Sports
7A
Tuesday, July 21, 2020
Th e Observer
Wallowa Valley baseball teams off to a slow start
By Ellen Morris Bishop
EO Media Group
ENTERPRISE — The
Wallowa Valley All-Stars
Team 2 dropped a pair of
games Sunday but showed
improvement from one con-
test to the next.
The team of 14- and
15-year-olds played a dou-
bleheader at Jensen Ball
Fields, Enterprise, and lost
its fi rst game 21-1 to the
Tri-Cities Reign team.
Wallowa Valley’s sole
score came from Gabe
Nobles who walked, then
stole his way around the
bases early in the game.
The team had only four hits
— each on a single — from
Cody Fent, Gavin Stecher,
Tyler Knapp and Maclane
Melville. Dropped balls and
muffed catches plagued the
team.
The team’s play
improved when it took the
fi eld for its second game
that afternoon, this time
against Pendleton.
Players made diving
catches, hauled in fl y balls,
stole bases and racked up 17
hits, including a scorching
double by Melville in the
fourth inning. The fi nal
score was 7-5 Pendleton.
Photo by Ellen Morris Bishop/EO Media group
Blade Suto with the Wallowa Valley All-Stars Team 2 pitches Sunday in a game with
Tri-Cities, which won with a 21-1 score.
Strong pitching perfor-
mances by Wallowa Val-
ley’s Drew Beachy and
Melville helped keep Pend-
leton in check.
Coach Jim Nave said his
team of young players was
improving.
“A lot of these kids
played Little League before
this, and they mostly played
in the infi eld,” he said. “So
playing the outfi eld is new
and different. It requires
some new skills. They are
catching on.”
Nave noted both the
Pendleton and Tri-Cities
Construction starts at new
Enterprise athletic facility
Imagine The Difference You Can Make
ENTERPRISE — There
was no gold-plated shovel,
as is common at formal
groundbreakings, but an
impressive track hoe did
the trick July 8 as some
of the organizers of a new
8,000-square-foot indoor
athletic facility gathered
at Jensen Ball Fields in
Enterprise.
“It’s been a work in
progress for over two
years,” said Kate Fent of the
Wallowa County Athletic
Network. “There have been
a lot of meetings and a lot
of people involved.”
She said the network has
been working on the project
to give Wallowa County
children a place to play and
practice during cold and
wet weather. The multipur-
pose facility will include a
turf playing fi eld, restrooms
and storage. It’ll be partic-
ularly useful in the winter,
when school gymnasiums
are in use. Baseball and
softball programs also will
be able to use it.
Fent said the project
originated with an idea put
forth by Dick and Cathy
Johnson, who donated the
fi rst $20,000 toward it. Dick
Johnson is a former base-
ball coach who knew fi rst-
hand the need for a prac-
tice area given what local
athletes experience during
Wallowa County’s winter
and spring weather.
In late 2018, the net-
work — through the city
of Enterprise — received
a $250,000 grant from
the Oregon Department
of Parks and Recreation
it applied for early that
year. The network also has
received matching dona-
tions totaling $125,000
from a variety of private
and public individuals and
groups.
DONATE YOUR CAR
the team sort of fell apart
after a missed fl y ball.
Repeated infi eld errors
compounded the problem,
and Wallowa Valley lost
control of the game.
Still, there were some
bright spots in the games.
“Trace (Evans) pitched
a lot of strikeouts and
had batters just hitting fl y
balls,” Flynn Nave said.
“And I made three solo
double-plays.”
Is it discouraging to
play teams from bigger
communities?
“I think it’s good to
play teams that are better
than us,” Flynn Nave
said. “It makes us better
players. It makes us ele-
vate our game.”
The Wallowa Valley
Team 1 plays a double-
header with Baker City at
Jensen Field in Enterprise
starting at 3 p.m. Friday,
July 24.
“We beat Baker City
in Heppner two weeks
ago,” Nave said. “We are
looking forward to doing
that again.”
The younger team plays
a home doubleheader with
Walla Walla Saturday, July
25, beginning at noon.
TREASURE
VALLEY
STEEL, INC.
By Bill Bradshaw
EO Media Group
teams represented much
larger communities.
“They probably had a
hundred kids to choose
from,” he said. “Here, we
take every kid who wants
to play. Summer baseball
is an important learning
experience for oura
players. These kids will
be the J.V. team for the
schools next year.”
The older Wallowa
Valley Team 1, composed
of 16- to 18-year-olds,
played a doubleheader in
La Grande Wednesday.
They dropped both games,
losing to Pendleton by a
score of 13-12, and coming
slightly unraveled to lose
to La Grande 12-2.
“In both of those
games, Trace Evans
pitched a phenomenal
game,” Nave said. “In
the Pendleton game, we
fi gured that we gave up
eight unearned runs due
to errors and making bad
plays. So we should have
won that game.”
Team 1 co-captain
Flynn Nave said the heat
in La Grande had a neg-
ative effect on the team.
In the game against La
Grande, Flynn Nave said
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