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About East Oregonian : E.O. (Pendleton, OR) 1888-current | View Entire Issue (April 1, 2015)
WEDNESDAY, APRIL 1, 2015 Sports shorts Big weekend boosts Ducks to No. 1 EUGENE — After a 4-1 week which featured a perfect game and an eight- homer game, the Oregon softball team climbed to No. 1 in both top-25 polls for the second straight year. Last year’s appearance DW1RZDVWKH¿UVWLQ program history. Oregon’s biggest games last week both came in a three-game series with No. 19 Washington. Cheridan Hawkins tossed KHU¿UVWFDUHHUSHUIHFWJDPH DQGKHU¿IWKFDUHHUQRKLWWHU in Friday’s 8-0 run-rule win, and after falling on Saturday, Oregon’s bats responded in record style as the Ducks belted a program-record eight home runs and tied WKH1&$$UHFRUGZLWK¿YH home runs in the third inning en route to a 15-6 win on Sunday. SPORTS 1B FOLLOW US ON TWITTER @EOSPORTS PENDLETON Bucks receive power surge The Bucks’ Kai Quinn slides suc- cessfully into third Tuesday as Daniel Bribbs, of La Grande, waits for the ball at Bob White Field in Pendleton. Staff photo by Kathy Aney BASEBALL Ovechkin joins Gretzky, Lemieux with 50th goal WASHINGTON (AP) — Alex Ovechkin scored his NHL-leading 50th goal, reaching that mark for the sixth time and tying a team record with the 472nd of his career, and added an assist to help the FACES Washington Capitals beat the Carolina Hurricanes 4-2 Tuesday night. With his team pushing to make the Ovechkin playoffs, the three-time NHL MVP got 1RDWRIWKH¿UVW period, giving Washington a 2-0 lead when he took a pass from Evgeny Kuznetsov and sent a shot from just inside the left circle past goalie Cam Ward. 2QO\¿YHRWKHUSOD\HUV reached the half-century mark at least six times: Wayne Gretzky and Mike Bossy had nine such seasons, and Mario Lemieux, Marcel Dionne DQG*X\/DÀHXUKDGVL[ “Because I’m the best player in this draft.“ — Jameis Winston Florida St. quarterback when asked why he should be the No. 1 pick in this year’s NFL draft. Winston had just fi nished wowing scouts with his arm strength and accuracy during nearly an hour of throw- ing drills at FSU’s pro day for NFL scouts and media on Tuesday. THIS DATE IN SPORTS 1920 — The Ottawa Senators defeat the Seattle Metropolitans 6-1 to capture the NHL Stanley Cup, three games to two. 1972 ² 7KH ¿UVW SOD\ ers’strike in major league his- tory lasts 12 days and cancels 86 games. 1985 — Villanova shocks Georgetown with a 66-64 victory to win the NCAA basketball title. The Wildcats, led by Dwayne McClain’s 17 points, shot 79 percent from WKH ¿HOG PDNLQJ RI shots, and added 22 of 27 free throws. 1991 — Duke ends years of frustration with a 72-65 victory over Kansas for its ¿UVW QDWLRQDO WLWOH LQ ¿YH championship-game appear- ances and nine trips to the Final Four. Contact us at 541-966-0838 or sports@eastoregonian.com Pendleton 8 La Grande 6 Morris homers twice as Pendleton beats La Grande By ERIK SKOPIL East Oregonian The Pendleton baseball season received a welcome nudge from na- ture on Tuesday at Bob White Field. Strong gusting winds aided the struggling Buckaroo bats, lifting WKUHHKDUGKLWÀ\EDOOVFOHDURYHUWKH OHIW¿HOGZDOOLQDQYLFWRU\RYHU La Grande. “This has been a tradition here for 100 years or forever as long as WKLV ¿HOG KDV EHHQ KHUH LI \RX JHW a ball up in the air, it’s going to go out,” Pendleton coach Greg Whitten said. Pendleton (3-7) had hit just one KRPHUXQLQLWV¿UVWQLQHJDPHVEXW sent three over the fence Tuesday. Sophomore Wyatt Morris hit his ¿UVWWZRYDUVLW\KRPHUXQVWREXLOG Pendleton a 4-3 lead. After the Ti- gers took the lead in the sixth, it was another bomb — this time a solo shot from junior Quinn Cockburn — that tied the score at 5-5. La Grande pitcher Jake Workinger picked up two outs fol- lowing the Cockburn blast before ing the bases to give the Buckaroos WKHLU ¿UVW EDFNWREDFN ZLQV RI WKH season. “I’d hit two pretty hard ones up WKH PLGGOH DW WKH FHQWHU ¿HOGHU´ Smith said. “I just tried to put a little more on it. The wind helped a lot.” “I always say it’s not how many hits you get in a game, it’s when you get them,” Whitten said of Smith, who was 0-for-3 before the go-ahead knock. “He’d smoked two EDOOVWRFHQWHU¿HOGDQGJRWUREEHG and then got payback with a bas- es-loaded double. That was great to see.” It has been a rough March for Whitten and the Buckaroos. After Staff photo by the basketball team’s strong season Kathy Aney delayed spring preparations, Pend- leton opened with a disappointing 1-7 start. The team’s worst loss FDPHQRWRQWKH¿HOGKRZHYHUEXW RQ D ÀXNH SOD\ 6HQLRU VWDU $OH[ O’Rourke was smacked with a pitch last week in a tournament in Boi- se that may sideline the three-year loading the bases on three consec- twice already, sent another towards starter for the season’s remainder. utive walks. That brought shortstop 7LJHU FHQWHU ¿HOGHU (OL :LVGRP Whitten lauded the play of Cock- Caden Smith to the plate. Smith, This time the ball soared over Wis- See BUCKS/2B ZKR KDG ÀRZQ RXW WR FHQWHU ¿HOG dom’s head and into the wall, clear- Pendle- ton’s Ky- ler Lunny rounds third after a home run by teammate Wyatt Morris who isn’t far behind during Tuesday’s game against La Grande at Bob White Field. HERMISTON Lions ace stymies Bulldogs Hermiston shut out by West Linn Prep Roundup Summit downs Hermiston in extra inning By SAM BARBEE EO Media Group On a windswept day at Ar- mand Larive Middle School BASEBALL and with scouts in attendance, West Linn se- West Linn nior Karson Lindell didn’t disappoint. He two-hit the Hermiston Bulldogs in a Hermiston 13-0 decision LQ ¿YH LQQLQJV in a non-league baseball game Tuesday after- noon. “When you look around and see the amount of scouts that are here, that’s an indicator that the NLG¶V SUHWW\ GDQJ JRRG´ ¿UVW year Hermiston coach Lance Hawkins said of Lindell. “I just wish we battled a little bit more even though (we were) kinda outmatched. I’m not into lying to anybody or the kids. I said, ‘We gotta compete really hard today.’ “The guy pumped it pret- ty good, and our guys went up there and got their hacks. Were we outmatched? Yeah, I think EO Media Group 13 BEND — Summit rallied from GRZQ ¿YH UXQV WR GHIHDW +HUPLVWRQ 10-9 in an eight-inning thriller Tues- day. Hermiston took an early 2-0 lead and upped it to 5-0 after four and a half innings of play, but Summit plat- HG VL[ LQ WKH ¿IWK SOFTBALL two in the sixth, one in the seventh and one in the eighth to earn the walk-off Summit victory. Summit scored the ten runs without an extra base hit, but was helped by three Hermiston errors. Hermiston The loss is Herm- iston’s (3-4) second straight and fourth LQ¿YHJDPHV6XPPLWKDVQRZ won three straight after losing two of LWV¿UVWWKUHH Julissa Almaguer went four-plus innings and struck out four in the no decision. Mikayla Kopacz went 3-for- 5 with two doubles for the Bulldogs and Ellery Jones chipped in with two hits. +HUPLVWRQ¶VWZRLQWKH¿UVWFDPH when Jaime Hinkley walked and stole See ROUNDUP/2B 10 0 Sam Barbee photo Hermiston head coach Lance Hawkins walks off the mound after an offi cial visit to pitcher RJ Robles during the third in- ning of Hermiston’s 13-0 loss to West Linn on Tuesday at Ar- mand Larive Middle School. we were at times. When you got a 15-year-old going against an 18-year-old in some cases, you could tell they’ve never seen anything like that. That’s a good team. It should’ve been a little closer, I think. But they’re a bet- ter team than we are right now. That’s all there is to it.” The Bulldogs (5-3) certainly didn’t help themselves. Bulldog pitchers walked nine batters, hit one, and committed four errors LQWKH¿HOGJLYLQJWKH/LRQV 2) four extra runs. They also had two runners picked off by Lindell See BULLDOGS/2B 9
