. Right fielder Hector Roa won this week’s award Monday after leading Washington to a 4-2 road trip.

Center fielder James Harris was named the Player of the Week last Monday and Chase Cunningham was the Pitcher of the Week. It is the first time since August of 2014 that Washington has had players win league awards in consecutive weeks.

Roa, who in his second season with the Wild Things after playing in the Houston Astros’ farm system for five years, batted .462 for the week, going 12-for-26 with three home runs, seven runs, two walks and 10 RBI. Each of Roa’s home runs came in the series at Gateway and he added seven hits in the weekend series at Southern Illinois. The efforts of the past week helped Roa raise his batting average to .313.

Traverse City’s Jordan Desguin was named the Pitcher of the Week. Desguin allowed one run in nine innings and improved his record to 4-0.

Roa and Desguin both will be at Wild Things Park Tuesday night when Washington opens a three-game series with the Beach Bums.

Norwin to host Class 5A football final

Norwin High School will host the WPIAL Class 5A football championship game this fall, the WPIAL announced Monday.

The WPIAL also considered North Allegheny and Geneva College’s Reeves Field. A four-person WPIAL committee visited each of the sites and unanimously recommended Norwin, citing the stadium’s large capacity, press box and parking.

The Class 5A game will be the only WPIAL football final not played at a professional or college venue this season. It also will be the first time in more than three decades that a WPIAL championship game will be played at a high school field.

Penguins prospect injured in campfire

A player from the Lethbridge Hurricanes hockey team is in a medically induced coma after he and two others were injured at a campfire on the weekend.

In a joint news release, the Western Hockey League, the Hurricanes and the families involved said Ryan Vandervlis, a 20-year old centre with the elite major junior team, suffered severe burns.

His family said that he’s been placed in a medically induced coma due to his injuries.

“He is receiving exceptional medical care in an intensive-care unit in Calgary,” Barb, Rene, Cara, Sean and Rachel Vandervlis said in a statement. “He remains in critical condition.”

Two others – Jordy Bellerive, a Pittsburgh Penguins prospect, and alumnus Matt Alfaro, who now plays for the University of Calgary Dinos – were also injured.

Bellerive, 19, and Alfaro, 21, are both in stable condition.

The Penguins said they’ve been in contact with Bellerive, who is “in good spirits and expected to make a full recovery.”

Alfaro’s university team also posted a statement on Twitter.

“Dinos representatives have been in communication with the Alfaro family as Matt recovers in a Calgary hospital,” said the Dinos. “We appreciate the support expressed for Matt and the two representatives of the Lethbridge Hurricanes involved.”

The WHL said the campfire took place at the family home of Hurricanes alumnus Tyler Wong.

Wong’s family said that nine of his friends came over to stay the night before going golfing and camping on Saturday.

“In starting a campfire, the accident occurred,” said the Wong family in their statement.

It said that both Wong’s parents were at home and they quickly transported the injured to hospital.

Alberta Health Services said an ambulance intercepted the car and took them the rest of the way to Calgary.

Cochrane RCMP have said they are investigating what happened at the fire, in the Bearspaw area of Rocky View County, but they have determined that a substance was placed into a fire pit that caused an explosion.

The Vandervlis family said alcohol wasn’t a factor.