Let’s Play Ball! Wenatchee AppleSox Open ’24 Season at Home Friday Night

The Wenatchee AppleSox open the 2024 season at Paul Thomas Sr. Stadium on the campus of Wenatchee Valley College on Friday night, May 31st with the first of a three game weekend series versus the Port Angeles Lefties.

The first pitch is at 6:35pm on Friday and Saturday night, with a 5:35pm  start on Sunday.

Head Coach Mitch Darlington is back for his third season after the first two highly successful campaigns in Wenatchee.  Darlington is off to the best two-year start for an AppleSox skipper and the first to earn playoff berths in each of his first two seasons.

Darlington's teams have scored the most runs in the West Coast League the last two seasons and improved the team ERA by over a 1.5 runs per game from 2022 to 2023.

Mike Callia returns for his second season as pitching coach after guiding the a remarkable improvement in 2023. Under Callia, AppleSox pitchers turned in their lowest staff ERA since 2012 at 3.35, a dramatic improvement from a the team's  4.88 ERA in 2022.  Callia helped coach Lower Columbia College to their 15th NWAC Championship in the spring of 2023 in his first year as the Director of Player Development and Assistant Pitching Coach.

About the West Coast League: The West Coast League is the West’s premier summer collegiate baseball league. Encompassing Oregon, Washington, British Columbia, and now Alberta, the WCL showcases pro prospects from major collegiate conferences around the nation.  The 2019 MLB amateur draft began with former Corvallis Knight Adley Rutschman selected with the overall No. 1 pick by the Baltimore Orioles, and the 2022 draft featured two West Coast League alumni, Brooks Lee and Gabriel Hughes, among the first 10 picks.

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Darlington is adding a former AppleSox, Xander Orejudos to his staff as an assistant coach.  Orejudos graduated from the University of Jamestown and hit .317 in 37 games with the AppleSox in 2022.

“Xander will bring some really good perspective. I’m really excited to have Xander on this staff and bring him back to Wenatchee. He was supposed to be a 10-day contract but we had a dropout last minute and it all worked out. Xander ended up being a huge key in our success. He became our everyday designated hitter because his bat got hot and it was hard to keep him out of the lineup.”

Monday is Townsquare Media Night with the AppleSox and all TownSquare Media stations partnering to support the Salvation Army Food Bank.  Fans bringing non-perishable food or cash/check donations for Salvation Army, can exchange it for tickets to the game.  The ballpark opens at 5:30 with the first pitch scheduled at 6:35pm