Kirby Moore, Cougars Land Three West Coast Recruits for 2027 Class
Washington State head coach Kirby Moore and his staff continue to build momentum on the recruiting trail, landing three notable commitments for the Cougars' future over the past several days. The additions of tight end Owen Yurosek and wide receiver Adrian Barnett strengthen WSU's 2027 class, while three-star receiver Malachi Garlington adds another talented playmaker to the group.
The first commitment came from Yurosek, a 6-4, 215-pound tight end from Bakersfield Christian High School in California. Yurosek chose Washington State over a growing offer list that included Nevada, Fresno State, Hawaii, San Jose State, UNLV, and several other programs. Although he remains unranked by 247Sports, Yurosek possesses the size and frame that college coaches covet at the tight end position. During his junior season, he recorded 13 receptions for 153 yards and a touchdown while showcasing his ability as both a receiving threat and blocker.
Yurosek also comes from a football family, as his older brother, Ben Yurosek, starred at Stanford before signing with the Minnesota Vikings organization. His commitment gives Washington State its first tight end pledge in the 2027 recruiting class and adds another California prospect to the Cougars, a pipeline that Washington State has gone to in the past.
Top Five Moments of Russell Wilson’s Career With Seahawks
In the modern era of sports, it’s hard for iconic athletes to have truly storybook endings. They constantly change teams. Athletes are hard-wired to never know when to quit, which makes it harder for them to end their careers on the same team they started with. Typically, their careers end after bouncing from team to team, trying to hold on to the last bit of glory.
For Russell Wilson, that was what it turned into. In an alternate universe, he is finishing his 14th season with the Seahawks, well on his way to Canton and the Seahawks’ Ring of Honor. As we all now, life does not always go according to plan. After a solid decade in Seattle, the two sides parted ways. Seahawks general manager John Schneider swung perhaps the biggest trade in franchise history, dealing Wilson to the Denver Broncos along with a 2022 fourth round pick in exchange for two first round picks (2022 and 2023), two second rounders (2022 and 2023), a 2022 fifth round pick, Drew Lock, Noah Fant and Shelby Harris.
By now, we all know this was one of the most lopsided trades in recent NFL history. His Broncos career was short-lived, going 11-19 in two seasons as the starter. It was something of an ugly divorce between Wilson and the Sean Payton-led Broncos, leaving some burnt bridges behind. Wilson bounced around, earning starts for the Steelers and Giants over the last two seasons before finally announcing his retirement this week.
When fans think of Russell Wilson the football player, they likely will forever picture him in a Seahawks uniform. He rewrote the passing record books in Seattle. Changed the entire complexion of the franchise. Truly, he is one of the greatest Seahawks of all-time. Let’s look back at the best five moments of his career in Seattle, which likely earned him a spot in the franchise’s Ring of Honor. These are in chronological order.
Cooper Kupp, Seahawks Aiming to Keep Championship ‘Standard’ in Brian Fleury’s Offense
Learning a new offense for the third straight season under a new coordinator in Brian Fleury during the heat of OTA workouts, Seattle Seahawks receiver Cooper Kupp discusses how the new play caller has done a fine job of meshing his system with the team’s personnel and upheld the lofty standards set by the defending Super Bowl champions so far.
Takeaways: Sam Darnold, Rashid Shaheed Connection Blossoming at Seahawks OTAs
Nearing the midway point of Phase 3 of their offseason program as the 2026 season draws closer, the Seattle Seahawks returned to the practice field for the second of three OTA practices open to media on Wednesday.
What stood out at the VMAC? Starting with an encouraging development for Seattle’s passing attack, here are five takeaways from Wednesday’s session:
1. The Sam Darnold to Rashid Shaheed connection appears to have been upgraded in their first full offseason together.
Coming over from the Saints in the latest trade deadline steal orchestrated by John Schneider, Shaheed left his imprint on the Seahawks’ Super Bowl run functioning as special teams dynamite, returning two kickoffs and a punt for touchdowns, including a kick return for six points on the opening play of a Divisional Round blowout of the 49ers. But as a pass catcher, he didn’t have near as much success as fans may have hoped, struggling to emerge as a consistent weapon complementing Offensive Player of the Year Jaxon Smith-Njigba with just 15 catches for 188 yards and no touchdowns in nine regular season games.
Cougars’ Magical Season Concludes With Blowout Loss to Beavers
The Washington State Cougars’ remarkable 2026 baseball season came to an end Sunday afternoon with a 10-1 loss to Oregon State in an elimination game at the NCAA Eugene Regional.
The Cougars opened the regional with a stunning 3-2 victory over the Beavers on Friday, earning a spot in the winners bracket. The win evened the season series between the two programs at two games apiece. While the final result was disappointing for Wazzu fans, it did little to overshadow one of the most memorable and successful seasons in recent program history, highlighted by Washington State's first NCAA Tournament appearance since 2010.
Washington State entered the regional having already exceeded expectations. The Cougars shocked Oregon State in the opener behind a complete-game performance from left-hander Nick Lewis. That victory set up a winners bracket matchup against regional host Oregon.
Pereda, Mariners Clobber Mets 8-3; Win Streak Extends to Eight
It’s not clear exactly which Mariner defined the team’s resounding 8-3 victory on Tuesday night. Perhaps it was catcher Jhonny Pereda, whose putaway homer represented a recovery from the canonical worst experience for a catcher to have. Or maybe it was Colt Emerson, who increased his OPS to .935 with a pair of hits and who finished off the game with a sweet sliding catch. A case could be made for Patrick Wisdom, who logged his first Mariners home run and got the hitting party started way back in the second.
All three of those, it might be noted, began 2026 with the Triple-A Tacoma Rainiers.
But regardless of whoever may be first among equals, the Mariners had a steadily stiffening hold on the game from start to finish. Even when the visiting Mets tied it up in the third, Seattle kept the pressure going against bulk hurler Jonah Tong and New York soon cracked. And the M’s finally logged a string of three straight series wins.
“Boy, if I had the magic touch, we’d keep it forever,” Wilson said of his team’s eight-game win streak. “Sometimes that’s just the game, and we’ve talked about how offense is contagious, and it just feels like the energy offensively has been outstanding … we’ve seen just how exciting it can be when it gets that way.”
Patrick Wisdom knocked his first Mariners homer to put Seattle up 2-0 early.
Coming into Tuesday’s game, the Mariners had hit a grand total of 18 home runs in their previous seven contests, a pace of 2.57 homers per game. That isn’t going to be sustainable over the long term; the highest figure a team has ever posted was a tie between the 2023 Atlanta Braves and 2019 Minnesota Twins at 1.90 home runs per game. But it was a marked upturn from Seattle’s 1.11 home runs per game figure, and after Tuesday, the M’s have hit 1.31 home runs per game in all of 2026.
Huskies Reel in Four-Star WR Tre Moore to Add to 2027 Class
Landing their first prospect from the state of Texas for their Class of 2027, the Washington Huskies beat out Ohio State and Miami for the commitment from standout receiver Tre Moore, adding playmaking juice to an increasingly exciting crop of recruits.
Emerald City Spectrum reporter Aaron Coe breaks down Moore's decision to pick the Huskies over two of college football's true blue blood programs and how his arrival can boost Jedd Fisch's offense in the near future.
Gonzaga Baseball Loses Big Pieces as Mikey Bell, Landon Hood Enter Transfer Portal
After suddenly bowing out of contention for an NCAA postseason spot following their 0-2 showing at the WCC tournament, Gonzaga baseball has received even more tough news in the early stages of its offseason.
Third baseman Mikey Bell and right-handed pitcher Landon Hood have each entered the transfer portal, leaving sizable voids on the Zags’ roster in their wake. Both of them are coming off award-winning campaigns for their individual performances in Spokane, but the next year of their baseball lives will be played elsewhere.
The two are in different stages as collegiate athletes. Bell will be a redshirt senior in 2027 after playing one season at Cuesta Community College before winning back-to-back West Coast Player of the Year awards as a Bulldog. Hood, on the other hand, graduated from Canyon Year High School a year ago and took home WCC Freshman of the Year honors. He is now looking for the best destination for his development as a rising arm with growing intrigue in a future MLB Draft, entering the portal with a “do not contact" tag.
MVP Season Loading? Mariners' Julio Rodriguez Off to Best Start of Career
Every Seattle Mariners fan knows this fact: Typically, Julio Rodriguez is a slow starter every season. Once the spring chill turns to summer heat, so does his bat. For the first four seasons of his MLB career, his average OPS through the end of May each season has been .716. Far below his career mark, which is flirting with .800.
This season, however, he seems to be bucking that trend, coinciding with Seattle starting to get hot right before the temperatures match.
It’s made his stats so jarring so far this season. Even with some of the Mariners lineup taking most of April to thaw, Rodriguez has been a steady presence. Let’s take a look at his numbers each season through the end of May.
Analysis: Seahawks Wise to Commit to Derick Hall, Lock Up Young EDGE Through 2029
Back in March, the Seattle Seahawks allowed former second round pick Boye Mafe to walk in free agency, watching the pass rusher bolt to join the Cincinnati Bengals a little over a month after helping the team win Super Bowl LX.
As the saying goes, NFL teams can’t keep everybody with salary cap limitations, and that’s especially the case for defending champions. Tough decisions have to be made with the understanding quality players will flee the nest for greener pastures.
By choosing not to bring back Mafe, the Seahawks suddenly faced significant questions with their EDGE group beyond 2026 with only one known commodity - veteran Demarcus Lawrence, who had been the subject of consistent retirement rumors throughout the spring - under contract beyond this upcoming season. The organization faced a real possibility that all four of their primary pass rushers from last year’s Super Bowl run could be either in a different uniform or hanging up their cleats by 2027.
But general manager John Schneider ensured Seattle won’t have to worry about such a disastrous situation coming to fruition on Tuesday, inking rising outside linebacker Derick Hall to a three-year deal reportedly worth $42 million and potentially carrying a maximum value of $46.5 million, tying him to the franchise through the 2029 season.
Cole Young Walks Mets Off; Mariners Win Seventh Straight
A baseball club in Seattle is showing that when it rains, it pours. Through May 24, the team went 7-12 in one-run games and lost four out of five extra-innings contests. Since then, the M’s have won three of each, with all the luck falling their way even in games where they leave quite a lot on the table.
All three of those have been walk-off wins, each from the bat of a different Mariner. Monday’s hero in the end was Cole Young, but unlike the others, there was a notable uniqueness to his hit. During the game, 22 players had plate appearances on Monday night. Four had hit home runs, but other than Young, no hitter had found a patch of green grass or evaded the waiting glove of an opponent.
Mariners manager Dan Wilson smirked as he described his team’s “flair for the dramatic” after the game, the team’s second straight 3-2 10-inning victory. That was certainly an understatement, though the drama started with dueling lineup card moves between the managers.
Seattle tried to play coy with the lineup against the Mets opener, but the visitors got the hurling they sought.
For the first time all year, the Mariners faced a team going with the fabled “opener” strategy, with listed starter Austin Warren being a bullpen arm tasked with beginning the game. That setup has its issues, but so had Manaea; the once-blockbuster signing entered the game with a 5.56 ERA entirely as a relief arm.
Instant Takeaways: Storm Post Least Points Since 2022 in Crushing Loss to Wings
The Seattle Storm posted their second-worst offensive output since 2022 in a deflating 79-56 loss to the Dallas Wings in the first game of the WNBA Commissioner’s Cup on Monday, June 1, at College Park Center.
Seattle (3-7) scored just 37 points in the first three quarters before making the defeat look a bit more respectable in garbage time. Dallas (6-3) pulled down 12 more offensive rebounds and took an astounding 20 more shots than the Storm.
If that wasn’t enough to doom the Storm, they lost the turnover battle 17-8. It felt like the rock bottom of the Storm’s now seven-game stretch without both Dominique Malonga (concussion) and Ezi Magbegor (foot).
Winning Fixes Everything: Mariners Enter June in Excellent Shape
Rarely does a 2 ½ game lead seem so wide. Yet with the way the Mariners are playing and the roster they have, there is a very real possibility that the third month of the season cements them as clear AL West leaders. They do, after all, play in the game’s weakest division this year.
FanGraphs’ projections are often seen as the gold standard for playoff chances, often given without comparison as the stone cold definitive odds. According to FanGraphs’ default projections, the M’s have a 67.7% chance to win the division.
Baseball Prospectus’ PECOTA has been even more bullish on the M’s from the jump, and their current figure is 78.9%. Even models that weight games played more heavily than preseason projections have the M’s at a greater than 50/50 chance to keep the crown: Neil Paine’s Elo model gives Seattle a 57.7% chance to win the West while FanGraphs’ season-to-date projections give the M’s a 56.3% chance.
But the thing about streaks is that they end. After all, this is a game where a team can throw eight no-hit innings and lose 13-8. Where do the M’s need to see improvement in June, and what has to happen to keep their hot players going?
Seahawks’ Road to Super Bowl Repeat Becomes Far Trickier Following Pair of Blockbuster Trades
Closing in on a new season as the reigning Super Bowl champions, the Seattle Seahawks will have massive targets on their backs every single week, and rivals have already started throwing darts aiming for the bullseye two months before training camp even begins.
Kicking off the month of June with a rare flurry of blockbuster deals for the early summer, the Los Angeles Rams traded a 2027 first round pick, 2028 second round pick, and 2029 third round pick along with defensive end Jared Verse to the Cleveland Browns to acquire superstar pass rusher Myles Garrett. Shortly after, the New England Patriots executed their own blockbuster to give quarterback Drake Maye a new No. 1 weapon, trading a 2028 first round pick and 2027 fifth round pick to the Philadelphia Eagles for standout receiver A.J. Brown.
Of those two moves, the Brown deal carries the most significance in terms of immediacy, as the Seahawks will see Brown donning a silver shell, white jersey, and nautical blue pants right out of the gate in their season opening Super Bowl LX rematch versus the Patriots at Lumen Field. The talented receiver will be reunited with coach Mike Vrabel after previously spending several seasons together in Tennessee and will replace Stefon Diggs as the team’s top pass catcher atop a significantly different receiving corps.
Seawolves Sweep Coffee Cup, Overcome Mistakes in 36-28 Win against Free Jacks
TUKWILA, Wash. - There was no doubt who would be hoisting the Coffee Cup when 80 minutes expired on Sunday. The visitors may have been the defending MLR champions three times over, but their down year combined with a late Seawolves surge led to Seattle sweeping the trophy.
It was a game that didn’t necessarily look great for either side; in the end, it was a determination of which team would get in their own way less than the other. But the Seawolves emerged victorious in their 36-28 battle against the New England Free Jacks and put themselves in a winner-gets-home-field game against the California Legion.
With the Legion having won their penultimate game against Anthem 55-26, the Seawolves needed a win to keep open the possibility of getting the second seed and a home playoff match. And with the five-point showing they put together on Sunday night, there are a lot of winning scenarios against California that put Seattle into that seed.
Despite being the three-time defending MLR champions, the Free Jacks came into Sunday night’s game in quite a beatable shape. New England had just 16 points with a 5-3-0 record, fifth in the table ahead of only Anthem Rugby Carolina. But the middle of the table remained tight going into the second-to-last week; New England could tie things up with Seattle by getting all five points and keeping the Seawolves to none.
Seattle’s lineup was almost identical to their match in Chicago the previous week, though with Charlie Walsh and Michael Hand in the reserves instead of Dewald Donald and Nolan Tuamoheloa.
Jordan Horston’s Resurgence Encouraging For Storm
Before the start of the 2026 season, Seattle Storm wing Jordan Horston hadn’t played basketball in 15 months. Horston tore her ACL while competing in Athletes Unlimited during the WNBA offseason and missed the entire 2025 season.
It’s been a slow ramp-up period for Horston so far this season, as she’s played in all nine games thus far while on a minutes restriction. She’s been steadily contributing on defense, but the offensive side has been a struggle for the former 2023 No. 9 overall pick.
In her first eight games, Horston averaged just 3.0 points (27.3% FG), 3.3 rebounds, 1.1 assists, 1.0 steals and 0.4 blocks per game in 17.5 minutes. She hadn’t been playing up to her starting role, and the Storm have been struggling overall.
Horston finally started to look like her old self in the Storm’s most recent game — a 93-72 loss to the Toronto Tempo. Even though it was a loss, Horston tied her season high of 22 minutes and finished with 15 points, four rebounds, one assist and four steals.
Analysis: Should Kraken Re-Sign Jaden Schwartz or Let Him Walk?
On July 21, 2021, the Seattle Kraken held their “expansion draft” to build their first ever team, setting sights on constructing a roster that would allow them to be competitive right away.
But in the present, there are not many “Day 1” Kraken players left from that inaugural team after making just one playoff trip in five seasons. Seattle’s two goalies, Joey Daccord and Philipp Grubauer, remain on the team. Among skaters, Adam Larsson, Jared McCann, Vince Dunn, and captain Jordan Eberle are still with the franchise.
A few of those original members of the team are set to be free agents this offseason in Jamie Oleksiak and Jaden Schwartz.
While Jaden Schwartz was not part of the actual draft, Seattle signed him that summer to a five-year, $27.5 million contract. That deal is now expiring after he totaled 79 goals and 168 points over the life of the contract, ranking fourth and fifth in franchise history respectively.
Reign Fall to Spirit, Dip Under .500 Ahead of June Break
The Seattle Reign were dealt their third loss in five matches on Saturday afternoon, as they fell to the Washington Spirit 2-1 on a late goal from Hal Hershfelt.
Seattle (4-5-2) has notoriously struggled to score recently, putting a five-game scoreless streak behind it with a 2-1 win at Boston last week. Though the Reign got on the board on Saturday, it was an unforced error as Lucia Di Guglielmo chipped her own keeper, USWNT prospect Sandy MacIver, trying to keep the ball away from Maddie Mercado on a break-out play.
By the end of the match, Seattle had put just two shots on target for an underwhelming 0.5 expected goals while giving up 1.8 to a dynamic Spirit team on the other end. Washington and USWNT star Trinity Rodman burned Seattle's right side most of the day, creating multiple chances and assisting on Hershfelt's transition winner.
The loss dropped the Reign to 10th place in the NWSL, with Seattle losing three of its last five to enter the June CBA/World Cup break on a slide. The Reign will have until July 4 at North Carolina to process this result with 19 matches to go.
Mariners Groove Back Over .500, Take Game 2 vs. Diamondbacks
Emerald City Spectrum reporter Callaghan Bluechel goes over the Mariners' Saturday win against the Diamondbacks, their position in the AL West, and what has produced their five-game win streak.
Kraken the Ice: Can Berkly Catton Elevate Game Entering Second NHL Season?
The Seattle Kraken face a pivotal offseason as top prospect Alexis Bernier signed his entry-level deal and rookie standout Berkly Catton looks to elevate his game. Can the franchise finally unlock the full potential of its young stars and transform player development woes into progress?
Emerald City Spectrum writer Nick Lee breaks down Bernier’s arrival from the QMJHL and examines Catton’s growth after his rookie campaign, raising crucial questions about the organization’s talent pipeline. The episode also spotlights veteran Jaden Schwartz’s uncertain future as free agency nears, emphasizing Seattle’s pressing need for fresh scoring talent and a youth infusion. Get ready for insider analysis on roster challenges, draft positioning, and which pending free agents—like Jamie Oleksiak—could define the Kraken’s next chapter.
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