Sports briefs
Wild Things sign former WPIAL pitcher
The Washington Wild Things have added another left-handed pitcher to their staff, this one a former standout in the WPIAL.
Austin Kitchen, a Mt. Lebanon High School and Coastal Carolina product, has signed with the Wild Things for the 2021 Frontier League season.
Kitchen pitched for the Slammin’ Sammies last summer at Wild Things Park.in nine games and sported a 1.50 ERA in a relief role. In 12 innings, Kitchen allowed 10 hits and two walks while striking out 11.
“Getting Austin back in his normal role was our first step. He adjusted quite well to the professional game,” said Wild Things general manager Tony Buccilli. “Austin has the ability to limit hitters from both sides of the plate and he is attacking this offseason with a purpose.”
Kitchen was the Quad-A Pitcher of the Year in 2015 at Mt. Lebanon when he was 6-1 with a 2.29 ERA, striking out 85 batters in 51 innings that year.
At Coastal Carolina, he was 4-0 with two saves as a freshman, when Coastal Carolina won the College World Series.
In baseball
Seven-inning doubleheaders and runners on second base to start extra innings will return for a second straight season under an agreement for 2021 health protocols reached late Monday between Major League Baseball and the players’ association.
The deal did not include last year’s experimental rule to extend the designated hitter to the National League or expanded playoffs. After allowing 16 teams in the postseason last year instead of 10, MLB had proposed 14 for this year before withdrawing that plan last month.
- Major League Baseball players, on-field staff and non-playing personnel who require access to them at ballparks must wear electronic tracing wristbands from the start of spring training and face discipline for violations.
Players will be encouraged to get vaccines but are not required to get them.
That was part of upgraded health protocols agreed to by Major League Baseball and the players’ association to deal with the novel coronavirus pandemic.
- Yadier Molina enjoyed going through the process of free agency for the first time in more than two decades as a pro.
He was even happier that he wound up returning to the St. Louis Cardinals.
The 38-year-old catcher signed a $9 million contract for the upcoming season, ensuring the nine-time Gold Glove winner would remain with the only organization for which he’s played for an 18th season.
Officials: Pilot error caused chopper crash
The pilot who crashed the helicopter carrying Kobe Bryant, killing all nine aboard, made a series of poor decisions that led him to fly blindly into a wall of clouds where he became so disoriented he thought he was climbing when the craft was plunging toward a Southern California hillside, federal safety officials said Tuesday.
The National Transportation Safety Board primarily blamed pilot Ara Zobayan in the Jan. 26, 2020 crash that killed him along with Bryant, the basketball star’s daughter and six other passengers.
Zobayan, an experienced pilot, ignored his training, violated flight rules by flying into conditions where he couldn’t see and failed to take alternate measures, such as slowing down and landing or switching to auto-pilot, that would have averted the tragedy.