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S PORTS www.hoodrivernews.com Hood River News, Saturday, May 9, 2015 A7 Boys tennis claims first-ever CRC title With win over Hermiston, HRV stays perfect in the Columbia River Conference By BEN MITCHELL News staff writer The HRV boys tennis team has been hav- ing a stellar season this spring, but now, it’s an historic one. On Wednesday, the boys defeated Colum- bia River Conference opponent Hermiston, 5-3, which coach Jon Hiatt said gave the team its first-ever CRC title in school histo- ry. The Eagles went undefeated in the CRC this season, posting a 6-0 record. The win against the Eagles’ final CRC op- ponent of the season wasn’t exactly easy one, with Hiatt reporting that the team “played without three of our top players” due to Advanced Placement tests and an in- jury. Unlike for the girls’ match in Hood River (see “Sports Briefs” on Page A8), the weather mostly cooperated for the most part, with Hiatt noting that the sky grew dark and cold, “but only a few raindrops fell.” As they have done for the majority of the season, HRV dominated in singles play, sweeping all four positions. In the No. 1 slot, Scottie Ziegner blanked his opponent, Valentino Whitsell, in both sets. At No. 2, Victor Garibo defeated Skyler Grigg defeat- ed Skyler Grigg, 6-3, 6-0; Will Ferrick beat Caleb Jurgenson, 6-4, 6-4; and Alden Sova bested Thomas McCullough, 6-1, 6-0. Doubles play was a different story for HRV. Although the team lost 1-3, many of the sets were close. In No. 1 the pair of Brandon Campos and Miguel de la Rosa lost to Wadekamper/Snell (no first names given), 2-6, 0-6 and the team of Cole Shepherd and Hugo Sandoval lost to Meade/Lathum, 0-6, 6-7 (5). In the No. 3 slot, the duo of Quinn Tyler and Sawyer Bogard provided the lone dou- bles win for HRV, defeating Wicks/Morris, 6- 2, 7-6 (2). Rounding out the match for the Ea- gles were Sam Raulston and Simon Harsan- vi, who lost a close match with K. Grigg/Pieris, 6-3, 4-6, 5-10. With the CRC trophy in hand, the squad heads to the district tournament in Sunriver May 15 and 16. The final roster and seeding hadn’t been determined as of this writing, but Hiatt said Ziegner’s high level of play he’s exhibited this season was worthy of an equally high seeding. “Scottie will hopefully get one of the top seeds at district,” he said. “The top four sin- gles and the top four doubles get to go to state. He is definitely one of those.” SCOTTIE ZIEGNER VICTOR GARIBO HRV teams put up 12 runs each in wins over The Dalles Photo by Ben Mitchell Photo by Ben Mitchell SKYLER HUNTER grabs a ground ball at short stop during Tuesday’s game against The Dalles. He had a good day at the plate too, leading the team with four RBI and hitting a sin- gle and a triple in three at-bats. JESSICA DEHART connects with a pitch during Tuesday’s game against The Dalles. She scored twice and had an RBI single, as well as making some key plays in the infield. By BEN MITCHELL By BEN MITCHELL News staff writer News staff writer The bleachers may have been packed during Tuesday’s game versus the Hood River Valley Eagles and The Dalles Riverhawks, but by the second inning, it was only the HRV fans that had anything to cheer about. HRV (7-2 Columbia River Conference, 15-7 overall) rolled CRC rival The Dalles (4-5 CRC, 10-12 overall) in what was the penultimate meeting of the two teams in regular season play, shutting the Riverhawks out, 12-0, and ending the game midway through the fifth inning due to the mercy rule. Aside from the first inning, which was scoreless for both teams, the Riverhawks were never in control of the game, and futilely tried to play catchup for the majority of the contest after HRV exploded for seven runs in the second inning, then added an- other four in the third and the final run of the game in the bottom of the fourth. Over five innings, The Dalles never even got close to scoring, with no Riverhawks runner advancing any farther than second base. The Dalles was held to just three hits thanks in part due to the efficient play of the Eagles’ infield, including that of pitch- er Kam Walker, who struck out five batters in as many innings and walked one. For what was one of the highest-scoring games of the season for HRV, the number of hits wasn’t quite as impressive, with the team’s nine hits slightly over the team’s average of 8.13 hits per game this season, but obviously plenty enough to get the job done. A third of those went to Patrick Harvey, who had a single, a triple, and a home run on the very first pitch of the bottom of the fourth inning — a fly ball that sailed over the left field fence for the final score of the game. Harvey also had three RBI, second only to Skyler Hunter, who had four thanks to a single and a triple he hit in three at-bats. Walker, Chase Lariza, Riley Van Hoose, and Dallas Buckley had the remaining hits for HRV — all singles, with the exception of a The Dalles/Dufur softball team may have got the better of HRV last week, but on Tuesday, the Riverhawks were on Eagles’ turf, where they saw the tables turned by an HRV squad that dominated on both offense and defense. After losing both games of a doubleheader in The Dalles last Friday, HRV played one of their best games of the season Tuesday afternoon under a threatening Hood River sky, defeating the Riverhawks, 12-2, in a five inning mercy rule game. The game marked HRV’s highest-scoring game against a league opponent this sea- son and was tied for the fewest runs allowed by HRV (3-6 Columbia River Conference, 10-13 overall) since a game against the Century Jaguars on April 8. Playing against a No. 10-ranked Riverhawks team (5-4 CRC, 13-9 overall) that has put up, on average, over 10 runs a game against HRV this season, the victory was a nice turnaround for the Ea- gles. “The team fought hard in preparation to fine-tune their offensive and defensive ap- proach to the game,” said coach Eric Keller. “They are a team of athletes that can make plays and (Tuesday) they showed their abilities. “We brought a sense of determination and combined it with enthusiasm,” he added. “The result was a great performance.” HRV wasted no time in Tuesday’s game, scoring four runs in the first inning, then the second inning, and then again in the third inning to put the Riverhawks in the un- comfortable position of a 12-0 deficit heading into the fourth inning. The Dalles were able to put together a two-run inning in the top of the fourth, but after a scoreless bot- tom of the fourth by HRV, the Riverhawks couldn’t close the gap at all during the top of the fifth, and the 10-run deficit resulted in the invocation of the mercy rule. The Eagles got another standout performance from frosh catcher Zoe Munn, who See BOYS, Page A8 See GIRLS, Page A8 Girls lax heading to playoffs for second time in team history No. 15 HRV will face No. 18 Marist in Hood River on Monday, game time not available as of press time By BEN MITCHELL News staff writer Photo by Ben Mitchell SAVANNAH BRENTLINGER fires a shot near the end of the first half of HRV’s game with Cleveland Thursday evening in Hood River. Brentlinger led the team in scoring with four goals, as well as ground balls (6). The HRV girls lacrosse team has had an up-and-down season, but at the end of the season, they ended on the up side. For only the second time in the team’s history, the Eagles are heading to the playoffs, and wrapped up their regular season Thursday night with a decisive win over Cleveland, defeat- ing the Warriors by a score of 12-4. Coach Andrew McElderry said his team was “stoked” to make the post-season, and was pleased with how they played in what may have been the last game of the year in Hood River. “It was a great game,” he said. “The kids are seeing each other well and I thought we cleared the ball really well. We really adjusted to riding (Cleveland) when their goalie got the ball well.” HRV ended up outscoring Cleveland three to one and outshot the team 30-18, but it took some time before the Eagles really got things cooking. Lydia McElderry put HRV on the board less than four minutes into the game with a rock- et just a few feet in front of the goalie, but Cleveland tied the game less than three minutes later. A goal from Savannah Brentlinger with 14:57 left in the half put HRV out in front again, only to have Cleveland answer with 13:17 remaining to make it 2-2. The Eagles broke free in the latter part of the half, starting with two goals from Erin Mayer, including a penalty shot, and another one by Brentlinger to make it 5-2 by the end of the half — nearly 6-2 if a last-second goal by Lydia McElderry hadn’t been waved off by the officials. The first five minutes of the second half were quiet until Riley Bauer tore up the middle of the field, split two Cleveland defenders, and fired one into the back of the net to make it 6-2, HRV. Cleveland and HRV traded goals again, with the Warriors scoring with 18:45 left in the game to narrow it to 6-3. Goals by Bauer and Savanna Boersma put HRV up 8-3, and Cleveland added another with 10:59 left in the half to make it 8-4. From there on out, though, it was all the HRV Eagles show, with goals from Brentlinger, See LAX, Page A8
