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THE DAILY ASTORIAN • FRIDAY, JULY 6, 2018
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Gary Henley | Sports Reporter
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Eli
Takalo
Trey
Hageman
Ethan
Lindstrom
Dale
Takalo
Ryker
Coffey
Kaleb
Miller
Payton
Westerholm
Astoria’s Michael Postlewait
holds his prize catch from last
month’s competition in Alabama.
Astoria’s
Postlewait
fares well
in Alabama
The Daily Astorian
Astoria High School placed
198th out of 384 teams in the Stu-
dent Angler Federation’s high
school bass fishing World Champi-
onship, held in late June on Pick-
wick Lake in Florence, Alabama.
Astoria’s Michael Postlewait
was also 195th out of 232 teams in
the SAF National Championship,
held simultaneously.
Postlewait had to fish solo,
as teammate Leo Matthews was
unavailable to make the 5,000-mile
round trip.
“The bite was tough because of
how many people were fishing,”
Postlewait said. “The lake was also
different from what we have here,
so the fishing style was hard to
adapt to.”
On the final day of competition,
Postlewait locked through Wilson
Dam to fish Wilson Lake, hoping
the waters would be more similar
to what he knew.
He caught a five-pounder on a
frog fairly early and had high hopes
of a strong finish. Unfortunately, all
of Postlewait’s other fish that day
were under the 15-inch minimum
length, or the wrong species. His
five-pound single fish beat out 186
other two-member teams, 140 of
which failed to weigh a single fish.
“It was not the result I wanted,
but it was a good experience and
am looking forward to next year,”
Postlewait said.
Postlewait and Matthews will
begin defending their state cham-
pionship July 28 on Siltcoos Lake
near Florence. This year there are
four legs to determine the 2019
Oregon state champions, with the
second Sept. 1 on Tenmile Lake on
the south Oregon Coast, and next
spring with a stop on the Colum-
bia River above The Dalles Dam
on April 13. The season concludes
May 11 at Cascade Locks.
The Bass Federation founded
the SAF and the national high
school fishing program in 2007.
This year, 384 teams of high school
anglers traveled from 35 different
states to compete at Pickwick Lake.
Lower Columbia Baseball Club
Knappa’s Dale Takalo at work on the mound for Hilander Dental, sponsor of the Lower Columbia Baseball Club of Longview, Washington.
Longview team sports North Coast players
The Daily Astorian
layers from Clatsop County are playing
big roles for a AAA Legion baseball team
in Longview, Washington, this summer.
In fact, recent graduates from Astoria and
Knappa — along with a couple of current play-
ers from Knappa, Naselle and Seaside — are
some of the primary stars for Hilander Dental,
the sponsor for Longview’s Lower Columbia
Baseball Club.
The team closed out June with five straight
victories to win the Cowboy Classic, held at the
College of Southern Idaho.
Hilander Dental won the tournament title to
improve to 11-6-1 on the season.
They started the week with a 12-7 loss to
the Vancouver Cardinals, in which recent Asto-
ria graduate Trey Hageman was 2-for-4 at the
plate, with two RBIs.
The team bounced back with a 3-2 victory
over a team from Taylorsville, Utah, in the
opener of the Cowboy Classic, as Knappa’s
Dale Takalo drove in two of the three runs with
a squeeze bunt and a sacrifice fly.
Pitcher Ethan Lindstrom of Naselle tossed a
scoreless seventh inning to earn the save.
P
One day later, Hilander Dental knocked off
another team from Utah, North Cache, 7-5,
behind the pitching of Knappa’s Eli Takalo. The
Loggers’ junior-to-be gave up just three hits
over six innings, while former Knappa team-
mate Kaleb Miller picked up the save.
The Lower Columbia team continued to win
Saturday, scoring wins over Pocatello (6-4) and
Twin Falls (11-4).
Hilander Dental overcame a 3-0 deficit in
the first game, in which Hageman was 2-for-4
with two RBIs. Dale Takalo earned the save on
the mound in the second game, while Eli was
2-for-3 with a double and two RBIs.
The team faced Pocatello in Sunday’s cham-
pionship, and scored a 13-7 win, as pitch-
ers Noah Jenkins (Mark Morris High School),
Lindstrom and Seaside’s Payton Westerholm
combined on the mound.
Hilander Dental suffered a couple of losses
Tuesday, falling twice in a doubleheader to
Centralia, which scored 17-10 and 4-3 victo-
ries. The team rebounded with a doubleheader
sweep Thursday over Centralia, 9-8 and 4-1.
In a near-repeat of the state championship
game two years ago, Hilander Dental scored
nine runs in the bottom of the seventh inning
— and of course a Knappa Logger drove in the
game-winning runs, as Miller’s two-run single
was the walk-off, game-winning hit. Miller was
2-for-4, while Hageman also drove in two runs.
In the nightcap, more heroics from the Clat-
sop County kids, as Dale Takalo had a triple,
with Payton Westerholm helping pitch Hilander
to the win.
Of the 22 athletes on the Hilander roster,
Knappa has four players, tied with R.A. Long
and Kelso for the most schools represented.
In addition to the Takalo brothers and Miller,
Knappa senior-to-be Ryker Coffey is a second
baseman for the team.
Miller is currently the third-leading hitter for
Hilander, sporting a .404 average (21-for-52),
with four doubles, a triple and 16 runs scored to
go with 11 RBIs and a .523 on-base percentage.
Hageman is fourth with a .396 average, with
15 runs scored and is tied with a team-leading
17 RBIs.
On the mound, Eli Takalo is 2-0 with three
saves in 14 innings pitched. Dale Takalo has
thrown 16.9 innings, and is currently 1-3 with
four saves.
Hageman and Westerholm are each 1-0 on
the mound.
WIMBLEDON
Herrmann’s
HR helps lift
Mariners over
Angels 4-1
Associated Press
SEATTLE — In early April,
Chris Herrmann was a free-agent
catcher sitting on his couch at
home wondering if he was going
to play baseball again.
Now he is. And the Mariners
are glad they found him.
Herrmann hit his first home run
for Seattle, and Marco Gonzales
pitched six solid innings to lead
the Mariners to a 4-1 victory over
the Los Angeles Angels on Thurs-
day night.
SCOREBOARD
LOCAL SPORTS SCHEDULE
SATURDAY
Junior state baseball — District tour-
nament, at Warrenton HS: Astoria vs.
Seaside, 1 p.m.; Knappa vs. Warrenton,
4 p.m. (free admission).
’17 champ Muguruza, finalist Cilic out in upsets
By HOWARD FENDRICH
Associated Press
LONDON — Garbine Muguruza
insisted she wasn’t thinking about
attempting to collect a second consec-
utive Wimbledon championship. She
was adamant that she was not focus-
ing on defending her title.
“It doesn’t really matter,” she
would say, “what happened in 2017.”
Well, it seems safe to say she’ll
really want to forget what happened at
the All England Club in 2018. Mugu-
ruza was stunned in the second round
5-7, 6-2, 6-1 by 47th-ranked Alison
Van Uytvanck of Belgium on Thurs-
day, the latest upset in a series of them
at the grass-court major tournament.
“It’s a little bit sad,” Muguruza
said. “But today didn’t go my way.”
That’s become a familiar refrain
for prominent women at this top-
sy-turvy Wimbledon.
Only two of the top eight seeded
women are still in the field after four
days of action.
Van Uytvanck, meanwhile, began
this week with a 1-4 record at Wim-
bledon and only one Grand Slam
quarterfinal appearance to her name.
Muguruza, meanwhile, owns two
major titles, including the 2016 French
Open, and was the runner-up at the All
England Club in 2015.
But that didn’t matter on this day.
Van Uytvanck was aggressive
from the baseline, compiling a 29-18
advantage in winners, and broke
in seven of Muguruza’s 13 service
games. Still, it was not easy finishing
off the most significant victory of her
career.
“Inside,” the 24-year-old Belgian
said, “I was, like, dying.”
The No. 3-seeded Muguruza
joined No. 2 Caroline Wozniacki, No.
4 Sloane Stephens, No. 5 Elina Svito-
lina, No. 6 Caroline Garcia and No. 8
Petra Kvitova on the way out so far,
along with five-time major champion
Maria Sharapova. Those departures
leave No. 1 Simona Halep, the French
Open champion who won in straight
sets Thursday, and No. 7 Karolina
Pliskova in the field, along with sev-
en-time Wimbledon champion Ser-
ena Williams, who is seeded 25th, and
five-time champ Venus Williams, who
is No. 9.
“I mean, anyone, on a good day,
can beat anyone,” Van Uytvanck said.
“That’s what I think. I still think the
top players, their average level is
higher than, let’s say, sub-top players.
But anyone on a good day can beat
anyone, for sure.”
Sure seems that way, particularly
this week.
Among the men, too.
Resumes and past performances
do not matter. At all.
Marin Cilic, for example, entered
his second-round match with all sorts
of advantages in experience and suc-
cess over his opponent, including a
runner-up finish at the All England
Club a year ago and a U.S. Open title
in 2014.
So when Cilic took a two-sets-to-
none lead against a guy who began the
week with records of 0-2 at Wimble-
don and 6-15 at all majors, it appeared
the No. 3 seed was on his way to a
straightforward victory and a step
closer to a potential semifinal rematch
against defending champion Roger
Federer.
Hold that thought. The outcome
that seemed obvious vanished, and
Cilic is gone, giving away a big edge
in a 3-6, 1-6, 6-4, 7-6 (3), 7-5 loss to
82nd-ranked Guido Pella of Argentina
in a match completed Thursday after
being suspended midway through the
third set because of rain the evening
before.
“A big surprise,” Pella said.
Cilic
called
it
a
“big
disappointment.”
“Just didn’t feel so good. I was not
as accurate as yesterday,” he said. “I
was just missing some balls, giving
him chance to keep playing.”
His exit means the highest-seeded
man No. 1 Federer possibly could
face before the final as he bids for a
record-extending ninth Wimbledon
title would be No. 8 Kevin Anderson
or No. 9 John Isner. They’re two of the
tour’s biggest servers, and both won
contests carried over from Wednesday.