Julio Rodriguez Joins MILL's 20th Anniversary Celebration!

To our wonderful Little League Community,

Last Saturday’s Opening Day festivities was a Grand Slam!  A huge thank you to everyone who attended the annual celebration. We had such an exciting day filled with big hits in the Home Run Derby, a surprise visit from Mariners center fielder Julio Rodriguez (that was probably as exciting for the parents as it was for the players) and great weather with lots of sunshine!

Here’s a recap of the day’s events:

Congrats to our Home Run Derby Winners

Majors Softball: Molly Sorensen

Majors Baseball: Brooks Roodman, Phillies

Coast Softball: Emma Christofferson, Maroon Monsoon

Coast Baseball: Maverick McLear, Angels

AAA Softball (tie): Wyatt Allison & Gianna Besecker

AAA Baseball: Ben Schmies, Reds (and kudos to runner up Rollie Engel after a 3-round tie breaker)

And a round of applause to all of the A/AA players who participated in the Mini Home Run Derby on Field 2!

Ceremony highlights

Team photos for our player pitch divisions were captured followed by the annual parade of teams and a welcome address from our President, Jessica Rudolf.  The morning was capped off by encouraging words to Mercer Island's youth baseball and softball players from Julio Rodriguez.  Following his inspirational speech, J-Rod took photos with the home run derby winners and gave out lots of high fives and fist bumps before heading to T-Mobile Park to prepare for a game of his own.  The ceremonial first pitch was thrown by Majors softball player Mila Ehrhardt and caught by Majors softball player Molly Sorenson.  Exciting prizes were raffled off and hundreds of hot dogs and candy bars were consumed! A fun and memorable day was had by all!

Thank you volunteers

We’d like to extend a big THANK YOU to all the volunteers and Little League coaches who made the day possible. A special thank you to Lauren Stangel and Beth Christofferson for Co-Chairing the event, all of our donors and team sponsors, our Emcee Aaron Kornblum, DJ Dilly/Rob Dilworth, MIHS Choir members, MIHS Varsity Baseball and Softball teams, Color Guards from VFW Post 5760, and last but not least, Becky Shaddle for her event leadership and all of the Mercer Island BGC staff for their hard work.

Check out our photo recap

We put together a highlight album on our website.

Parents! Download photos from Opening Day at:

https://adobe.ly/44LahIk 

Thank you MIHS student Yotam Friedman for his stellar photography and providing this album for all to families to access. Additional thanks to Jen Williamson, MIHS Baseball parent, for her photography contributions. 

We hope you enjoy the rest of the Little League season and we look forward to more softball & baseball ahead, including divisional playoffs and All Stars.

See you at the ballpark!

Sincerely, 

The MILL Board