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About The daily Astorian. (Astoria, Or.) 1961-current | View Entire Issue (March 22, 2018)
10A THE DAILY ASTORIAN • THURSDAY, MARCH 22, 2018 CONTACT US FOLLOW US facebook.com/ DailyAstorianSports Gary Henley | Sports Reporter ghenley@dailyastorian.com Athletes of the Week JETTA IDEUE Seaside TIM BARNETT Astoria easide softball is off to its first 2-0 start since 2006. The Gulls got off to a flying start March 15 at Ilwaco, with a 13-0 win over the Lady S Fishermen. Seaside senior pitcher Jetta Ideue threw a perfect game, striking he season will be filled with wins, records and first-place medals for Asto- ria thrower Tim Barnett. The senior got off to a great start in a home meet T March 15. Barnett won all three throwing events, setting personal best marks out 14 of the 15 batters she faced. She contributed an inside-the-park home run in Seaside’s second win, a 19-9 decision over Estacada earlier this week. in the shot put (52-8) and javelin (167-0). Barnett is behind only Jason Thiel in school records for the shot put and discus. He is also currently the top-ranked thrower in all three events at the 4A level. NCAA TOURNAMENT Will the Sweet 16 bring more upsets? By JOHN KEKIS Associated Press Krissy Barendse-Goodman/ For The Daily Astorian Knappa’s Eli Takalo, left, and Dale Takalo were both named to the 2A all-state team to cap their 2017-18 basketball season. Knappa’s Takalo, Little receive all-state honors The Daily Astorian Knappa senior Dale Takalo was a second team selection, and soph- omore Eli Takalo received hon- orable mention on the 2017-18 all-state 2A boys basketball team announced last week. Dale Takalo finished his Knappa career with 1,910 points — third in Logger history behind Bob “Pudgy” Hunt (2,584) and Brian Jackson (2,515). Takalo’s point total is 35th all time in Ore- gon hoops history. Vernonia senior Clay Sulli- van received the 2A Player of the Year award, and Columbia Chris- tian’s Bart Valentine was Coach of the Year. Eli Takalo was one of 18 play- ers to earn honorable mention recognition. Warrenton senior Tyla Little was selected honorable mention to the Class 3A girls’ all-state squad. Little is the first Warrenton player to receive all-state recogni- tion since Brooklyn Campbell in 2010. SCOREBOARD PREP SPORTS SCHEDULE TODAY Baseball — Corbett at Seaside, 5 p.m. Softball — Astoria at Mark Morris, 4 p.m.; Seaside at Corbett, 4:30 p.m. Boys golf — Scappoose at Astoria, 1:30 p.m. FRIDAY Baseball — Estacada at Astoria, 4:30 p.m.; Knappa at Volcano Stadium Tournament, TBA Softball — Knappa at Seaside, 4:30 p.m. Boys golf — Seaside at The Dalles Invitational, 10 a.m. BASEBALL Neah-Kah-Nie 11, Warrenton 1 Warrenton 000 001—1 1 6 NeahKahNie 230 006—11 3 4 Morrow, Jackson (2), Little (4), Bre- itmeyer (6) and Breitmeyer, Morrow (2); Bridge and Harth. W: Bridge. L: Morrow. Knappa High School Knappa senior Reuben Cruz, front center, sits surrounded by coaches and family after signing his letter-of-intent Wednesday. Knappa’s Cruz will be a Roadrunner The Daily Astorian A third member of Knappa’s base- ball powerhouse signed a letter-of-in- tent Wednesday. Senior Reuben Cruz, an all-state outfielder, announced his college of choice will be Linn-Benton Commu- nity College in Albany. Earlier, Logger pitcher Dale Takalo signed with Blue Mountain Community College, and catcher Kaleb Miller signed to play at Clark College. While Takalo is likely the top pitcher in the Northwest League, Kaleb Miller is the best catcher, and Cruz can be called the best athlete. According to Knappa coach Jeff Miller, Cruz will see action anywhere from catcher, pitcher, shortstop and the outfield in his final prep season. In addition to his duties in the out- field, “Reuben Cruz will be our No. 2 catcher (behind Kaleb Miller), so we are stout at the catching position,” coach Miller said. “They can control a game from behind the plate, both of them. “I don’t think there will be a better catcher anywhere than what we have. And if we go to our No. 2 catcher, I don’t think anybody has that qual- ity either,” adding, “Reuben will also finally get to throw for us this year. We won’t lose a beat in moving Reu- ben to the mound or behind the plate.” Among other all-state players on the Linn-Benton roster, Cruz will join Astoria graduate Fridtjof Fremstad. Fremstad is a freshman shortstop with the Roadrunners. Other players signed by Linn-Ben- ton during the letter-of-intent sign- ing period include Haldan Bjornson (Wilsonville), Hunter Hemenway (Gresham), Eric Hill (Wilsonville), Jacob Melton (South Medford), Jacob Overstreet (Henley) and Curtis Zamora (West Albany). Back to the madness of March and the Sweet 16, starring Loyola-Chicago, Kansas State, Syr- acuse and whatever other underdog you might want to throw in there — maybe Florida State or Texas A&M. For drama, look no further than the South Region, where the top four seeds are home watching the NCAA Tournament on TV. That includes Virginia, the overall No. 1 seed, plus No. 2 Cincinnati, No. 3 Tennessee and No. 4 Arizona. All were elim- inated on the opening weekend, a tourney first . Gone, too, from the field of 68 are high-scoring Xavier, a No. 1 seed, defending national champion North Carolina, and Michigan State, making the path to next week’s Final Four that much more wide open. “You’ve got a chance,” said Bruce Weber, coach of ninth-seeded Kansas State. “Obviously, there’s been so much chaos in this year’s tournament and you say, hey, Ken- tucky is favored. “Yeah, fine, so was Virginia, so was Michigan State, so was all the other teams, and they all are not playing and we’re playing. I think we’ve got to have a good mindset.” Play resumes Thursday night with tournament darling Loyola-Chi- cago (30-5), an 11th seed, facing No. 7 seed Nevada (29-7), and Kan- sas State (24-11) playing No. 5 seed Kentucky (26-10) in the South at Philips Arena in Atlanta. The other two matchups are in the West, where No. 7 Texas A&M (22-12) meets No. 3 Michigan (30-7), and No. 9 Florida State (22-11) takes on No. 4 Gonzaga (32-4) at Staples Center in Los Angeles. On Friday night, No. 1 seed Kan- sas (29-7) plays No. 5 Clemson (25- 9), and second-seeded Duke (28-7) takes on 11th-seeded Syracuse (23- 13) in an Atlantic Coast Conference matchup in the Midwest Regional in Omaha, Nebraska. In the East Region at TD Garden in Boston, it will be top seed Villanova (32-4) against No. 5 West Virginia (26-10), and No. 2 Purdue (30-6) against No. 3 Texas Tech (26-9). For Florida State coach Leonard Hamilton, whose Seminoles haven’t reached the Sweet 16 in a quarter century, all the upsets are just a sign of the times. It’s just more painful for the Blue Bloods because more is expected of them. “You have kids playing good basketball all over the country,” Hamilton said. “But the schools that get the players with the most recog- nition have notoriety, and the expec- tations for those schools are at such a level that sometimes you get disap- pointed when the notoriety doesn’t meet the success.” RAMBLING ON AGAIN?: Loyola and UMBC were the talk of the first weekend, but the 16th-seeded Retrievers were ousted by Kansas State after toppling Vir- ginia in the first round, while the 11th-seeded Ramblers moved on with a last-second triumph over Tennessee. Loyola, which also defeated Miami with a buzzer beater, is out to match its 1963 national cham- pionship team and ruin the bracket of 98-year-old Sister Jean , the team chaplain and erstwhile scout whose picks don’t have her team advancing. “These guys have been preparing for it and the reason why we can do it is these guys are winners,” coach Porter Moser said. “It’s been noted a lot that we have seven kids on our team that won state champion- ships. They’re winners and they’re together. They’re a connected team. “We prepared for this every step, and they’re locked in. They’re going to embrace it.” BASEBALL Neah-Kah-Nie rides Bridge to win over Warrenton The Daily Astorian ROCKAWAY BEACH — War- renton faced another good pitcher from the Northwest League in a non- league baseball game Wednesday. And while Neah-Kah-Nie’s Bryce Bridge tossed a one-hitter with 11 strikeouts and two walks, the War- riors did not help themselves against the Pirates, who scored an 11-1 win over Warrenton. Trailing 5-1, the game got away from the Warriors in the bottom of the sixth, when Neah-Kah-Nie scored six runs on two hits, four walks and a hit batter. Four Warrenton pitchers gave up just three hits, but walked eight while the Warriors committed six errors defensively. “The conditions weren’t good, but we have to learn how to play in driz- zly, muddy conditions,” said Warren- ton coach Lennie Wolfe. “We just had a breakdown in fundamentals today. The positive is that we’re facing some pretty good pitchers from the North- west League.” Austin Little had the lone hit for Warrenton, which plays a double- header Saturday at Monroe. AP Photo/Tony Gutierrez Loyola-Chicago guard Clayton Custer (13) scores against Ten- nessee in the final seconds of a second-round game at the NCAA men’s college basketball tournament in Dallas Saturday.
