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THE DAILY ASTORIAN • FRIDAY, JUNE 1, 2018
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Gary Henley | Sports Reporter
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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.