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About East Oregonian : E.O. (Pendleton, OR) 1888-current | View Entire Issue (Jan. 8, 2016)
SPORTS FRIDAY, JANUARY 8, 2016 Sports shorts 7imEers Jet tZR James RQ QatiRQaO teOeYisiRQ NEW YORK (AP) — Major League Soccer released its schedule for the 2016 season on Thursday with the Portland Timbers earning two televised games on a major network. Fox will televise MLS games on its main network for the ¿ rst time, broad casting Seattle at Portland at Seattle on July 17 and Portland at Kansas City on July 31. Fox will also televise the rivalry clashes between New York City FC and New York City FC on May 21 and July 24. 1B FOLLOW US ON TWITTER @EOSPORTS HERMISTON RRaG testeG DaZJs raFk XS miOes iQ DeFemEer Griffey makes it Rf¿ FiaO JRiQJ iQ µ+aOO¶ as 0ariQer NEW YORK (AP) — Ken Griffey Jr. will go into the Hall of Fame with a Seattle Mariners’ cap and Mike Piazza will have a New York Mets’ hat. The pair made their announcements FACES at a news conference Thursday, a day after they were elected by the Baseball Writers’ Association of Griffey America. Griffey spent a lengthy period of his career with Cincinnati, and Piazza reached the major leagues with the Los Angeles 'odgers. Griffey is the ¿ rst Mariners’ player in the Hall. Induction ceremonies will be held in Cooperstown on July 24. Known for wearing his cap backwards, Griffey joked about that with Piazza, the top offensive catcher in baseball history. “He wore it backwards more than I did,” Griffey said. “We’re optimistic he’s going to help us win a lot of games over a lot of years. … Most if not all pitchers have injury risk. We just know more about it on the front end.“ — Andrew Friedman Los Angeles Dodgers president of baseball operations on the in- centive laden eight year contract the team signed with Japanese pitcher Kenta Maeda , 27, who had some unspecifi ed ir- regularities in his elbow revealed during a phys- ical. The deal is worth $25 million up front but could pay Maeda $106 million if he reaches his incentives, which require him to start 32 games and pitch 200 innings a season. THIS DATE IN SPORTS 1972 — The NCAA announces freshmen will be eligible to play on varsity football and basketball teams starting in the fall. 2011 — The Seattle Seahawks stun the defending Super Bowl champion New Orleans Saints 4136 to open the NFL playoffs. Seattle, the ¿ rst division winner with a losing record at 7, advances behind four touchdown passes by Matt Hasselbeck and a brilliant 67yard run by Marshawn Lynch. Contact us at 541-966-0838 or sports@eastoregonian.com Staff photo by Sam Barbee Hermiston’s Sara Ramirez warms up in front of a home crowd for the fi rst time three weeks on Tuesday before the Bulldogs took on La Grande at The Dawghouse on Tuesday in Hermiston. The team spent most of the holiday season away from home, playing games in Arizona and Lake Oswego. Hermiston girls glad to be home after extensive preseason travel By ERIC SINGER East Oregonian When any basketball coach or athletic director puts together a season schedule, they typically like to keep things balanced. Plenty of home games, but still enough road games to test the team. However, Hermiston girls basketball coach Steve Hoffert wanted to give this year’s team a challenge — a tougher, unbalanced schedule that he believes will help the Bulldogs in the long run. Hermiston has completed 14 games in the 201516 season so far, and only four of those games have been played in Hermiston. In 10 away games played in the month of December the Bulldogs have traveled more than 2,800 combined miles by bus and plane, traveling to destinations such as Lake Oswego and Phoenix, Arizona for a pair of intense preseason tournaments. “We didn’t appreciate (playing at home) as much before, it was just a game, and now we do. It brought a calming effect.” — Jansen Edmiston, Hermiston girls basketball senior guard The tournaments came almost backtoback to each other, with the Bulldogs playing in Arizona from Dec. 18 until Dec. 22 and then in the Portland suburbs from Dec. 27 through Dec. 30 — with just enough time in between to spend a few days at home for the holidays. “We’re road tested now,” Hoffert said last month, “which I think can only help us come playoff time.” So when the Bulldogs ¿ nally took the court again at The Dawg house on Jan. 2 — a long 21 days after their previous home game — the players were relieved and even had a new perspective on the feeling of playing home games. “It’s de¿ nitely more rewarding now,” said Hermiston senior Jansen Edmiston. “We didn’t appreciate (playing at home) as much before, it was just a game, and now we do. It brought a calming effect.” In that ¿ rst game back at home, the Bulldogs gave their fans plenty of satisfaction on the court, defeating Kennewick (WA) 7138. Just three days later, Hermiston took the À oor again at home and again took the win, defeating La Grande 5642 to improve their overall record to 113. And although the team was happy to get back home, the road trip is an experience the Bulldogs’ players will remember for a while, and it started all the way back in the spring of 2014. Hoffert, the eighthyear Bulldogs coach, had been trying for several years to challenge and reward his team with a trip to an outofstate preseason tournament. But for the last three years his team had sat on a waiting list, one that is judged partially off previous year successes. Twice Hoffert anticipated an invitation, and twice he was left disappointed. However after the Bulldogs made their run to the state championship game last spring, Hoffert ¿ nally received the coveted invitation — a trip to the Nike Tournament of Champions in Phoenix — which was an offer he quickly accepted. “I didn’t want to travel with a team that I knew wouldn’t compete, See TRAVEL/2B BOARDMAN STANFIELD RiYersiGe GRmiQates at EFKR GXaOs Pirates open EOL with Pirates win two, Echo tops Irrigon comeback win on tiebreaker Riverside boys use big 4th to down Umatilla By SAM BARBEE East Oregonian Dual wrestling meets are rare for small school programs, as size differences and travel make them more dif¿ cult to pull off. “We’re more of a tournament team,” Irrigon coach Jason Dunten said. Even so, Irrigon, Riverside and EchoStan¿ eld got together for a theeway dual Thursday night that saw the Pirates go 20, and the Cougars ¿ nish 11. Riverside used its experience to beat Irrigon 3621 and Echo 3312, and Echo later defeated Irrigon on a tiebreak after the dual ended in a 3030 draw. “I didn’t think we would have a chance to win the duals, simply because we didn’t have enough weights covered,” Riverside coach Richard Rockwell said. “We kinda shufÀ ed our lineup around and talked to our guys and said, ‘Hey this is what we need to do to win. Play your part. We can win these.’ They responded, did what they needed to do to win.” In the ¿ rst dual of the day — Riverside vs. Irrigon — the ¿ rst match wrestled was Irrigon’s Damon Sawyer against River East Oregonian topped =ach Ferguson of River side to move the team scores to 3021, then, after a double forfeit, Riverside’s Anthony Kernal stuck Tucker McAllister to end the day at 3621. “(The) two guys that lost did exactly what I wanted them to,” Rockwell said. “If you’re gonna lose, don’t get pinned. And they didn’t.” Riverside then faced the upstart Echo club, which is vastly improved from last season. Kyle Ranger lost a close match 75 to Pirate Gabriel Romero with several handlocking penalties going against the Echo sopho more. Down 50 after one round, Riverside boys basketball coach Clair Costello was hoping the start of league play could provide a spark for his struggling squad that entered the Eastern Oregon League having lost four of its last ¿ ve. The veteran coach may have gotten his wish after Boys a big fourth quarter Basketball propelled the Pirates past the Umatilla 9ikings 443 in both team’s EOL opener on Umatilla Thursday. The teams were knotted at 33 for about a minute and a half in the decisive frame before a Noe Riverside Madrigal layin gave Riverside (8, 10 EOL) the lead for good with ¿ ve minutes left. Madrigal ¿ nished with 10 points while Eon Castillo scored nine of his teamhigh 12 points in the fourth quarter to help close out Umatilla (78, 01), which was led by Jesus Ramirez See WRESTLING/2B See EOL HOOPS/2B Staff photo by Sam Barbee Echo’s Kyle Ranger (front) looks to reverse around Riverside’s Gabriel Romero’s control during a 3-way dual Thursday in Stanfi eld. Romero won the bout 7-5. side’s Ulises Calvillo at 145 pounds with the Pirates up 186 on forfeits. Already up 112, Calvillo pinned Sawyer with a minute left in the ¿ nal period, setting the tone for the rest of the dual. At 152 pounds, Riverside’s Ivan Escobedo followed Calvil lo’s pin with one of his own, this one coming in the ¿ rst period over Irrigon’s Alex Walls. Irrigon came back with a win, though, when Jeff Patton slipped past Jason Navarro 54 to move the count to 3012. Irrigon then won a forfeit, coming within 12 at 3018. To close out the dual, River side needed to not lose by a fall to clinch the victory, and that’s exactly how it worked out. Christian Michaels of Irrigon 39 44
