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S PORTS www.hoodrivernews.com Hood River News, Wednesday, April 29, 2015 HRV bounces back with big wins over Hermiston By BEN MITCHELL News staff writer At first, it looked like the Hood River Valley Eagles might suffer yet another defeat at the hands of a league opponent, and might find themselves on the outside looking in at the playoffs. More than halfway through the first game of Saturday’s doubleheader in Hood River against the Hermiston Bull- dogs, the Eagles saw themselves in a spot they’ve been in probably more times than they would like this season: star- ing at a multi-run deficit, with precious few innings left to make it up. However, like other games this season, the Eagles mount- ed a comeback that paid off. After going down 7-2 in the first five innings, HRV (9-10 overall, 2-3 Columbia River Conference), fought back against the Hermiston Bulldogs (6-12 overall, 0-5 CRC), pouring out eight runs over two innings and ultimately winning the game, 10-8. In the second contest, HRV won again, 9-6. Photo by Ben Mitchell Keller said HRV “struggled defensively early in the first, and that led to a struggle to string together hits,” after Her- miston was able to put up five runs in the first inning, and ZOE MUNN slides to avoid Hermiston’s catcher during a successful attempt to steal home in HRV was only able to respond with two. Hermiston widened the bottom of the fifth inning of game one. Munn, a freshman, had a huge impact on the the gap with two runs in the third to make it 7-2. game, sparking a rally by HRV in the fifth inningto erase a 7-2 deficit to win the game, 10-8. The game turned around for HRV in the bottom of the fifth, when catcher Zoe Munn — a freshman who has helped Pitcher Kaylin Winans iced the Hermiston batters in the third, strik- the Eagles out of a jam more than once this season — rifled off a single to right field, then stole second base, advanced to third on a wild pitch, ing out one (and nearly a second) batter, and allowing no hits in a quick then stole home to narrow the score to 7-3. JoJo Karr, who walked earli- final inning. Winans pitched all seven innings, striking out five batters, er in the inning, scored on a center field double from Kelsey Wells, mak- walking three, and giving up 10 hits. HRV batters had a total of 14 hits in the game. ing it 7-4. Wells was sent The rally seemed to home with the aid of a GAME ONE take the wind out of hard ground ball slammed the Bulldogs’ sails in to left field by Jessica Karr, 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 R H E the second game, who and Karr in turn went trailed behind HRV home (after advancing to HRM 5 0 2 0 0 1 0 8 10 2 throughout all seven second on a wild pitch) off innings. HRV 2 0 0 0 4 4 X 10 14 5 a double from Breanna Just as Hermiston Weekly — another hard did in the first game, ground ball to left — to GAME TWO HRV jumped out to a tighten the game up to 7-6. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 R H E five-run lead in the The Bulldogs had a one- first inning. Once run rebuttal in the top of HRM 0 1 0 0 0 1 4 6 11 2 again, Munn provided the sixth to push their lead a spark for HRV, hit- out to two, but that soon HRV 5 1 1 1 0 0 X 9 11 2 ting a home run on the evaporated after HRV once second pitch faced by again went on a four-run the Eagles, sending tear and took the lead for the first time of the game. With bases loaded, Wells sent a fly ball to left one deep to left field. Wells followed up with a triple off a fly ball to cen- field, allowing DeHart and Munn to score. A fly ball hit by Weekly to ter field, and then was able to advance home on a passed ball to make it right field was caught by a Hermiston outfielder, but allowed both JoJo 2-0, HRV. Weekly and Jenni Packer, who had gotten on base with a single and a double, respectively, were sent home off a two-run double by Mak- Karr and Wells to score after tagging up to go up 10-6. “We attacked them with great base running to look for every advan- See SOFTBALL, Page A9 tage,” Keller said of his team’s ability to come back in the game. Eagles baseball beats Bulldogs, sweeps Saturday’s doubleheader After resounding 11-1 win, HRV hangs on for 4-3 victory over Hermiston in second game By BEN MITCHELL News staff writer RYAN WARD takes a swing during the second game of Saturday’s doubleheader against Hermiston. Ward was a perfect three for three from the plate in the first game and on the mound, struck out seven batters in five innings. HRV baseball continues to tally up its wins in the Columbia River Conference after having a productive weekend against Hermiston during a home dou- bleheader, taking down the Bulldogs 11-1 in the first game, and fending off a late rally to win the second frame, 4-3. In what was HRV’s highest scoring game since a 14-5 win over La Salle on March 20, the Eagles (12-6 overall, 4-1 Co- lumbia River Conference), were relative- ly quiet early in the first game Saturday afternoon, scoring two runs against the Bulldogs (8-8 overall, 1-4 CRC) over the first three innings. Skyler Hunter scored off a sacrifice fly by Ryan Ward to get HRV on the board in the first inning, and Ward scored in the third off a fly ball to right field sent there by Patrick Harvey on a single to make it a 2-1 game. The bats for HRV really got going in the fourth and fifth innings, when the team scored a total of 10 runs and put a cork in the game thanks to the mercy rule. Hermiston’s offense was almost non-existent: one run, two hits, and three errors over the course of five innings. By comparison, HRV had 13 hits and two er- rors. Leading the charge for HRV was Ward, who was as good behind the plate as he was from the rubber. Ward was a perfect three for three at bats, with two singles and a double, and had a team-high three RBI as well as scoring one run. Ward pitched the game’s five innings, during which he struck out seven batters. Also putting up hits for HRV were Har- vey (3 for 4, 3 singles, 2 RBI), Kam Walk- er (2 for 3, 2 singles, 2 RBI, 2 runs), Adam Cameron (2 for 4, 2 singles, 2 RBI), Kellan Duffy (2 for 4, 2 singles, 2 RBI, 2 runs), and Hunter (1 for 3, single, 3 runs). Riley Van Hoose and Willie Ishizaka also scored for HRV. The second game was a bit of a differ- ent story for the Eagles, but the ending was the same. See BASEBALL, Page A9 RGA gymnasts bring home gold medals from state championships The 2015 Oregon State Gymnas- tics Spring Championships were held in Salem this past weekend and five Hood River gymnasts, rep- resenting Riverside Gymnastics Academy based out of The Dalles, brought home the gold and then some. Out of 26 teams, RGA’s Level 4 team got on the podium in the third-place spot with a team score of 111.825. In the Junior A division, Jacy Johnston won the state champi- onship title on the balance beam with a score of 9.350. She medaled REGINA SANCHEZ SPORTS BRIEFS Horizon boys golf 6th at dis- trict tourney Eagles softball rallies and wins both games of doubleheader in Hood River Photo by Ben Mitchell A7 in every other event, claiming sec- ond on bars with a personal best of 9.625, third on floor with a 9.375, and sixth on vault. This put her on the podium in second place all- around with a 36.775. Regina Sanchez (Level 4, Senior B division) tied for first place on the bars with a 9.525. She placed fourth on floor and vault and cap- tured second place all-around with a 36.750. Sophia Riviello, in her first sea- son as a Level 4, took fourth place on bars with a 9.450 in the Junior B division. All around state champion in the Level 3 Senior C division is Audrey Fuentes with a score of 37.450. Ac- cording to Coach Jacque Johnston, Fuentes captured the all-around title because of her consistency on every event. In addition to the all- around title, Fuentes finished sec- ond on bars with a 9.575, third on floor with a 9.475, fifth on beam, and sixth on vault. Ava Krentz had a good showing with a second place on vault with a 9.4 and sixth on bars in the Senior A division. On a side note, Johnston and JACY JOHNSTON Sanchez earned the marks to move up to Level 5, while Fuentes and Krentz will move up to Level 4. “All of the coaches are super proud of the entire team from RGA,” said Jacque Johnston. “Not only because of their perfor- mances at the state championship, but because of their hard work and great character that they show day- in and day-out as gymnasts and as human beings. I feel very fortunate to coach, and to have our daughter, Jacy, compete for such an outstand- ing gymnastics club.” AUDREY FUENTES The Horizon Christian School boys golf team scored sixth at the district tournament held April 20 at Glen- doveer Golf Course in Portland. The team’s four scoring golfers shot 74 strokes better than team’s last outing at Glendoveer on April 9, dropping from a total score of 466 to 392. Scoring for Horizon were Ian Walker, who shot a team-best 89, along with Mason Bloomster (96), Alex Tran (96), and Zack Walker (111). Also playing for Horizon was Shaun Wang, who shot a 114. Horizon’s next outing will be at Quail Valley Golf Course in Banks on April 29. Boys tennis stays the course The HRV varsity boys tennis team is looking to be in fine form as they prepare for the district tournament, which is less than three weeks away. Last week, HRV endured a rare loss in a close match against Wilson on Monday that ended 5-3 in favor of Wilson. The outing could have gone either way, as two of the Eagles’ loss- es came from matches that ended up going to three sets. On Wednesday, HRV once again handily beat Pendle- ton, although the Buckaroos have had a thin roster all season, so much so that the team had to forfeit at No. 4 doubles due to a lack of players. HRV won the match 8-0; individual players generally beat their oppo- nents by large margins, with only one match going to three sets. On Saturday, HRV was tops at the Sandy Tournament, scoring 37 points to de- feat Sandy (32), Molalla (12), and Es- tacada (6). HRV next hosts The Dalles on Wednesday for a 4 p.m. match. Girls tennis fighting through rough patch The HRV varsity girls tennis team has had a tough going as of late, sidelining top netter Maddy Graham a couple weeks ago due to a twisted ankle. HRV lost to Hermiston, 7-1 on April 16, a team that coach Jaime Rivera called “one of the top teams in our district.” After a tournament in Madras, HRV lost to Wilson, 8-0, on April 20 and then Pendleton, 7-1 on April 22. One of the bright spots for HRV came during Saturday’s tourna- ment at Oregon Episcopal School, where HRV was able to defeat Crook County High School, 5-3, with Rivera noting that the Crook County boasts “the No. 1 and No. 2 ranked singles players in the state.” The Eagles will look to build on that positivity when they face The Dalles away on Wednesday at 4 p.m. Boys lax drops game against Wilson The Eagles lost a divisional game to Wilson at Wilson High School by a score of 15-5 on Monday evening. HRV is now 6-4 on the season, with a 1-2 divisional record. The loss means HRV is clawing with Lincoln, Grant, and Oregon Episcopal School, who all have similar records and fighting to move up from the middle section of the Columbia River Con- ference. HRV has four regular season games left, including a home game on Friday at 7 p.m. against OES. HRV’s last regular season home game is on Monday at 7 against King’s Way Christian High School from Vancouver, Wash., in what is a non-divisional game. Girls lax trounces Wilson For the second time this season, HRV outshined Wilson High by a large margin, defeating them by a score of 16-4 in a game in Hood River Monday evening. Coach An- drew McElderry noted the game was a true team effort, with five players scoring the team’s first six goals, as well as six assists on the night, which he believed was a season high for HRV. He also praised the team’s abil- ity to improve their mental game, their selfless playing style, and the team’s “composed, consistent, and patient” play that was exhibited Monday night. Freshman Kat McElderry led the way for HRV with four goals, Lydia McElderry and Erin Mayer each had three, Riley Bauer and Sam Davies had two, and Daisy Dolan and Lauren Trumbull each had one. Bauer, Dolan, Trumbull, Lydia McElderry, Savannah Brentlinger, and Ellen Hudon all had an assist. Groundballs were spread around quite a bit, with almost every player contributing to the effort. Leading that effort, though, were Mayer, Bauer, and Lydia McElderry with a four apiece. Mayer also led in draws, winning six. Goalie Ella Rand stopped five of nine shots (55.6 per- cent). HRV next faces Oregon Episco- pal School Thursday in an away game that starts at 7:30 p.m.
