THE FRONT ROW with MARK NELKE: Manzardo's impressive spring, and other stuff

Kyle Manzardo, the former Lake City High and Washington State baseball star, was reassigned to the Tampa Bay Rays’ minor-league camp last Saturday.

But not before the lefty hitting first baseman made an impression with the big club during spring training.

Manzardo, a second-round draft pick of the Rays in 2021, hit .333 (9 for 27) with two homers, two doubles and nine RBIs. He struck out eight times and walked three times, and made “maybe as good of an impression as anybody in camp,” Rays manager Kevin Cash told the Tampa Bay Times. “It’s really cool to see a guy come in that you hear a lot about and not just back it up but do more than back it up.

“It’s easy to put comps on guys — I won’t do that with him — but he’s talented, and he’s got a knack for getting the barrel to the bat. He’s hit everywhere he’s been. Hopefully he keeps hitting, and we’ll see him.”

“That’s kind of what you come here hoping to do is play well, show the big guys what you can do, what your game is,” Manzardo, one of 11 non-roster invites reassigned to minor-league camp, told the Times. “I feel like my play was a good representation of who I am as a player.”

In 2022, Manzardo was chosen as the Rays’ top minor-league player.

After getting 43 at-bats with Tampa Bay’s Rookie League team after being drafted in 2021, Manzardo split the 2022 season with High-A Bowling Green and Double-A Montgomery.

He hit .329 in 225 at-bats at Bowling Green, with 17 homers and 55 RBIs before being promoted. At Montgomery, he hit .323 in 99 at-bats, with five homers and 26 RBIs.

He’s projected to start at Triple-A Durham this year.

How long he remains there … remains to be seen.

Tampa Bay is scheduled to visit Seattle for a three-game set June 30-July 2.

BEFORE BOBBI Hazeltine went on to make a name for herself as a coach at Troy High and, currently, as head women’s basketball coach at Walla Walla Community College, she played basketball at North Idaho College.

Her coach with the Cardinals that first season — Gay Winger, mother of recent state-title-winning coach Jim Winger of Lake City boys basketball.

“She was hired to revive a really bad women’s basketball program that hadn’t won in years,” Hazeltine recalled. “We won some games with Gay. Jim and Mike Winger (her other son) were little boys who tagged along to practice every day. I will never forget it.

“Gay only coached one year (at NIC), and then we had Greg Crimp (as women’s coach),” Hazeltine continued. “But I’ll never forget the year she coached. So, seeing the picture of her in the newspaper (last week, hugging Lake City’s players after a victory at the state tournament) brought back a lot of memories.”

TURNED OUT to be quite the pitchers duel in Kooskia the other day.

In the first game, junior Jessica Ketola of Clearwater Valley struck out 20 in eight shutout innings against St. Maries, walked one and allowed three hits.

Senior Taci Watkins of St. Maries fanned 16, walked three and gave up one hit in 7.1 innings. The game’s only run scored in the bottom of the eighth when the ghost runner came home on an error by the Lumberjacks.

In the second game, Watkins struck out 12, walked one and allowed two hits in a 9-0 victory. Ketola struck out 13 and walked two, but was touched for 13 hits and eight earned runs.

Mark Nelke is sports editor of The Press. He can be reached at 208-664-8176, Ext. 2019, or via email at mnelke@cdapress.com. Follow him on Twitter @CdAPressSports.