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8A THE DAILY ASTORIAN • FRIDAY, JUNE 1, 2018 CONTACT US FOLLOW US facebook.com/ DailyAstorianSports Gary Henley | Sports Reporter ghenley@dailyastorian.com OSU BASEBALL SPORTS IN BRIEF Beavers take pride in defense Warrenton, Astoria players sign letters Warrenton senior Michelle Arney signed a letter of intent this week to play volleyball next season at Mt. Hood Community College. Arney was an outside hitter/ right-side hitter last year for the Warriors. Coached by Kristina Criv- Michelle ello, Mt. Hood Arney finished 8-6 in the South Region standings of the Northwest Ath- letic Conference last season. The Saints featured fresh- man Grace Madi Buchanan from Landwehr Banks on last year’s team, with recent let- ter-of-intent signees including Kaylynn Pickett (North Bend) and Bethany McKnight (Willamina). Earlier this year, Astoria’s Madi Landwehr signed a letter of intent to play at Clackamas Com- munity College. — The Daily Astorian Cruz homer sparks M’s to 6-1 win over Rangers SEATTLE — The Seattle Mariners have been waiting for Nelson Cruz to get going. They have been waiting for Dee Gor- don to return from the disabled list. And they had been waiting for a victory after two losses at home. They got all three Thursday night in a 6-1 win over the Texas Rangers at Safeco Field. Cruz hit a two-run home run, Gordon came back in full force from a stay on the 10-day DL caused by a fractured big toe, and the Mariners got another effective start by Wade LeBlanc to salvage a split in the four-game series and finish off an impressive May in which they went 18-11. “There’s no easy wins in this league, but our offense really did a nice job tonight,” Mariners manager Scott Servais said. “Just consistent pressure.” Gordon led off the game against Rangers starter Mike Minor with a triple and scored in a close play at home on Jean Segu- ra’s shallow sacrifice fly, test- ing Rangers right fielder Nomar Mazara’s arm and barely arriving safely with a head-first slide in which his hand beat Texas catcher Robinson Chirino’s glove. SCOREBOARD PREP SPORTS SCHEDULE TODAY Baseball — 2A/1A State Champion- ship: Pilot Rock vs. Knappa, 5 p.m. BASEBALL Clatsop County Baseball State Champions, Coach 1957: Seaside (A-2) Baily Brim 1960: Seaside (A-2) Everet Clary 1972: Seaside (AA) Jim Auld 1994: Warrenton (2A/1A) Lennie Wolfe 2006: Astoria (3A) Dave Gasser 2009: Astoria (4A) Dave Gasser 2010: Knappa (2A/1A) Jeff Miller 2011: Astoria (4A) Brian Babbitt 2015: Knappa (2A/1A) Jeff Miller 2017: Knappa (2A/1A) Jeff Miller Championship games at Volcanoes Stadium (Clatsop County appearances) 1998: Nyssa 12, Warrenton 11 (9) 2006: Astoria 9, Sherwood 2 (9) 2008: Newport 8, Astoria 4 2009: Astoria 8, Baker 6 2010: Scappoose 2, Astoria 1 (8) 2010: Knappa 3, Heppner 1 2011: Astoria 4, North Valley 1 2015: Knappa 3, Monroe 0 2016: Burns 4, Knappa 3 2017: Knappa 10, Reedsport 9 2018: Knappa vs. Pilot Rock Knappa Baseball Championship appearances (Class A/B) 1979: Wahtonka 5, Knappa 0 1984: Yoncalla 2, Knappa 1 (Class 2A/1A) 2010: Knappa 3, Heppner 1 2015: Knappa 3, Monroe 0 2016: Burns 4, Knappa 3 2017: Knappa 10, Reedsport 9 Gazette-Times Chinook Observer Ilwaco’s Kevin McNulty, seated on the left, is leaving the Fishermen for a head football coaching job in Las Vegas. Ilwaco coach, athletic director departing for Las Vegas school By AARON MEAD Chinook Observer K evin McNulty, Ilwaco High School’s athletic direc- tor, football and wrestling coach, and dean of students, has accepted a position as head foot- ball coach at Sunrise Mountain High School in Las Vegas, a school of approximately 2,600 students,. McNulty announced the news Friday on Facebook. He will take over at Sunrise Mountain at the beginning of next school year. McNulty has been athletic director at Ilwaco since 2007, and previously coached there from 1989 to 1996. In between, McNulty coached at Sequim and White River. Sunrise Mountain went 6-5 last year, reaching the second round of the playoffs under coach Chris Sawyers, who left to take another position. Ilwaco High School principal Dave Tobin said that Kara Pow- ell, who took over as principal at Ocean Park Elementary school this school year, will transfer to Ilwaco High School to serve as athletic director and assistant prin- cipal. Hilltop Middle School prin- cipal Todd Carper will take over as Ocean Park principal, and the Hill- top opening will be posted inter- nally within the District. “I’m looking forward to work- ing with Kara Powell,” Tobin said. “I’m very confident she’s going to do a good job.” Powell and Tobin will have the task of filling the football and wrestling head coaching vacan- cies, as well as the school’s volley- ball coaching vacancy. “We are currently looking at any and all options for the football and other vacancies,” Tobin said. “If there are people in the commu- nity who are interested, we encour- age them to apply.” McNulty will still conduct this year’s summer wrestling camp at Ilwaco. “We’ll have the wrestling camps, we’ve got big summer bas- ketball camps this year. All that will still happen,” Tobin said. McNulty was inducted into the Washington State Wrestling Coaches Association Hall of Fame last October. He has coached 14 state champions, including four at Ilwaco, and at the time had a life- time dual meet record of 212-52 and several wrestling coach of the year honors, including the 2004 Washington state all classifications coach of the year award. Tobin expressed great apprecia- tion for McNulty’s impact. “Kevin has done a phenome- nal job as teacher, coach, athletic director and dean of students. I will miss him. I think a lot of people will. He had an incredible impact on the school and the students.” Bob Enos, currently Ilwaco’s head golf coach, assistant basket- ball coach, and football defensive coordinator, wished McNulty well. “Kevin’s the reason I came to (IHS) to coach…We had known each other coaching against each other. He affects so many people with the relationships he builds. He got me into coaching golf, which I initially didn’t want to do, and now I love it. I’ll miss our talks about sports and education.” Added Alex Kaino, a junior receiver for the football team: “I think we got an unbelievable opportunity to be coached by him. It’s sad that he’s leaving…But he’ll influence a lot of lives posi- tively at (Sunrise Mountain), too. He’s not just a coaching figure. He keeps kids on track and gives good advice, holding people to high standards.” From top to bottom, the Oregon State batting order is without a dis- cernible weakness. The same can be said about the team’s defense. Entering this weekend’s Cor- vallis Regional, the Beavers are second in the Pac-12 and tied for 11th nationally with a fielding per- centage of .979. Top-seeded OSU (44-10-1) has committed just two errors in its last 11 games head- ing into tonight’s 7 p.m. home regional opener against No. 4 Northwestern State (37-22). “It starts with our individual talents,” junior shortstop Cadyn Grenier said. “Everybody is here because we are DI baseball play- ers and we are some of the best in the country, but it also comes from the top. (The coaches) really put an emphasis on defense, and we take that to heart and try to be the best defensive team we can. Our pitch- ers go out and if they throw strikes and get us the ball, we’re going to make sure we take care of it and get outs.” Grenier, a candidate to win Pac- 12 defensive player of the year, has committed just six errors in 55 starts. Second baseman Nick Mad- rigal, the league’s reigning defen- sive player of the year, doesn’t have an error this season while third baseman Michael Gretler (.972 fielding percentage) and Zak Tay- lor (.990) at first are corner anchors. After playing through back and shoulder soreness earlier this spring, catcher Adley Rutschman appears to be close to 100 per- cent. Outfield regulars Trevor Lar- nach, Steven Kwan, Kyle Nobach and Jack Anderson are all plus defenders. “I think there’s a passion and camaraderie with the team that they want to play with one another,” coach Pat Casey said. “That’s a special thing and a hard thing to do, and I think they do it all the time.” Rutschman, a sophomore, has been good for at least one highlight play per weekend. UO SOFTBALL Warriors withstand James’ 51 points to win Game 1 By JANIE MCCAULEY Associated Press OAKLAND, Calif. — The Golden State Warriors somehow withstood LeBron James’ latest bril- liance on the NBA Finals stage. A costly blunder by J.R. Smith and a disputed foul call involving James himself sure helped. Stephen Curry scored 29 points and the Warriors capitalized on Smith’s mistake that sent the game into overtime, overcoming a 51-point performance by James to beat Cleveland 124-114 in Game 1 on Thursday night. The game nearly over, James jawed with both Curry and Klay Thompson, then Tristan Thomp- son and Draymond Green tangled moments later and made contact. After replay review, Tristan Thomp- son received a Flagrant 2 foul and ejection with 2.6 seconds left. James was in utter disbelief as regulation ended stunningly: George Hill made the first of two free throws with 4.7 seconds left after being fouled by Klay Thompson, but when Smith secured the rebound of the second, he dribbled back toward halfcourt instead of shooting, appar- ently thinking the Cavs had a lead. “He thought it was over. He thought we were up one,” coach Tyronn Lue said. Yet Smith insisted he knew the score. Green figured Smith was sim- ply looking for James, saying, “I would have looked for LeBron, too.” “I just thought we were going Top-seeded Oregon rolls past Arizona State By CLIFF BRUNT Associated Press AP Photo/Marcio Jose Sanchez Golden State Warriors guard Stephen Curry is congratulated by team- mates after scoring against the Cleveland Cavaliers. to call a timeout. Because I got the rebound, I’m pretty sure I couldn’t shoot it over KD,” Smith said of Kevin Durant. “If I thought we were ahead, I would have just held on to the ball so they could foul me. Clearly that wasn’t the case.” Instead, OT. And why not? Both these teams were pushed to their limits in sev- en-game conference finals they each had to win on the road. “I can’t talk about a situation that way because I do some dumb stuff on the court,” Durant said of how the fourth quarter finished. “I don’t know what was going through J.R.’s head. He made a great rebound and gave them an opportunity to win the basketball game.” Game 2 is Sunday night back at Oracle Arena, where the Warriors have won 18 of their last 19 post- season games. In 2015, when the Golden State beat the Cavs to cap- ture the franchise’s first title in 40 years, the first two games of the series went to OT — Golden State winning the opener and Cleveland Game 2. James shot 19 for 32 to go with eight assists and eight rebounds in the opener of his eighth straight NBA Finals and ninth overall, as well as Cavs-Warriors Take IV. James notched his eighth 40-point game during this playoff run to tie Hall of Famer Jerry West’s feat in 1965 for most in a single postseason. “We’ve got to move on,” James said. “This game is over and done with. We had opportunities.” OKLAHOMA CITY — It wasn’t what Oregon coach Mike White expected, but he’ll take it. Shannon Rhodes’ three-run homer in the sixth inning helped top-seeded Oregon defeat Ari- zona State 11-6 on Thursday at the Women’s College World Series. White figured the game would be about pitching, but it was high scoring from the start. Ore- gon dominated Giselle “G” Juarez, Ari- zona State’s All-American pitcher. Juarez pitched a complete game, but she gave up 14 hits and 10 earned runs. Oregon pitcher Miranda Elish recovered from a rough start against the Ducks’ Pac-12 rival and increased her career record to 37-1. She gave up five runs and six hits in five innings, and improved to 25-1 this season. “If you had told me that’s going to be 17 runs scored off those two pitching staffs to start the game, I’d have thought you were crazy,” White said. “It was definitely a dogfight.” Oregon (53-8) will play Wash- ington today.
