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About The Observer. (La Grande, Or.) 1968-current | View Entire Issue (Jan. 17, 2020)
7A Friday, January 17, 2020 The Observer Fielder hits winner in final second HITTING THE GROUND RUNNING Observer fi le photo Rachel Fielder hit the game-winning layup for the EOU women’s basketball team on Wednesday. Observer staff Staff photo by Ronald Bond Eastern Oregon University’s new head baseball coach Mike McInerney has been on the job just more than a week. By Ronald Bond, The Observer LA GRANDE — Mike McInerney has been Eastern Oregon University’s baseball coach just more than a week. But the man charged with the task of lead- ing the program’s reinstatement is wasting no time — reaching out to the recruits who will make up the team when it takes the fi eld in early 2021, building relationships with alumni and with the community, gather- ing input from former coaches and seeing what the program will need with regard to everything from equipment and uniforms to members of his coaching staff. McInerney, 36, knows he has a tall task ahead of him, but the former Western Oregon University associate head coach and pitching coach is looking forward to the challenge. And although he’s been in La Grande only a short time, he already knows he is not forg- ing this path alone, and he believes having the community and alumni support will be a major benefi t. “It’s not me, it’s everybody. The alumni are going to be a huge piece to this,” McInerney said Wednesday in an interview with The Observer. “It’s one of the best schools I’ve ever heard of or seen with alumni that are really involved and excited about the program coming back, and they want to be a piece of it, and so that’s where it’s a huge advantage. Just them being interested and connected and being around is going to be a huge kind of kickoff to this whole thing starting back up, so I don’t feel like it’s just me.” McInerney said he has been contacted by alumni who want to help get the program moving forward in any way possible, whether it be fi nancially, giving him advice, or helping navigate tasks that may arise in restarting baseball, which was reinstated in October 2019 after being cut in 2006. One of those closely connected to the pro- gram whom McInerney has been in contract with — and whom he spoke with when the job came open — is Howard Fetz, the longtime coach who successfully guided the Mountaineers for about two decades in 1960s, ’70s and ’80s. “I talked to him yesterday,” McInerney said on Wednesday. “He just is literally there to help and support, and has asked me ques- tions about how everything’s going with hiring assistant coaches, how recruiting’s going, giving his two cents on what he thinks I should do — he’s basically there to guide and help me through the entire process. It’s enormous to have a former coach that is will- ing to give all his time and energy to help in anything I need.” There is plenty to be accomplished in the upcoming year, which feels like a long time until one gets a look at the to-do list. Most important is getting players to Eastern — and players who will fi t the billing McInerney is looking for. The coach said he is hoping to have 35-40 players signed by the time fall practice begins in September. McInerney said he has already spoken with at least 50-60 players and has a binder about 3 inches thick stuffed with names of prospective future Mountaineers. A major part of his recruiting philosophy? Own this region — both at the high school level and when it comes to getting junior col- lege transfers. “Pretty much any program that’s going to be successful, you want to pretty much dominate your area and region,” he said. “I really want to do that. There’s a ton of excite- ment in this region. Eastern Oregon, over to Idaho, Eastern Washington, high school and the NWAC. There are tons of people reaching out and they’re really excited. I want to get the best players I possibly can in the region. That’s really my fi rst focus. That’s who I’ve been talking to the most.” Once he’s tapped the Northwest, he will ex- pand his focus to reach out across the West — from Alaska to Arizona. The coach said there are several junior college coaches in Califor- nia and in the Northwest Athletic Conference who either played for or against EOU. He also said since this will be the fi rst time he’s not “coaching or playing baseball in the spring since Little League,” he’ll get the added time to see players in person. McInerney added WOU had ample success with NCAA Division I kickbacks — players who start at the higher level but who later transfer to a smaller school — and he antici- pates the same for Eastern. “Those are the main guys that got drafted for us, all-Americans, just really solid play- ers,” McInerney said of the kickbacks the Wolves picked up. Building relationships with players has been — and will continue to be — vital for the personable McInerney. Even if a player he’s recruiting elects to go elsewhere, fostering a relationship now could be a major benefi t in the future if a player, say, goes to a Division I school but later chooses to leave. “You’ve already built that relationship recruiting them, and it becomes an easy fallback where they understand the region, they understand the school, and it becomes an easy place for Division I kickbacks to kind of come back to,” he said. The former pitching coach, who himself was a pitcher in his high school and col- lege days, said pitching and defense “is an absolute must for me” when it comes to his coaching philosophy. “We’re going to be good on the mound. I feel really confi dent about that,” he said, adding he would like to have a pitching staff of around 14-16 players. “I’ve always had success with pitchers, and whoever I bring in to work with the pitchers is going to be good. We’re defi nitely going to pitch.” Offensively, the coach is not tied to any one method when it comes to generating runs, and he doesn’t want to have an offense fi t to succeed under just one style. What he would like to bring in are what he called “athletes” — that is, players who can be multifaceted. That would mean, he said, players who are able to not only hit for power and pile up runs in a hurry for EOU in a slugfest, but players who also could drop down a bunt, steal a base or execute a hit-and-run when called upon to help manufacture a run in a pitchers’ duel. McInerney noted one year at WOU the team took more of a power approach on offense and was loaded with big power hit- ters. That team broke records and could win high-scoring battles but couldn’t win close, low-scoring contests. “We shattered records offensively. A really offensive team, but we were just clogging the bases,” he said. “We weren’t athletic. It was all big, physical, extra-base-hit kind of guys. We broke all kinds of records offen- sively, (but) that was one of our worst years at Western. That was one of the fi rst years we didn’t win the conference. Games when it was a slugfest, we won them all, (but) any other type of game, we weren’t able to adjust to win those games. Learning from that, I think we’re going to be athletic and we’re going to do both.” See McInerney / Page 8A CALDWELL, Idaho — Rachel Fielder scored a game-high 19 points and had the winning bucket with less than a second to play Wednesday as the Eastern Oregon Uni- versity women’s basketball team eked out a 63-61 road win over rival College of Idaho in a Cascade Collegiate Conference battle. The victory was EOU’s 12th straight over its Interstate 84 rival, and 15th win in the last 16 meetings. The Coyotes had just tied the game with four seconds to play on a pair of free throws by Mackenzie Royce-Radford. EOU called a timeout to advance the ball to the front court and Megan Still found Fielder at the hoop for the game-winner. Fielder added 10 rebounds for a double- double. Emma Logan also had a double- double with 10 points and 10 rebounds, and Jane Nelson scored nine points. Eastern led most of the fi nal quarter after trailing 37-32 at the break and fi nd- ing itself behind most of the third quarter. A free throw by Logan late in the third gave EOU its fi rst lead of the second half, 50-49, after three quarters. Lexi Mitchell’s layup to open the fourth put C of I back ahead, but Taylor Stricklin hit a 3-pointer with 8:07 to play for a 53-51 lead. The Mountaineers led the rest of the way until Royce-Radford’s free throws, which then set up Fielder’s heroics. EOU shot 47% and hit nine 3-pointers, but committed 26 turnovers. C of I scored 20 points off those turnovers, which offset a 27% shooting night from the fl oor and kept the Yotes in the game. EOU (12-7 overall, 6-3 CCC), hosts Oregon Tech Friday. Men held to lowest total in two years by C of I The Eastern Oregon University men’s basketball team was held to its lowest point total in a non-exhibition contest in nearly two years as the Mountaineers fell to No. 3 College of Idaho 67-58 in Cascade Collegiate Conference action. The loss also extended the Coyotes home winning streak over EOU to nine games in a row, a run that dates back to January 2014. The Mountaineers’ 58 points was their fewest since scoring 59 in a road game against C of I two years ago. In fact, EOU’s three lowest-scoring non-exhibition games the past three seasons have come against the Yotes, and all on the road. Eastern started strong, jumping out to an 11-4 lead on a Landon Jones dunk with 13:18 to play in the fi rst half. C of I followed with a 14-1 run to take an 18-12 lead on a Jalen Galloway layup, a lead it held the rest of the way with the exception of one point in the second half. The Yotes took a 30-26 lead into the break when Ricardo Time hit a 3-pointer from beyond half court at the fi rst-half buzzer. Two free throws by Jones briefl y gave EOU its fi rst — and only — lead of the second half at 49-48 with 7:36 to play, but Time hit two free throws to put C of I ahead for good less than a minute later. Jarek Schetzle led the Mountaineers with 24 points and 17 rebounds. Jones and Max McCullough both added nine points. Neither team shot well Wednesday, with the Yotes shooting just 36% and EOU hit- ting at just a 32% clip. EOU (9-9 overall, 3-6 CCC) will face its second straight top-fi ve opponent Jan. 24 when it hosts fi fth-ranked Oregon Tech.