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About The daily Astorian. (Astoria, Or.) 1961-current | View Entire Issue (March 16, 2018)
8A THE DAILY ASTORIAN • FRIDAY, MARCH 16, 2018 CONTACT US FOLLOW US facebook.com/ DailyAstorianSports Gary Henley | Sports Reporter ghenley@dailyastorian.com SPORTS IN BRIEF TRACK Warrenton team opens season in ‘Icebreaker’ meet Photos by Colin Murphey/The Daily Astorian Astoria’s Ian Hunt, center, clears a hurdle. Astoria hosts Seaside, Tillamook in opener A BASEBALL Gladstone shuts out Astoria, 7-0 ILWACO, Wash. — Seaside pitcher Jetta Ideue tossed a per- fect game Thursday, leading the Gulls to a 13-0 nonleague softball win at Ilwaco to open the 2018 season. Offensively, Alyssa Goin led Seaside by going 4-for-4 at the plate. In the five-inning game, Ideue recorded 14 strikeouts. The 15th out was a pop fly out to Seaside’s Kandice Flaigg at third base. The Gulls host Estacada Tuesday. Merchants hold tryouts Members of a relay team from Astoria High School execute a handoff. Oregon leery of teams looking to turn the tables The Daily Astorian Astoria’s scheduled game Thursday at Gladstone became the home opener for the Fishermen, when the game was switched early in the day to Astoria’s CMH Field. So the Gladiators made the long trip to the coast, and responded by playing a near-per- fect game in a 7-0 win over the Fishermen. Gladstone pitchers Ben McCoy and Mat- thew Lehrbach combined on a two-hit shut- out, with three strikeouts and two walks. Offensively, the Gladiators collected six hits, three for extra bases, and Gladstone was errorless in the field in its first game of the season. The Fishermen slip to 0-2, and return to action Friday at Sandy. A positive start for Astoria took a quick turn for the worse in the first inning. In the first Fishermen at-bat, Dylan Rush had a leadoff double to center field. Rush advanced to third, and tried to score on a grounder by Trey Hageman, vaulting over catcher Otis Lundgren on a play at the plate. Rush was tagged out, and was ejected from the game for his attempted dive over the catcher, illegal at the high school level. Gladstone’s Austin Conner had a lead- off triple to start the second inning, and later scored on a ground ball by Matthew Kuhn. Gladstone added single runs in the fifth and sixth, then tacked on four in the seventh, highlighted by a two-run double from Damian Alvarado. Hageman had Astoria’s only other hit. After giving up the triple to Conner, Stutznegger retired 10 in a row. SOFTBALL Perfect game leads Seaside past Ilwaco The Daily Astorian storia hosted a three-way, season opening track meet Thursday, along with Cowapa League rivals Seaside and Tillamook. The three teams ran a series of relays and individual events, in a tune-up for the actual league season. Highlights included personal best times on the track for Astoria’s Michael Kee in the 110-meter hurdles (16.35 sec- onds) and Niko Caruana in the 300-meter hurdles (46.14), while Fishermen senior Tim Barnett — a state favorite in nearly every throwing event — won all three events Thursday. Barnett had personal best efforts in the shot put (52 feet, 8 inches) and the javelin (167-0), and won the discus with a throw of 155-0. For the Astoria girls — favored to win their fourth straight state title later this season — senior Darian Hageman opened her season with wins in the high jump and long jump, while Taylor Cosner won the javelin with a PR toss of 115-10. Seaside’s Gretchen Hoekstre is looking to have a big sea- son for the Gulls, as the junior won the shot put (37-2) and discus (121-2) events. On the track, Astoria freshman Kelsey Fausett won the 400 meters (1:09.31) and Elizabeth Barnett took the 100- meter hurdles (16.98), while Seaside’s Katie Zagata scored a victory in the mile race, finishing in 6:07.86. FOREST GROVE — The Warrenton track team took part in the Forest Grove Icebreaker meet, held Wednesday at Dick Hen- dricks Stadium in Forest Grove. The Warriors joined five other schools (Clatskanie, Forest Grove, Faith Bible, North Marion and Veritas) in the season opener. Warrenton had four individual victories on the girls’ side, includ- ing two wins for Kaisa Liljenwall. The sophomore scored one victory on the track, taking first in the 300-meter hurdles in 52.35 seconds. She added a win in the long jump, soaring 14 feet, 10 ¾ inches. Junior Fernanda Alvarez is headed for a big season in the throwing events. She won the shot put compe- tition with a toss of 31-9 ½, and added a personal best throw of 78-9 for third place in the discus. Adriana DeJesus won the 800 meters in 2:54.36. On the boys’ side, Warrenton’s Mark Warren took second in the javelin (128-3), and added a per- sonal best toss of 41-1 for third in the shot put. By ANNE M. PETERSON Associated Press The Oregon women were the surprise of last year’s NCAA Tournament. Now the Ducks have got everyone’s attention. It’s the price of success for the second-seeded Ducks , who open the tournament at home on Fri- day against No. 15 seed Seattle. Oregon finished the regular season 30-4 overall and 16-2 in the Pac-12. In addition to the league’s regular-season title, the Ducks also won the confer- ence tournament. The seeding is the highest in team history, as are the 30 wins. The confer- ence championship was also a first. Oregon made history last season, too, going to the Elite Eight for the first time in school history. The Ducks fin- ished that season 23-14 over- all and lost to Stanford in the Pac-12 tournament title game. But after earning an at-large spot in the tourna- ment, Oregon swept through seventh-seeded Tem- ple, No. 2 Duke and No. 3 Maryland before getting bumped by top-seeded UConn. Teams are going to try to turn the tables on the Ducks this year. “A little different,” coach Kelly Graves said of the Ducks’ position. “I don’t think you can tell that it’s different from the way we’ve practiced this week. I think the focus has been tremendous. We have the luxury of knowing that we better come ready to play. We were in a situation last year where we were a 10 and we had to beat a No. 7 and then we had to beat a No. 2.” Norvell Jr. makes key 3 to help Gonzaga escape UNCG 68-64 By EDDIE PELLS Associated Press BOISE — Zach Norvell Jr. watched Gonzaga’s greatest moments play out from the sideline last year. This year, the redshirt freshman will be part of the highlight reel. The shooting guard from Chicago hit the go-ahead 3-pointer with 20.8 seconds left Thursday to help the fourth-seeded Bulldogs escape a major scare in the West Region with a 68-64 victory over UNC Greensboro. “He has a knack for that,” coach Mark Few said. “When I saw him size the guy up, I knew that, A, he was probably going to shoot it, and, B, it was proba- bly going to go in.” Last season’s national runners-up trailed 64-62 with 1:48 left after squandering a 12-point lead they took early in the second half. Josh Perkins tied the game at 64 with a long jumper, and after Greensboro’s Francis Alonso forced up a miss, Gonzaga got the rebound and worked the ball to Norvell, who spotted up from the right elbow and made the 3 for the lead. As a highly touted recruit, Norvell chose Gon- zaga (31-4) over Florida State and Georgetown, to name a few, but he hurt his knee leading up to last season. A long recovery, plus the fact that the Zags had a stockpile of talent at the guard position, turned Norvell into a bystander last year while the Bulldogs were making the program’s first run to the Final Four. He’s been front and center 2017-18, starting most of the season and averaging 12 points a game. And even though he was 2 for 11 before his game-winner, he had the confidence to keep shooting. “Every time I missed, all the guys came to me and said, ‘The next one is going in, the next one is going in,’” Norvell said. “So I had no choice but to make a bucket.” Tryouts will be held Sunday for the North Coast Merchants’ 2018 softball summer team. All players should report to Warrenton High School, rain or shine, Saturday from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. Pitchers and catchers will also work from 1-2 p.m. The Merchants provide com- petitive fastpitch softball for girls on the North Coast, for the 12U age group. Summer fees are $200 per player. Tournaments are two-day, out-of-town events. To pre-register or for questions, leave a message on the North Coast Merchant Facebook page, or text/call coach Ian O’Brien at 253-720-7970, or coach Morgan at 541-226-6535. — The Daily Astorian SCOREBOARD PREP SPORTS SCHEDULE TODAY Baseball — Astoria at Sandy, 4:30 p.m.; Fort Vancouver at Seaside, 3:45 p.m.; Warrenton at Nestucca, 4:30 p.m.; Knappa at St. Paul, 4 p.m. Softball — Astoria at North Marion, 4:30 p.m.; Warrenton at Nestucca, 4:30 p.m.; Knappa at St. Paul, 4:30 p.m. SATURDAY Softball — Taft at Warrenton (2), 2 p.m. Baseball — Seaside Spring Break Tournament, TBA SUNDAY Baseball — Seaside Spring Break Tournament, TBA BASEBALL Gladstone 7, Astoria 0 Gladstone 010 011 4—7 6 0 Astoria 000 000 0—0 2 1 McCoy, Lehrbach (6) and Lundgren; Rush, Stutznegger (2), Feldman (7), Reed (7) and Hillard. W: McCoy. L: Stutznegger. RBI: Gla, Alvarado 2, Conner 2, Kuhn, Meyers. 2B: Gla, Lee, Alvarado; Ast, Rush. 3B: Gla, Conner. HBP: Gla, Wick, Simmons. LOB: Gladstone 6, Astoria 3. DP: Gladstone.
