Valley Grown: Former Colony standout leads college team in home runs

WASILLA — A former Colony High School baseball standout has established himself among the top power options for Corban University.

Ben Ross, a 2014 graduate of Colony High School and a Corban senior, leads the Warriors with six home runs. The outfielder has started 37 games for the Salem, Oregon, NAIA program. Ross, also a standout for the Wasilla Road Warriors American Legion baseball program, is third on his team with 27 RBI. Ross has 39 hits and 22 runs, and is batting .271.

The 6-foot-4, 220-pound outfielder joined Corban after two years at Blue Mountain Community College in Pendleton, Oregon. As a sophomore at Blue Mountain, Ross earned first-team All-Northwest Athletic Conference honors and was named Blue Mountain’s most valuable player. He led his squad in both batting average and RBI.

Corban is 21-18 overall and 11-9 in conference play.

A pair of Wasilla High graduates are in their second season at Feather River College in Quincy, California.

Nolan Monaghan, a sophomore lefthanded pitcher, is 3-1 in five starts on the mound this season. He has fanned 24 hitters, while walking only six, in 26 1/3 innnings. Monaghan, who pitched for the Mat-Su Miners of the Alaska Baseball League last summer, has a 2.39 earned run average.

Forster, a redshirt freshman catcher, has appeared in eight games this season. He has two hits in five at-bats.

Feather River is 19-9 and 9-4 in the California Community College Athletic Association.

Minnesota-Crookston senior Jacob Butcher, a Colony High School graduate, leads his team with a dozen appearances on the mound this season. He is 1-1, and has 17 strikeouts in 18 1/3 innings.

Butcher also pitched for the Miners last summer. The Golden Eagles are 10-17 overall.

** Valley Grown is a regular feature highlighting the work of Valley athletes at the next level.