Sports
7A
Tuesday, August 11, 2020
Th e Observer
Legends end summer ball on high note
La Grande’s 18U
squad finishes with
15 straight wins,
16U takes its final
12 contests
By Ronald Bond
The Observer
LA GRANDE — It
wasn’t a typical summer for
the La Grande Legacy Ford
Legends in that they didn’t
play an offi cial American
Legion schedule. Stan-
dards put in place due to
COVID-19 rearranged how
the team practiced for part
of the season, and they
didn’t take the fi eld until
July.
But one thing did
become typical for the team
— winning.
The 18U squad wrapped
up the summer with
four more wins during a
three-day home tourna-
ment Thursday, Friday
and Saturday, Aug. 6-8,
to fi nish with 15 wins in a
row and a record of 15-2,
while the 16U team won a
pair of games Monday and
Tuesday, Aug. 3 and 4, to
wrap its season at 16-1-1
and end on a 12-game win-
ning streak.
“We were 31-3-1 as
a program,” head coach
Parker McKinley said.
“Winning is not the ulti-
mate goal. It’s get-
ting better, competing,
being a teammate and
a young man. Our kids
bought in, and generally
that translates into being
competitive.”
Thursday, the 18U team
began the tournament
with an 11-1 win over the
Tri-City Bombers. Friday
they swept the TC Blues,
5-2, and the World Base-
ball Colts based in Port-
land, 8-7, to fi nish pool play
3-0 — the only team to go
undefeated in pool play.
And Saturday they defeated
the Colts again in the tour-
nament championship, 7-6.
“The weekend was a
great way to cap it off,”
McKinley said.
Thursday night, the Leg-
ends scored 10 unanswered
after the teams were tied at
1-1 through 2-1/2 innings.
Wyatt Earp’s sacrifi ce fl y
started the scoring in a
four-run third, and Riley
Miller doubled home a run
to give La Grande a 5-1
advantage. Braden Carson’s
sacrifi ce fl y in the fourth
and Cole Jorgensen’s RBI
single in the fi fth made it
7-1, and in the sixth, Sam
Tsiatsos hit a two-run
single before an error led to
two more runs and ended
the game. Nick Bornstedt
added a sacrifi ce fl y, and
Parker Robinson struck out
11 and allowed two hits in
six innings.
McKinley called Rob-
inson’s effort in what was
Staff photo by Ronald Bond
Payton Cooper, left, beats home a throw to score a run during the La Grande Legacy Ford Legends’ 5-2 win over the TC
Blues on Friday, Aug. 7.
likely his fi nal appear-
ance with the program
“fantastic.”
“For him to go out on
that note was awesome,” he
said.
In their fi rst game
Friday, the Legends broke
open a tie game with three
runs in the bottom of the
fourth, which proved to be
the difference in securing a
second win.
The Legends loaded the
bases, and with one out Tsi-
atsos walked in a run for a
3-2 lead. Riley Gregg then
reached on an infi eld single,
and Earp, who pitched a
complete game for the win,
helped his own cause with
a sacrifi ce fl y for a 5-2 lead.
The defense took over
after that, with Tsiatsos at
third base starting inning-
ending double plays in the
fi fth and sixth before Jor-
gensen picked off a TC
runner at fi rst base in the
seventh to end the game.
La Grande also scored
on Sergio Staab’s sacrifi ce
fl y in the second and when
Payton Cooper reached
home following a bunt in
the third.
Earp struck out fi ve in
the win, including three in
the fourth inning with TC
threatening after it already
had scored a run to tie the
game.
Later Friday, the Leg-
ends rallied from a 7-1
defi cit to win in walkoff
fashion.
The Colts led by six
after 4-1/2 before La
Grande began to rally.
Gregg scored on a wild
pitch and Cesar Rodriguez
hit a two-run triple and
later scored on a passed
ball to trim the defi cit to
7-5 after fi ve. The Leg-
ends tied the game in the
sixth when Gregg walked
with the bases loaded and
Staab scored on a passed
ball, and the Legends won
it in the seventh when
Staab reached on an error,
allowing Jorgensen to
score.
“That was one of the
things I’m most proud
about. We never consider
ourselves out of a game,”
McKinley said. “Doesn’t
matter what point, what
the score is, our kids com-
pete all the way through
the game. That’s a per-
fect example of what can
happen.”
Logan Williams tossed
two hitless innings in relief
and stuck out two batters
for the win.
In Saturday’s title game,
a rematch from Friday
night, the Legends fl ipped
the script and scored the
fi rst fi ve runs. Tsiatsos
drove in a run with a
groundout in the third and
Devin Bell followed with
a two-run double for a 3-0
lead. A hit batter with the
bases loaded and a wild
pitch brought in two more
runs in the fourth for a 5-0
advantage.
The Colts responded
with a run in the fi fth and
fi ve runs in the sixth to
surge ahead, but the Leg-
ends got the fi nal say. Two
straight errors to open the
bottom of the sixth allowed
the tying run to score, and
Brodrick Hood followed
with an RBI single to give
La Grande the lead.
Miller tossed six innings
for the win, and Born-
stedt came on in relief and
tossed a perfect seventh for
the save, striking out two
batters.
“It was just a great base-
ball game the kids played,”
McKinley said. “They rep-
resented well. It was a great
way to wrap up a fantastic
summer program.”
16U FINISHES
STRONG, TOO
The 16U team took two
from Baker and Pendleton
in consecutive days to con-
clude its season. On Aug. 3,
the Legends defeated Baker
13-1 and Pendleton 23-11,
and on Aug. 4 edged Pend-
leton 8-6 and blasted Baker
again, 12-1.
Jarett Armstrong drove
in four runs and Rodriguez
had three RBIs in the fi rst
win over Baker. Armstrong
drove in two with a single
in the fi rst for an early lead,
and Rodriguez’s RBI single
and Staab’s two-run single
in the third made it 5-0.
Rodriguez hit an RBI triple
in the fi fth then scored on
a balk, and in the sixth La
Grande scored six times
— capped by Armstrong’s
second two-run single and
Tsiatsos’ RBI single for a
13-0 lead. Tsiatsos allowed
just one hit and struck out
11 in six innings for the
win.
Later came the offen-
sive explosion that saw La
Grande pound out 24 hits,
including four from Eli
Bisenius and three apiece by
Cole Shafer and Rodriguez.
Rodriguez drove in four
runs, as did Austin Higgins.
La Grande scored the
fi rst 16 runs, with the early
highlights a Rodriguez
two-run double and Tsi-
atsos’ RBI single in the
fi rst, Williams’ RBI single
and Shafer’s RBI double in
the second, Bisenius’ RBI
single and Derek Begin’s
two-run double in the third,
Rodriguez’s RBI single in
the fourth and a two-run
single by Higgins and Arm-
strong’s two-run double in
a six-run fi fth that helped
stake a 16-0 lead.
Pendleton got back in the
game with an 11-run fi fth
inning, but La Grande put
the game away for good
with a seven-run seventh.
Higgins’ two-run single and
Shafer’s two-run double
highlighted the frame.
A day later, La Grande
had to rally in the latter
innings to stave off Pend-
leton and beat them for the
sixth time this summer.
Shafer, Armstrong and
Tsiatsos all drove in runs
during a three-run fi rst for
an early lead, but Pendleton
scored the next six to go up
6-3, including fi ve runs in
the fi fth.
The Legends evened the
score in the bottom of the
fi fth on Higgins’ RBI single,
a wild pitch and Arm-
strong’s sacrifi ce fl y, then
took the lead in the sixth
when an error allowed Staab
to score and Williams drove
in a run with a single.
La Grande wrapped the
season later with a sixth
win against Baker for a per-
fect 6-0 summer against the
squad.
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Staff photo by Ronald Bond
Riley Miller, left, turns a double play during a game Friday, Aug. 7.
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