American Legion baseball has returned to Kirkland after years of absence, and so far this summer the Tyee Baseball club has been off to a stellar start.

“Legion has been trying to come back in a bigger way,” said Tyee founder and coach Kevin Parkhurst. “It’s very popular around most of the country, just the coast has always had a harder time getting it to stick.”

Parkhurst said he was looking for a way to get a team going this summer and found that Legion offered everything he was looking for. It’s been a successful partnership as the team, after playing 20 games this summer, is undefeated at home.

All the team members are high school aged and the majority come from Lake Washington and Juanita high schools, as well as a couple from O’Dea and Eastlake.

Parkhurst said the team is very even across the field, but especially strong in the in-field.

“We’ve really been playing well there,” he said. Players who have been having great seasons so far this summer include shortstop Jeremy Parkhurst, second baseman Trey McMullen, both who play for Lake Washington during the school year and pitcher Daycen Schmidtke, from Eastlake.

The team plays other local legion teams and travel to tournaments on the weekends. Parkhurst said players pay a team fee when they join, and that the team has sponsors to help with expenses, but traveling costs largely fall to the players themselves.

Overall, Parkhurst said he’s very happy with the season and the team.

“Basically we want to see the best competition we can,” he said. “We wanted to play people who are better than us to challenge ourselves. We’ve absolutely accomplished that and the competition has been really good.”

Parkhurst said this is his first time coaching a legion team, but that he has coached recreation teams for the City of Kirkland for years.

“I’m just excited to have a team back in Kirkland,” he said.

The team plays home games at Lake Washington High School and Lee Johnson Field at Peter Kirk Park. For more information, including a schedule, roster and results visit: tyeebaseball.com. The team will be holding tryouts for next summer’s team Aug. 14-15 at Kamiakin Junior High.