Crites and Timmons represent Grays Harbor at State All-Stars; Crites voted Co-Player of the Year
Published 1:30 am Wednesday, July 1, 2026
Recent Montesano graduates Toren Crites and Zach Timmons were selected by the Washington State Baseball Coaches Association to play in the state all-star baseball game in Yakima last weekend.
Crites was voted the 2026 Washington State 1A Co-Player of the Year, along with another Bulldog, Cashmere’s Tom McDevitt.
All-star players were chosen from all high school classifications from 1B to 4A after being selected to, and then playing in, ”feeder” games at selected locations across the state soon after the high school state championship games for each classification.
The selected players were then divided into four separate teams that played exhibition games against each other Saturday and Sunday. Crites and Timmons started at shortstop and second base, respectively, on Saturday for their state all-star baseball team and as a sidenote — a week earlier they started at safety and running back for their West All-Star football team at the Earl Barden Football Classic in Yakima.
Crites played shortstop for Montesano and hit .523 with 33 RBIs and 6 stolen bases, and he didn’t know about being voted the state player of the year by the coaches association until he was warming up to hit and heard it from the game announcer.
“I had no idea, I was just standing in the on-deck circle and they announced it,” he said. “I thought, ‘oh cool!’ and then a guy walked up and handed me a plaque. … I got walked after that, but it was awesome.”
Becoming an all-state player as a senior for Crites was redemption for a frustrating junior year that wasn’t up to his standards. Crites described it as “a really bad year, a horrible year.” Coach Mike Osgood later told Crites he “could see [him] winning league MVP next year.”
Crites remembers “being so down in the dumps that it kind of went in one ear and out the other, and so this year I tried to play with confidence … and now I’m looking at places to play college baseball.”
Timmons started at second base and was a switch-hitting leadoff batter for the Bulldogs. A walk or a single was basically a double for Monte because he would usually steal second base. He hit .406 with 5 home runs, 24 RBIs, and 16 stolen bases. He also hit a home run from both sides of the plate this year. He and Crites were Evergreen League Co-MVPs.
Though the all-star games didn’t provide a lot of plays to be made, Timmons thought “it was still a cool experience.”
Timmons felt it was “weird coming out of football and going right back into baseball in a few days so I went to the batting cage a couple of times to get some hitting in and I felt better about it.”
Both Crites and Timmons agreed the two all-star experiences couldn’t be more different. For baseball, the players all “showed up the day of the games and just started playing baseball,” Crites noted.
Timmons recalled for football, “grinding with two-a-day practices in 90-degree heat, getting to know guys and making friends just so we could run a few plays. It was totally different.”
Timmons was voted the West Offensive MVP the week before baseball all-stars and Crites had an interception at safety for the West.
Timmons and Crites’ senior years should be remembered for the rare feat of playing in both of the state all-star games for football and baseball as we count the years until it happens again. As of press time, its last occurrence with a Grays Harbor athlete had not yet been identified, and it happened with two teammates this year.
Timmons summed up the pairs’ thoughts on their intertwined high school careers ending and their accomplishments.
“It’s a strange feeling to think you’re no longer going to be representing Monte, in a way, but it has been cool for us to do both of these things, things that not many people have done,” Timmons said.
