Sports
A9
Thursday, July 29, 2021
Th e Observer
Lofty expectations
Eastern Oregon football team picked to win
Frontier Conference in preseason coaches poll
By DAVIS CARBAUGH
The Observer
GREAT FALLS, Mont.
— The Mountaineers’ foot-
ball team is the one to beat
this year in the Frontier
Conference.
Eastern Oregon Uni-
versity topped the pre-
season coaches poll, which
was announced Tuesday,
July 27, during the Frontier
Conference’s media day in
Great Falls, Montana. The
Mountaineers fi nished with
39 points and three of the
eight fi rst-place votes. Col-
lege of Idaho and Montana
Western tied for second,
and Carroll slotted in at No.
4. Southern Oregon, Mon-
tana Tech, Rocky Mountain
College and Montana State-
Northern rounded out the
back half of the poll.
“When we get all these
guys back, we have a great
opportunity to do some-
thing,” EOU head coach
Tim Camp said. “We’re
excited to play, but we want
to win.”
The Mountaineers nar-
rowly edged out the Col-
lege of Idaho and Montana
Western, who both tied for
second place with 36 points.
Carroll College was voted
fourth with 33 points.
EOU tied atop the Fron-
tier during the shortened
spring 2020 season with
Carroll and College of Idaho
after four spring contests,
giving the Mountaineers at
least a share of a conference
title for the fi rst time since
1980 and just the fourth
time since 1955.
Camp, who is entering
his 14th year as head coach,
was named co-coach of the
year last season, while quar-
terback Kai Quinn won
conference off ensive player
of the year and defensive
lineman Chase Van Wyck
earned conference defensive
player of the year. Through
a tumultuous season, the
Mountaineers fi nished the
2020 season ranked 21st in
the NAIA.
Most coaches started
their press conferences at
media day by discussing
the challenges of the 2020
spring season and expressed
their sentiments about
returning to a more normal
2021 season in the fall.
“Not being able to coach
against all of them in 2020
was a lot diff erent for me,”
Camp said.
Camp, who has com-
piled a 74-61 record with
Alex Wittwer/The Observer
Bryce Pennington, Shaun Youngblood and Jordan Tucker prepare for the La Grande Junior baseball
team’s celebratory parade on Tuesday, July 27, 2021. La Grande defeated South Central 14-12 in the
championship game on Wednesday, July 21, 2021.
‘We had a great season’
Kathleen Brown/Eastern Oregon University Athletics, File
Eastern Oregon University defensive linemen Chase Van Wyck (41)
and Sage DeLong (42) celebrate March 20, 2021, in La Grande en
route to the Mountaineers defeating Carroll College 28-0.
the Mountaineers, cred-
ited the Frontier Conference
for making it through the
pandemic and pointed out
the importance of Athletic
Director Anji Weissenfl uh
and President Tom Insko
in Eastern’s eff orts to com-
pete last season. Camp said
the unique season brought
his team closer together, and
because of extended eligi-
bility rules, almost his entire
roster from last season is
returning, including Quinn
and Van Wyck.
“We got so much better,
not just at football, but at
relying on each other,” the
coach said.
Loaded off ense returns
for EOU
Quinn, who many con-
sider to be the best at the
position in the Frontier
Conference, returns after
throwing for 811 yards
and eight touchdowns last
season. Camp noted that a
key component for 2021 will
be the return of the bulk of
the team’s off ensive line to
protect Quinn in the pocket.
“It’s important that
you’re great up front if
you want to protect the
guy that’s supposed to be
making the big bucks in the
back, which is Kai Quinn,”
Camp said.
While the Mountain-
eers are set to return Quinn
and the off ensive line, there
will be a new workhorse in
the backfi eld next fall. John
Lesser graduated and left
the program following a
year in which he rushed for
340 yards over four games.
Camp suggested that there
will be a running back com-
petition in the off season
between Victor Rosas and
Nathan Reed.
La Grande Junior Little League team fights through
elimination bracket to win Oregon state championship
Improvements on
defense
By DAVIS CARBAUGH
Camp stressed the
importance of strengthening
the defense, mentioning the
Mountaineers’ performance
in 2019. Eastern allowed
30.9 points per game and
fi nished the last full season
with a 4-7 record.
The Mountaineers fol-
lowed up those eff orts in
2020 by allowing just 22
points per game in the four-
game season.
“We’re starting to play
defense the way I think it
should be played,” Camp
said. “It starts with tackling,
but you have to get lined up
and have some enthusiasm.”
The return of Van Wyck
and 2020 fi rst-team line-
backer Solo Taylor will be
crucial for EOU as the team
aims to continue improving
on the defensive side of the
ball. According to Camp,
bringing back numerous
upperclassmen will allow
the Mountaineers to move
players around to diff erent
defensive positions.
The Observer
LA GRANDE — After
a fi rst-round loss, the La
Grande Junior baseball
team knew it would have
to play its best baseball
to bring a state trophy to
Union County.
It did just that.
La Grande defeated
South Central 14-12 in the
championship game of
the Oregon Little League
Junior Baseball Tourna-
ment on Wednesday, July
21, in Turner.
“The kids went into
the game knowing that we
were going to fi ght hard
and give it all we got,” La
Grande head coach Kirk
Fenley said.
La Grande earned its
spot in the state tourna-
ment after defeating Wal-
lowa 19-8 in the District 3
tournament last month in
Baker City. The juniors,
whose ages range from 12
to 14, competed against
Baker and Wallowa in a
double-elimination district
tournament before trav-
eling to Turner’s Cascade
Sports Complex for the
state tournament.
Things got off to a
rough start for La Grande
in a fi rst-round matchup
against South Central Little
League from District 5.
While most little league
games are high scoring,
South Central shut out
La Grande by a narrow
margin of 2-0. South Cen-
tral cruised by West Salem
Little League 30-6 and
secured its spot in the fi nal.
“It was a really good
pitching duel, but our kids
just had the state nerves,”
Eyes set on the regular
season
Eastern Oregon begins
its summer off season pro-
gram on Aug. 5, and the
regular season begins on
Aug. 28. The Mountaineers
open on the road at Mon-
tana Tech, followed by the
fi rst home game of the year
on Sept. 4 against Montana
Western. After a season of
just four games, Camp is
excited to see the rest of the
Frontier Conference.
“We’re going to do
everything we can to make
Eastern Oregon University
and the community of La
Grande proud,” Camp said.
Fenley said. “They were
just a little fl at on the bats
and faced some tough
pitching.”
Following the loss, the
La Grande players and
coaching staff attended a
Salem-Keizer Volcanoes
minor league game to take
some pressure off from the
tournament. According to
La Grande player Nolan
Needham, seeing profes-
sionals at the game make
errors and bounce back to
win inspired the team.
“We got to stay as a
family for six straight
days,” Fenley said. “It was
a lot of time for the kids
to bond and grow, which
I think really helped in
taking it to the end.”
Bouncing back after
an early loss
In a do-or-die matchup
with Raleigh Hills of Dis-
trict 4, La Grande dom-
inated in a 21-9 victory,
keeping the team’s hopes
alive. In the next round,
La Grande knocked off
West Salem Little League
21-10 to secure a chance at
redemption in the winner’s
bracket.
“We got the nerves
out of us and had a lot
of good leadership from
the 14-year-olds,” Fenley
said. “We just took that
momentum and went with
it and got a couple solid
wins to carry us to the
fi nal.”
In a rematch with
South Central, La Grande
avenged its fi rst-round loss
with a 12-6 victory. Shaun
Youngblood started for La
Grande and allowed four
runs on just four hits and
earned the win. Jordan
Tucker pitched in relief and
earned the save, ensuring
La Grande’s spot in the
championship fi nal later
that day.
“We had a lot of
momentum going since we
had just beat them,” pitcher
Bryce Pennington said.
With all the momentum
on the side of La Grande,
the local little leaguers
jumped out to a 14-2 lead.
However, South Central
scored eight runs in the
fi fth inning to tighten up
the game.
Behind a strong outing
from Pennington on the
mound and Riley Krantz’s
3-for-5 performance at the
plate, La Grande held on
to win and claim the state
championship.
“It was a feeling that I
never thought I’d have,”
Needham said.
Needham led the team
with nine hits and 12 runs
during the entirety of the
state competition. Carter
Seaquist tallied seven hits
and Sovann Chab recorded
fi ve. Needham also pitched
in the fi rst game against
South Central, allowing no
hits over fi ve innings and
striking out 13 opposing
batters.
Similar to the Union
County Junior Softball All-
Stars who won a state title,
there will be no further
regional or national com-
petitions for the La Grande
Junior team. Little League
Baseball and Softball can-
celed the regional tourna-
ments and national World
Series at the junior level
due to the pandemic.
“We had a great
season,” Needham said.
SPORTS SHORT
Ducks picked to win 3rd straight Pac-12 title
The Associated Press
LOS ANGELES — After
taking an unusual route to its
second straight Pac-12 title last
season, Oregon is the preseason
favorite to make it three in a row.
The Ducks received 27 of 40
fi rst-place votes in the annual
poll of media members released
Tuesday, July 27, before the start
of Pac-12 media day.
Southern California got 10
votes, and Utah received three.
Oregon beat the Trojans 31-24
in the conference title game
last December, representing the
Pac-12 North after Washington
could not participate because of
a COVID-19 outbreak among its
players.
It was the second conference
title in three seasons under coach
Mario Cristobal, rewarding his
emphasis on recruiting that has
seen Oregon bring in the likes of
junior edge rusher Kayvon Thi-
bodeaux, who could be the fi rst
player selected in the next NFL
draft.
Although the teams did not
play each other in the short-
ened conference-only season last
year, Oregon got the nod over the
Pacifi c Northwest rival Huskies
to represent the North. The Ducks
received 38 fi rst-place votes in the
division, with Washington get-
ting two.
California, Stanford, Oregon
State and Washington State
rounded out the voting in the
North, which has won nine of
10 title games since the Pac-12
expanded in 2011.
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