10A
THE DAILY ASTORIAN • THURSDAY, MARCH 22, 2018
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Gary Henley | Sports Reporter
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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.