Steven Souza Jr. will be getting some extra cuts in this winter.
The Cascade High School graduate and seven-year Major League Baseball veteran has signed to play with Gigantes del Cibao of the Dominican Winter League.
Souza, a 31-year-old outfielder, signed with Gigantes del Cibao for the second half of the season. The Dominican Winter League is scheduled to begin Sunday and continues through December.
Souza is attempting to get his career back on track. Since slugging 30 home runs for the Tampa Bay Rays in 2017, for which he was named The Herald’s 2017 Man of the Year in Sports, Souza has been beset by injuries, including a devastating knee injury that wiped out his 2019 season. He returned in 2020, signing with the Chicago Cubs, but Souza appeared in just 11 games with the Cubs, batting .148 with one homer before being designated for assignment in September.
Souza is now a free agent, and performing well in the Dominican Winter League could attract the attention of other major-league teams.
Granger set to fight Saturday
Miranda Granger steps into the octagon for the first time in nearly a year when the Glacier Peak High School graduate and women’s mixed martial arts fighter faces Ashley Yoder as part of UFC Fight Night on Saturday in Las Vegas.
Granger (7-1), who fights out of Charlie’s Combat Club in Everett and is ranked by Tapology.com as the world’s 36th-best female strawweight, last fought on Dec. 21, a first-round defeat at the hands of Amanda Lemos. Since then Granger dealt with a bout of blood clots that threatened to end her career, then had Nadia Kassem withdraw from a bout scheduled for Aug. 8.
Yoder (7-6) is a UFC veteran who’s ranked the 25th-best female strawweight in the world by Tapology.com.
The bout is part of the preliminary card, which begins at 1 p.m. and will be televised by ESPN+.
NWAC grants eligibility waiver
The Northwest Athletic Conference (NWAC) is granting an eligibility waiver to athletes for the 2020-21 season because of the coronavirus pandemic. The conference’s executive board approved the following language:
“For the 2020-21 NWAC sports season, NWAC student-athletes regardless of the amount of games/matches played will not be charged a year of eligibility. The awarding of a grant in aid/tuition waiver along with the waiver is solely at the discretion of each member college. Returning sophomore student-athletes who are granted a season waiver/grant-in-aid tuition waiver will NOT count towards the maximum allowable grant-in-aid awards per sport 2021-22.”
Everett Community College and Edmonds College are members of NWAC. All NWAC sports except golf have been delayed because of the pandemic.
Silvertips assistant coach departs
Everett Silvertips assistant coach Mark Lysyj resigned to pursue new career opportunities. Lysyj spent one season with the Tips, helping Everett go 46-13-3-1 and come one point away from the Scotty Munro Trophy for the league’s best record.
If you have an item for the community sports roundup, email Nick Patterson at npatterson@heraldnet.com.
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