YAKIMA – East Valley graduate Brandon Stone was again an active part of the annual All-State Baseball Series at Yakima Valley College’s Parker-Faller Field.

Only this time, Stone wasn’t a key gofer for event organizer and former Red Devils coach Jesse Benedetti. Saturday, the Washington State-bound standout was playing shortstop for Team Baker, and batted second in the order.

The 2025 CWAC MVP who again was a first-team all-conference selection this past spring delivered a two-run double in the top of the second inning, and scored a run in the first after being hit by a pitch.

Team Baker roughed up Team Adams 15-2 to advance to Sunday afternoon’s championship at 1:45 against the Team Rainier, which beat Team St. Helens 26-8. 

Othello's Aiden Garza was named the game's MVP. The right-hander started the game and pitched three innings, and gave up no earned runs and struck out four. 

His Huskies teammate Quade Gonzalez batted fifth for Team Rainier, and was strong at the plate and on defense.

This weekend continues a busy summer for Stone. After graduating earlier this month, he has been playing for the Solano (Fairfield, Calif.) Mudcats of the Pacific Empire League.

After all-state, he’ll join the Yakima Valley Pippins of the West Coast League, before heading to Pullman in August.

“It’s awesome,” Stone said of the All-State Series. “I think it’s one of my top high school experiences. It’s a lot of fun, and I’m enjoying it out here.”

Batting second, Stone was the game’s first baserunner, and scored the first run on a double by R.A. Long’s Riley Young.

Stone then helped get the rout going with a two-run double in a third-run second inning, although he rounded the base too far and was thrown out.

“I was thinking about three, I looked up and saw the stop sign,” Stone said. “By that time, I was already a few inches deep in the dirt. It’s all good, we got the two RBIs.”

Benedetti was happy to see Stone capping his high school career at All-State.

“He’s about the only kid who could get me to wear crimson,” said Benedetti, whose father George and son Riley are University of Washington alums.

Riley Benedetti originally committed to WSU after playing for his father. A coaching change for the Cougars, however, led him to Yakima Valley and Wenatchee Valley colleges before landing at and playing for UW.

Two-time SCAC Player of the Year Tom McDevitt of Cashmere also was a member of Team Baker, and reached on a fielder’s choice in the second and scored on Stone’s double, and had an RBI single in the eighth.

“I don’t play a lot of summer ball, I knew some of these guys from Baseball Northwest, and played with a couple of them,” said  McDevitt, also a standout football and basketball player. “Yeah, this is a really cool experience.”

McDevitt also was given a plaque as the 1A co-State Player of the Year.

W.F. West’s Connor Coleman provided the best timing of the game.

Just moments after he was recognized as the WSBCA’s Class 2A co-Player of the Year, the left-hander who’ll join Stone on the Palouse later this summer led off the eighth inning with a blast over the right-center field wall and into the parking lot.

Gonzaga Prep’s Jackson Mott went 5 for 5 with a triple, two doubles while driving in a pair of runs and scoring two more.

Team Baker pitchers Jay Baxter (Eastside Catholic), Kaeden Morgan (Auburn Riverside) and Deker Bartell (Mark Morris) limited Team Adams to six hits.

Benedetti also was recognized during Saturday’s opener.

Winner of 286 games in 18 seasons leading the Red Devils, Benedetti is one the five-member class going into the WSBCA Hall of Fame this year.

After assisting his father George for three years at EV, Benedetti took over, and guided the Red Devils to the 2A state playoff nine times, with three top-four trophies and a runner-up finish in 2008.

His first squad in 2002 ended a quarter-of-a-century state drought.

George Benedetti, who also coached at West Valley, was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 2008.

The Benedettis join Naches Valley’s Bill Walker (2012) and Connell’s Bill Walker Sr. (1992) as fathers and sons to both to receive the WSBCA’s high honor.